There were a few things that made Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare as successful as it was. First of all, it was the first of it's time to break the established meta of the protagonist always winning and providing positive closure to the story. Instead of your character 'stopping the bad guy' and living a happy ending, the city is nuked and your character dies. This different ending really shocked players and made it stand out from other shooters of it's time. A few other features that made Call of Duty 4 so different from even newer Call of Duty's today is the lack of skill gap compression. There was no such thing as "Lag Compensation" in Modern Warfare, nor was there a bunch of other random elements to give unskilled players a sense of achievement. It was a skill-based game.

{img=funnyiwcod4.png}{/img}

The Call of Duty's we know today have forgotten their roots and, to the opinion of many, are the exact opposite. Generally, your character always wins with little to no effort, and skill gap compression is to the point where some consider it like a "slot machine". Lag compensation, map design, and death streaks are a few of many devices used to give unskilled players a huge chance or even an edge against more skilled opponents, and when hardcore Call of Duty fans were in testing groups for other, skill-based games development, they hated it because of the lack of skill-gap compression.

Call of Duty needs to return to it's roots, not just for the sake of long-time Call of Duty fans, but for the sake of gaming as a whole. Many skill-based games (or just games that require more skill) are being turned away by a majority of Call of Duty players simply because they can't handle the learning curve. Removing skill gap compression can allow for more in-depth experiences, and allow Call of Duty to return to it's former glory. It's no secret that the sales prices lately have dropped significantly for the Call of Duty series, and returning to the design that Modern Warfare had could help bring old fans back.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered, the game being bundled with Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare is a step in the right direction, however more needs to be done than a simple remaster. New games should be created for the series with the style and ideas Modern Warfare had behind it.

Below is a video referencing what I was talking about in regards to the ending of Call of Duty 4. Again spoiler alert, even though I already said it and the game has been out for 10 years now.{br}{br}

{video}jB-n_8zq9Qo{/video}
{br}

No matter which way you slice it, this year will be huge for Call of Duty, and if the Remastered version of Modern Warfare fails to captivate fans for a prolonged period, Activision will need to start moving the franchise back from where it came.