5 Hardest Call Of Duty Games, Ranked (2024)

Call of Duty's popularity shows no sign of slowing down. Every year, Activison's top-selling franchise sees a new release, which is massively played online by millions of players all over the world. Even if multiplayer is surely the most popular part of every Call of Duty game, single-player campaigns are still a great part of the deal. Throughout the years, players have battled in numerous settings, ranging from World War II to futuristic battles in space.

The franchise's campaigns are usually fairly easy when played on normal difficulty, but the series is also infamous for its veteran setting, where a few shots can kill the player. This is the best way to assess the real difficulty of each game in the series. Every Call of Duty campaign becomes quite difficult when played on veteran, but there are indeed some entries in this series that are way harder than all the others.

5 Call Of Duty 2

• Platforms: Xbox 360, PC

Call of Duty 2 is a fairly honest challenge when played on normal difficulty settings. The game has some of the best missions set during World War II in the entire franchise and is probably one of the best games set in WWII. Players can still have a blast playing through the game today, even if it has aged quite poorly from a visual standpoint. However, things become quite different when the campaign is played on veteran.

Most notably, enemies keep respawning until players reach the next checkpoint, and they seem to have an endless amount of grenades on their hands. This isn't helped by the teammates' A.I., which is incredibly dumb even for 2005. Despite this, the game was still one of the best launch titles on Xbox 360. While some missions can still be completed without too much sweat, others will give players severe headaches while they strive to reach the next checkpoint. All in all, it's a tough challenge, but not as bad as other games in the series.

4 Call Of Duty

• Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC

The original Call of Duty is by far one of the toughest games in the franchise, even on normal difficulty settings. This is because the game has no health regeneration: players have to look out for medkits to restore some health. Other than that, checkpoints are sometimes set very far away from one another. This means that dying could lead to replaying an entire 15–20-minute part of the mission.

Of course, this becomes even worse on veteran mode, and it could make the cut for being one of the hardest FPS games ever. Players have to be very careful with every movement because one single shot can take away most if not all health. This makes the whole campaign very difficult, and there's no easy way around it other than trying to memorize every enemy position and just hoping for the best.

3 Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

• Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox One, PlayStation 4

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was the first game in the series to switch to a modern setting, and it's famous for having one of the best campaigns in the whole franchise. The game was also notably easier than previous games, at least on normal difficulties. Activision was already trying to make the franchise appealing to every kind of player, even those who weren't already familiar with the FPS genre.

That being said, the game becomes a whole different beast on veteran, especially on some missions, like the infamous "Mile High Club." Enemies keep respawning without limit, grenades are being thrown all over the place, and there's not a single safe spot in many of the levels. Not even Captain Price will be able to help, although he's one of the best characters in the whole series. While completing some stages on veteran may be feasible even for every dedicated player, beating the whole game on this difficulty setting requires inside-out knowledge of every single map, weapon, and enemy location. And it's still far from being the hardest game in the series.

2 Call Of Duty 3

• Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, PC

Call of Duty 3 is very similar to earlier entries in the franchise, even when it comes to difficulty. The game keeps its predecessor's health regeneration system, and it doesn't have any spike in difficulty throughout the whole campaign. However, there is just something about it that makes it almost impossible to complete the game on veteran, maybe because it includes many annoying mechanics typically found in FPS.

First and foremost, checkpoints are even more scarce than in Call of Duty 2, which makes it even more frustrating to play 10 good minutes of a level only to be killed just before the next checkpoint. And once again, the A.I. of teammates is ludicrous at best, often leaving players alone in battle. Completing the whole game on veteran will prove an almost impossible task even for those who grew up with this franchise.

1 Call Of Duty: World At War

• Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, PC

It's difficult to imagine a Call of Duty game being harder than Call of Duty: World at War. This game has everything all the other games had, times ten. Every map is overflowing with enemy troops. Grenades are being thrown at players from every given angle. There's constant enemy fire which makes it impossible for the player not to be shot as soon as he moves.

On top of that, the game also has some of the hardest stages in the whole franchise, like "Heart of the Reich," where the players are given the not-easy task of reaching the Reichstag by blasting away every last enemy defense. The game's epic final mission is quite challenging as well. This is truly the ultimate Call of Duty experience in terms of difficulty, and given that modern games tend to be much easier, even on veteran mode, it will probably never be topped.

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