Will you answer the Call of Duty? Again. | Fergal Carroll

When Call of Duty: Black Ops II is released next week it will mark the ninth entry in the main series and the sixth this generation. When Call of Duty: Modern Warfare was first released at the end of 2007 it revolutionised console first person shooters and, in particular, the multiplayer component. At the time it took the gaming world by storm. It was high octane, addictive, innovative and most of all - new. Six years later we are now on the verge of the release of the sixth iterative step the series has taken. Six years is a long time and while many of the gamers that fell in love with the original Modern Warfare formula have changed, that formula has, essentially, remained the same. Maps changed and new killstreaks were introduced but CoD has remained CoD ever since.As a gamer I have never been one to jump in at the beginning of things. I have only bought three games on release day, one of them being Modern Warfare 2. It was a game that I lost myself in and played faaar too much. But even that didn’t encourage me to play the sequels, so I doubt I will be playing Blops II anytime soon.Personally I would love Blops II to totally change the formula, to shake it up the genre the same way that the original Modern Warfare did back in 2007. Treyarch’s latest offering does include some efforts to change it up. The single player campaign takes place in the 1970s, 1980s and 2025. Treyarch are introducing branching storylines to the campaign for the first time in the form of Strike Force missions. Death in these missions will have a lasting impact on the storyline as well as the choices you make in picking them.The multiplayer is set exclusively in 2025 and as the meat of the game this is where Treyarch has made some of the biggest changes to the series. Gone are the traditional killstreaks and they are replaced with scorestreaks designed to reward gamers for actively participating in achieving objectives. The old ‘Create a Class’ system has been revamped as well. You now have ten slots to bring want you want into battle. This could be anything from carrying a knife, revolver, and six perks or bringing two primary weapons into battle.Treyarch have tweaked some of the other ingredients but the overall formula remains the same. The thing I want to know is - are gamers sick of it yet? I sank over a month (or two) of my life into Modern Warfare 2’s multiplayer but I only played the original Black Ops in September and I’ve briefly played Modern Warfare 3 in the Common Room in college. I’ll readily admit that I am not your average CoD gamer (or ‘bro’ gamer as they are also known) but I clearly want the series to undergo the radical transformation the original MW did. It would be a monumental task and one that I’m sure wouldn’t be able to take place overnight. Perhaps Call of Duty should take a prolonged break? The release of the first next gen console (words I’m using lightly here) takes place in only a few weeks’ time when Nintendo release the Wii U. Maybe Activision should take a step back, allow both Infinity Ward and Treyarch to have a small bit of R&R and go back to the drawing board for the Call of Duty PS4/Xbox 720.Every iteration of Call of Duty since Modern Warfare 2 has broken almost every sales record it could. So sadly, Activision isn’t going to let a cash cow like that rest any day soon. Just like its predecessor I expect Black Ops II will break records again. Will you be answering Treyarch’s call of duty?