Today, like many days, I'm talking a step back to reminisce on the glory days of gaming. Back when Call of Duty actually cared about their product and gaming felt...well...exciting.
There has never been, and never will be, a campaign mission better than All Ghillied Up on Call of Duty 4. Up to this point, most of the campaign missions were all-out warfare like fighting at The Bog or blowing up everything in sight with an AC-130.
All Ghillied Up was so unique because it slowed down time. Stealth was much more valuable than gunpower. For the first time,Stealth was much more valuable than gunpower and you had to use your brains to make it through the mission. It was all about using the camouflage, listening to Cpt. MacMillan and taking the right shots with the suppressed M21 when the opportunity arose.
I can still remember how hard my heart was pounding when you had to stealth crawl under those buses and cars to avoid the lurking enemies.
All Ghillied Up also led into one of the most fun and difficult video game campaign missions: 'One Shot, One Kill.' (Which I still have yet to beat on Veteran...yikes)
The target was Imran Zakhaev and this was the first time you ever had to lead your sniper shot in Call of Duty, while taking into account the Coriolis Effect.
Not joking here - I think I tried this mission 10 times in a row but kept restarting when the sniper shot took off Zakhaev's arm. My 12 year old brain couldn't comprehend that no matter how perfectly I shot the .50 cal, the outcome would always be the same.
I wish I could say my brain's developed more now that I'm at the age of 27, but let's be honest - if you've tuned into any of my streams in the last few years, you know that just isn't the case. We call that the MRags experience baby!
Alright back to All Ghillied Up: I often think about what made this mission so iconic... I always come back to the point that it felt innovative. It felt different. It felt unique and most importantly, it felt like Call of Duty wanted this mission to be memorable and special.
This was also during the time when CoD was trying to take the crown for the best FPS game out there. Halo was still in its prime, Gears of War was still pumping and the gaming industry was filled with unique ideas and extremely fun games. Call of Duty was trying to make their case why they're the best and this was example numero uno.
Nowadays, Call of Duty (and so many other games) just feel like they're trying to get every single cent out of you possible. What happened to the days when devs took chances and strived to have the best games possible? Instead, we get 1000 battle passes, crappy re-made maps and skins with little to no effort.
Anyway, that's for another separate rant that it's complete own blog...
This was a fun blog to reminisce on some iconic gaming moments. I think we should make a series out of this! Stay tuned...😈
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