Open it up. The tightly scripted nature of it is a huge turnoff, man. I mean, gamers hate on-rails shooters. Yet it feels like we're basically playing one in CoD campaigns.

I was alright with it with CoD 1 and 2. Back then, they were still doing the whole MoH:AA thing with delivering a sort of cinematic Saving Private Ryan/Band of Brothers inspired schtick and I understand that and why gamers liked it. I was okay with it too. But it got old after a while, man. I got to CoD 4 MW and it was the same damn thing again and I just got tired of it. Crysis came out right around that time and really showed how much fun you could have without scripted sequences everywhere. Where you had real openness and options for what to do and solving combat puzzles.

The CoD games have a lot to like, don't get me wrong. I like how tight and responsive the gunplay feels. I like the fact that it is 60 fps and silky smooth. And I like how they have all the weapons kitted out with attachments and special ops gear and it all looks great and polished and you don't see hands clipping through vertical handgrips and other stuff. They really did deliver that high production value and polish that a lot of other shooters were lacking at the time.

But I hate how limited the campaigns are. I don't care for being told to mindlessly follow someone. I don't like endless respawning waves of enemies (the TV station in MW). I don't like just being along for a roller coaster ride and being hurled from one setpiece to another, all scripted to hell. Dynamic gameplay is where it's at for me. For example:

Look at that oil rig mission from MW2. You launch out of the submarine on that cool Navy SEAL submersible and you see marine life swimming all around you and it's cool and feels like you're playing a scene right out of The Rock. Yet for as good as it all looks... there're no options for approaching the oil rig. It's all tightly scripted to hell. How about letting the player maneuver around the ocean to pick a specific location on the oil rig to disembark? Giving us tactical options for where to breach and clear, instead of just forcing us through one preset point? It's just frustrating how the devs take all the choice out of the player's hands, like we're unworthy of being entrusted with that.

It's why while Ghost Recon Wildlands is a hugely unpolished game with lots of bugs and jank and oddities, I'm still spending hours and hours every day playing it and haven't touched my copy of CoD Black Ops III outside of an hour or so. That power of freedom and making my own tactical approach and gameplay in the world is something that I value and enjoy 100,000 times more then what CoD campaigns can deliver.