I recently came to the realization that I've been playing the Call of Duty franchise for more than a decade. The inaugural PC release in 2003 was my first real exposure to both online gaming and first person shooters. It became a near obsession for me. At the risk of appearing conceited I'll say that I also became quite good at it. Across the duration of the United Offensive expansion pack and subsequent release of Call of Duty 2, I had gotten noticed by some low level teams and been introduced to the idea of gaming competitively and as part of a community. Before graduating high school and going off to college I'd eventually compete with a CAL-Invite team (major shoutout to anyone who competed in the Cyberathlete Amateur League haha) before esports became a real thing, and I gained a real and lasting impression of what it meant for a game to be balanced.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare released my freshmen year of undergraduate, and throughout my education I played regularly all the way up to Modern Warfare 3 with close friends I had made. After skipping Black Ops 2 and Ghosts while I attended graduate school, I've come back to the jetpack age of Call of Duty and I wanted to spend some time sharing something very particular that I've been reflecting on.

Sniping. I've always favored snipers (or un-scoped bolt action rifles from the WW2 days). The risk of a glacial rate of fire, but the reward of an immediate kill for those with sufficient aim has always been my favorite trade-off of the different weapon classes on offer. Nurturing and relying on my ability to aim faster and more accurately than my opponents has come to define how I've developed as a player. It has also dictated how I've had to adapt and adjust my play as each new entry in the series began to stack the deck further against me. One example of this is how much less recoil all of the guns have than they used to, making weapon classes previously nonviable at range now completely efficient. There are a couple of other changes over time that I'd like to dive deeper on:

MAP LAYOUT

Here are a couple of maps from Call of Duty 2 (a number of which also appeared in CoD 1):

Notice how *open* these are. Even when buildings stand tall to obstruct your view, the streets that surround them are wide and mostly clear. Even with those obstructions, many times you can cleanly see from one end of the map to the other from one or more positions. On a number of maps (like Toujane, the desert map), the buildings that embody the form of the level also act as platforms you can walk on, furthering that concept of openness. Contrast these images to those from Modern Warfare 1:

As the power of the platforms running these games grew, so did the amount of detail being packed into these levels. While aesthetically this is to be expected and preferred, the gameplay implications are not insignificant. As these levels increase in density, the number of natural long distance sight lines begins to wane. In my quest to capitalize on my aiming prowess, I typically gravitated towards areas of the map where I had the greatest amount of visibility possible while still having at least some sense of cover (great visibility comes with great exposure, after all). The images in the above GIF represent some of the clearest positions/areas on these maps. The domain where my play style remained viable was beginning to shrink, but it was still manageable. Now, compare these images with shots from Modern Warfare 3 maps:

90 degree angles, massive obstructions, and overwhelming clutter. Some of these maps feel like someone ripped a page out of Hedgemaze Digest to use as a layout. Long distance sight lines are very few and far between on the maps in this game, and it forces snipers to either play very specific predictable locations, or go the way of the quick-scope and abandon what I love so much about sniping.

Invisible Walls

My favorite dynamic of snipers is the act of counter-sniping an opponent who is doing the same. There is definitely something satisfying about outplaying your opponents wielding close range weapons by positioning yourself smartly to kill from range, but the satisfaction is increased when you are challenging someone at distance who's weapon actually has the accuracy to rival yours. Many snipers in these games will play predictable or common locations, and my absolute favorite thing to do was to find creative and unexpected sight lines to catch them off guard in their nests. Here are some examples from CoD2 and MW1 in a short video:

Now, obviously I'm not endorsing glitches or exploits that let you jump out of the map or shoot through invisible walls or anything like that, but contrast this freedom of movement with the kind of thing you can expect from the more recent games:

Call of Duty began to feel very restrictive and claustrophobic for me. I'm happy and still do very well with assault rifles and sub machine guns, but it requires a significant adjustment from what I really loved most about these games.

But now, enter jet packs and wall running. At first, trying to snipe in this new era is extremely intimidating. The pace of the game is just *so* *much* *faster* than it used to be. It is really quite rare that I see someone else using a bolt action sniper in Black Ops 3 TDM games. And even though a lot of really odd obstacles still have invisible walls preventing me from mounting them, the new expanded movement capabilities have encouraged the level designers to open up the maps a bit more and create some open space. But MOST of all, using the jet pack combined with the wall running I can now soar above previously insurmountable obstacles, rending my long distance sight lines back from the obstinate designers. Some really incredible and creative things can be achieved.

If you'll forgive my self promotion, please allow me to demonstrate:

Another Call of Duty game, please stop making them

I barely play CoD, but as a big TF2 player, I can appreciate a good discussion about sightlines in my virtual shooting spaces. My game as a pyro and scout in that game appreciably improved when I learnt how to stay out of most long range lines, a sniper's paradise. I have no idea how well-designed CoD maps are, but most of the control maps in TF2 allow almost any class to stay well within their own effective damage range, as long as you know where you are going.

@georginacooper said:

This is a really dickish response to a post that someone clearly spent a good amount of time on. Don't be like this.

Nice write-up! I was never big on being a quickscoper so sniping generally worked in counter to how I normally play but in most Call of Duty games I would still keep a sniper class handy because I relate with your point about getting that sweet, instant gratification kill with a perfectly timed shot.

With Black Ops 3 it's definitely a rough year to be a sniper. It's not impossible to succeed with them (I think the Locus is a ton of fun when you aren't getting hitmarkers) but with your point about how map layouts have constricted themselves and with the removal of sniper aim assist this year makes it hard to pick a sniper in a lot of cases.

I remember in MW2 when all my friends would use the Intervention no matter what map we landed on because of how they were laid out. In Black Ops 3, there are only a few maps I'd choose to snipe on and in those cases I go into it knowing perfectly well it won't be a high-scoring game for me.

I think there's a bigger conversation to be had about the "three lane" map design that has taken over recent Call of Duty entries but it's interesting to see this specific point of view as well.

This was a very nice post. I had no idea you could even get sniped from these spots, as it's never happened to me. I really am enjoying Call of Duty again with Black Ops III, to a degree I haven't felt since the first Black Ops. It has some faults, but it's really fun overall.

After seeing your sniping skills, I have to ask if you've played much PVP in Destiny? That game's PVP can be a mixed bag, but they really nailed the snipers. Super effective and skillful from far away, and very hard to use at close range.

The Locus is far and away my most used (and highest performing) weapon, but it definitely took a pretty significant change in approach. I run it as a secondary weapon on an overkill class, with a Razorback as my primary weapon. I switch back and forth constantly depending on the situation, and it's made it possible to snipe comfortably on pretty much any map now (especially jump sniping to catch people off guard)! :)

Like @jjbsterling briefly mentioned, Treyarch at least is now kind of known for pushing a "3 Lanes" style for each of their levels, consisting generally of three parallel tracks with various connecting pathways bringing them together. They try to diversify the layout of each lane to offer a different dynamic, some certainly better suited for close quarters weapons, and generally I find at least one lane is hospitable for sniping. Most of the clips in that jumpshot video are of me basically circumventing that lane format by getting up over top of the borders and firing across lanes where people never expect it.

I actually quite like all but a couple of the maps in Black Ops 3 and feel they are pretty well suited however you want to play. However, the real challenge to overcome for snipers isn't necessary finding a long enough sight line, it's maintaining it. The three lanes generally give people a lot of options for flanking, and because of how fast the player speed is spawns can flip really abruptly and you'll find yourself quickly surrounded. Understanding the spawning dynamics and positioning yourself in such a way as to predict and defend against it is pretty crucial (at least for TDM).

@spaceinsomniac I played through the campaign of Destiny and once I hit credits I never picked it up again haha. I think I played exactly 1 game of the PVP and just marveled at how many times I got one-shotted by a fusion rifle or a character ability or whatever it ended up being while I was just trying to get used to the map and the dynamics of everything. Never felt a pull to go back :/

There's always been something about more recent Call of Duty maps that have been less memorable to me than maps even from World At War. Of course this might be the result of simple nostalgia, but there has yet to be anything that has beaten Crash or Strike in terms of map design. This lack of lines-of-sight and an increase in entirely claustrophobic-centered maps might be part of that reason. Good work.

Destiny PVP has changed a LOT since the early days. But it keeps changing, which really annoys some people, myself included. Shotguns are way less powerful than they used to be, and fusion rifles have been nerfed to the point of being nearly useless for a while now. That game has its issues, but the PVP can be loads of fun once you're used to things, and snipers can be highly rewarding.

If you have some downtime between games, perhaps try it again sometime. No idea what non-Taken King pvp gameplay is like at this point, though. I wouldn't be surprised if it's a trainwreck. Couldn't hurt to try, though.

BO3 has the most powerful snipers since they abolished stopping power I guess.... if you're playing on the PC. The somewhat lack of aim assist works as a balancing tool for consoles, but on the PC that doesn't matter so the snipers are straight up murder machines (especially since you can put a ~1x zoom sight on all of them) to a point where they had to tone down the P-06 (who needs burst assault rifles) and Drakon (who needs semi auto assault rifles) on the PC.

As to the more claustrophobic map design: that's true and understandable if you're playing DM style gamemodes (note: I think DM gamemodes in CoD and Battlefield are rubbish compared to arena shooters like Quake and Unreal Tournament) with a sniper rifle since you can't oversee most of the map from one point anymore. On objective gamemodes, it's not so bad for a sniper to be effective. Most of the time you only need to hold down one line of sight overlooking the objective and don't have to worry about getting flanked or shot from a different angle (of course granted that your team mates spread out over the other lanes). It's kinda like Day of Defeat (but not as good since in Day of Defeat the domination mode is far better worked out and also with better maps): snipers can only be used properly in a certain part of the map, but are a force to be reckon within that area. I'm very much in favour of that style of map design with kind of closed of areas designed for different kinds of gameplay and I actively dislike the more open maps since they are slower and more campy. Yes, it limits you to a smaller area, but it's only far more engaging and balanced for objective gameplay in my opinion.

@gundogan: I play on PS4 so I was referring to the console experience (I've never played a Call of Duty game on PC) but I have heard how destructive the P-06 and Drakon were on PC. They're not bad on console but I don't think they cause many people issues like it did on PC.

I think the idea of giving snipers certain areas to work with denying the enemy is sound but only in theory. On Hunted for example:

You'll get people sniping at each other from the the green line here and secondary at the blue line (I'm referring to my experience in domination and TDM so maybe this changes a bit in other modes). Add to the fact that on console it's really difficult for the average player to snipe without the aim-assist, the enhanced mobility of double jumping and sliding, and multiple paths you can get quickly flanked, it's not hard to see why the average player wouldn't pick up a sniper.

Maybe previous games' sniper rifles were too strong and promoted the quickscoping style of sniping too much and this is where we needed to be? I'm not entirely sure and I think that's a whole different conversation to be had about what most Call of Duty players want from sniping.

@jjbsterling: So, I definitely find that the green line in your image is the typical line of fire for snipers on this map. However, it's so prevalent and obvious that it is rarely viable in my opinion. It is way too easy to get flanked or have spawns flip and get surrounded, not to mention just how exposed you are in those windows. You can be shot from so many places (my favorites being the jumps I use to deal with the mansion window from that video haha). It's practically bait.

However, I find that most maps have better positions on offer with more visibility and better cover. Here is where I typically gravitate towards on Hunted TDM games:

With the red circles denoting the most common spawn locations for when teammates push the enemy out of the current spawns, and the star denoting my general area of play near that cliff, the green lines represent potential lines of sight to check while I gauge my team's distribution on the minimap to anticipate where they'll be coming from next. The large rocks there provide solid cover from flanks, with the added benefit of having your back against the edge of the map. Likewise, the porch on the opposite side of the bridge provides similar characteristics:

These are generally where I find it safest to snipe. However, it is important to mention that I run an overkill class with a Razorback sub machine gun along with the Locus, so I just switch out when people get too close. With some diligent use of the minimap and always using the Awareness perk I generally have a good idea of when I'm vulnerable to people flanking me.

I find that most maps (in Black Ops 3 at least) generally have some lesser used positions like this where I can get some solid cover and a lot of visibility (at least for TDM, which is all I play).

If you have an ok pc i'd recommend some of the more realism-based fps games on steam, partiuclarly insurgency and the red orchestra series, they're much more open like you had in cod 2 if you want that experience again! But jetpack sniping sounds like a ton of fun!!

Cool stuff. I played most of the campaigns, but CoD 3 and 4 were the only ones I spent significant time with in multiplayer. So it's always nice to read a closer analysis than anything I could provide at a surface level (unlike Halo, in which I could analyze every freakin' map in the series).