{"id":1547470,"date":"2026-04-07T16:24:22","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T16:24:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/xsDXuL6A8ki8zNUtoLpAXn"},"modified":"2026-04-07T16:24:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T16:24:22","slug":"a-decade-ago-call-of-duty-sidelined-its-iconic-progression-system-to-dabble-in-gacha-instead-and-i-was-glad-id-forgotten","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/a-decade-ago-call-of-duty-sidelined-its-iconic-progression-system-to-dabble-in-gacha-instead-and-i-was-glad-id-forgotten\/","title":{"rendered":"A decade ago, Call of Duty sidelined its iconic progression system to dabble in gacha instead, and I was glad I’d forgotten"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Besides the moment-to-moment shooting, what’s the one thing that’s made Call of Duty<\/a> the success that it is today? If you ask me, it’s the progression. You level up your account, unlocking new guns as you go, which pulls you into the camo grind, all for you to prestige and do it all over again. It’s a dopamine rush that worms its way deep into your brain. I still remember the incredibly obnoxious (but admittedly cool) level-up sounds from the original Modern Warfare trilogy era.<\/p>\n

Point is, you don’t mess with the bones of Call of Duty’s finely-tuned progression system. A slice of advice that I wished 2014’s Advanced Warfare would have heeded. But instead it threw the progression system out of balance. A sin so heinous, I’d clearly expunged it from my mind at some point in the decade since for my own sanity, only to be reminded of it watching YouTuber Replay Mode’s<\/a> retrospective videos.<\/p>\n

Advanced Warfare introduced the short-lived weapon variants feature. Basically, you’d unlock weapons like you normally would by leveling up, but each gun also had a handful of tiered variants that significantly tweaked their performance. They were similar to today’s cosmetic-only weapon blueprints but with a very real impact on their stats and performance.<\/p>\n

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For example, the MP11 Goliath variant gave this SMG bonus damage at the cost of handling, which resulted in a bafflingly quick time-to-kill in close range. Likewise, the Bal-27 Obsidian Steed gained bonus damage and mobility but reduced accuracy, handling, and rate of fire compared to its base counterpart. And no variant was more iconic (or infamous) than the ASM1 Speakeasy, which turned this SMG into a Tommy Gun that absolutely ripped.<\/p>\n

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Try your luck in the free Supply Drops, or pay a few bucks to still try your luck at getting some of the strongest guns.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

It was an interesting idea, in all honesty. If you didn’t like a base weapon, perhaps you would like one of its variants instead. And it also led to some pretty cool designs, like the aforementioned Speakeasy. The only issue was that weapon variants were inextricably linked to gacha mechanics.<\/p>\n

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