# Call of Duty

17 Hacker News commenters recommended Call of Duty and 38 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 7 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Long-running shooter series whose early games and campaigns people still praise as classics. Critics say recent releases are heavy on battle passes, skins and install size.

## Why people recommend it

- Praised classic originals and campaigns (4 comments): "Under Infinity Ward they created MW2, which is maybe the only digestible COD game ever made." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46362125)) "The single player campaign is considered as one of the best in FPS games ever." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46364639)) "the first Call of Duty was an absolute revelation to the FPS genre" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50185543))
- Popular couch and multiplayer staple (2 comments): "Most couch gamers want their GTA or Call of Duty, which, if I read correctly, this will not run." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45911678)) "unless you only play the GTAs/CODs/Maddens of the industry" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48813570))

## What people warn about

- Kernel anticheat blocks Linux and SteamOS (2 comments): "many popular online multiplayer games, like Call of Duty, will not work with SteamOS" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48650086)) "games that use kernel-level anticheat that won't work, including newer BF6 and COD" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48855288))
- Microtransactions, battle passes and skins (4 comments): "nothing even compares in that regard, I know the game is a shameless skin store" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45882955)) "Unplayable solely by ridiculous amount of battle passes and stupid fantasy skins." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47829831)) "dynamically alter in game loot mechanics to get people to purchase in game items" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46371867))
- Derivative, declining, more commercialised (3 comments): "people inevitably getting bored of playing derivative slop made by people who don't understand what made the originals good" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49672763)) "Roughly the same mechanics but much more commercialised, playing to the psychological weaknesses of players." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45875320)) "All those franchises are on a managed downward trajectory. Their Halcyon days are behind them." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50228613))
- Huge disk space and resource use (2 comments): "Seems it's just consuming a LOT more resources for not a lot of benefit." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48657543)) "I stopped playing CoD mainly because I was tired of juggling disk space to try to play it even casually." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46135532))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Quake](https://hackerapproved.com/p/quake.md): 118 recommend
- [Doom by id Software](https://hackerapproved.com/p/doom.md): 102 recommend
- [Unreal Tournament 2004](https://hackerapproved.com/p/unreal-tournament-2004.md): 51 recommend
- [Quake III Arena](https://hackerapproved.com/p/quake-iii-arena.md): 49 recommend
- [Half-Life](https://hackerapproved.com/p/half-life.md): 42 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Call of Duty", https://hackerapproved.com/p/call-of-duty/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).