The Call of Duty series has been with us since 2003, and spans 15 games across multiple consoles. It’s produced blockbuster hits and lots of memorable moments. Although there are plenty of great moments throughout the series, we decided to gather up the ones that were truly memorable – those that stick with you long after you finish the game. These eight definitely fit that criteria.
New York Harbor – Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 opens on a jarring note, especially if you happen to live in New York City. After fighting through the devastated financial district, you’ll make your way through the flooded Brooklyn Battery tunnel. You then surface in New York Harbor to see just how serious this attack really is. Even though it’s just a game, the sight of the iconic New York City skyline in flames brings home the feeling that World War 3 is underway.
Planting the Soviet Flag – Call of Duty: World at War
After playing through Call of Duty: World at War, you find yourself atop the Reichstag with Reznov. As Dimitri Petrenko, you’ve fought your way through countless German to reach this point. Now you’re about to plant the Soviet flag atop the building to declare your victory, and some pesky German shoots you. This doesn’t stop you, and the swelling patriotic music complements the moment perfectly. Having Gary Oldman watching your back doesn’t hurt, either.
Choosing the fate of Alex Mason – Call of Duty: Black Ops II
Call of Duty: Black Ops II handed you a weapon no other game in the series had offered: player choice. Granted it wasn’t a ton of choice, but it was still a choice. Woods and Mason have been tracking down Raul Menendez. Manuel Noriega himself has the hooded Menendez brought before Woods, and offers him a chance to gun him down with a sniper rifle. If you shoot him in the head, you find out it was really your partner, Alex Mason, beneath the hood. Shooting him in the leg will give you a completely different ending to the game.
Death from Above – Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
One of the most unforgettable missions in any Call of Duty game is the Death From Above mission in CoD 4: Modern Warfare. It put you in the gunner’s seat of an AC-130 Spectre Gunship, and tasked you with protecting the soldiers you were just running around with on the ground from enemy troops. Using the 105mmm, 40mm, and 25mm cannons, you took out enemies with explosive efficiency. It’s simultaneously exhilarating and disturbing, as you realize how detached modern warfare has become.
Betrayed – Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
The character of Ghost is considered by many to be one of the best in the Call of Duty series, which made the manner of his death all the more jarring. As Ghost and Roach make their way to the plane they think is there to exfiltrate them from the field, General Shepherd emerges, and asks if they recovered the “DSM.” When they answer in the affirmative, he blows them both away. That moment of realization that Shepherd had been working with the bad guys all along is a huge sucker punch, and Infinity Ward uses it to send players in to the final missions ready for their revenge.
All Ghillied Up – Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Getting into position in the All Ghillied Up mission is easily one of my favorite moments in the Call of Duty series. It’s just so at odds with what you expect. Instead of big explosions and set pieces, you’re forced to creed and sneak around, avoiding combat and only attacking when the odds are squarely in your favor. Creeping through the grass and avoiding the soldiers walking by only a few feet away is a great moment, and nailing a long-range sniper shot in the radiation-covered Chernobyl wasteland is a great way to cap it off.
Nuked – Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Few video game moments have been talked about more than Call of Duty 4’s Aftermath mission. After trying to escape the target area of a nuclear device, you see the fireball and come to in a chopper that has crashed. As you stumble around, the devastation is clear. Sgt. Jackson doesn’t make it very far before succumbing himself, and the inevitably of the situation is stunning. It’s a moment that doesn’t fade as quickly as the screen does.
Stalingrad – Call of Duty
Sure, it’s not historically accurate, but the first mission of Call of Duty’s Soviet campaign is still awesome. Riding the boat across the Volga, running up the hill under enemy fire, and finally acquiring a weapon are all great moments, and even though it’s based more on the movie Enemy at the Gates than real life, you still feel like maybe it could have happened just like that. The worst part was that no matter how hard you tried, they’d never give you a rifle. Just 5 rounds of ammo, comrade.
