Thanks to its decades-long history, the Call of Duty series boasts hundreds of multiplayer maps. A few define the series: Backlot from Call of Duty 4, Nuketown from Black Ops, and Raid from Black Ops 2, to name just three. Others are so poorly designed and unfun to play that even diehard fans can’t forgive them. We’ll look at ten of the worst offenders on this list.
The worst multiplayer maps in the Call of Duty franchise
Gamepur screenshot
For the sake of simplicity, we’ll only pull maps released when each Call of Duty releases. Luckily (for our purposes), even the basic versions of these games have bad smells.
10. In Black Ops 2
While Black Ops 2 is probably the best game in the entire series, its worst card, Drone, is an indelible stain on a stellar product. The design is uneven, its power positions somewhat muted, and the overall aesthetic is more than a little lackluster. The drone also lacks good throughput, with a full half unused.
9. Black Ops 3 Exodus
Exodus was a sign of future Call of Duty map design, with few alternate routes from section to section, few to no good sightlines, and generally boring to play. It’s also visually strong, aesthetically generic, and reduces Black Ops 3’s advanced movement system to more of a hindrance than a help.
8. Deviate from Modern Warfare 2
The Call of Duty series really became a powerhouse with the release of Modern Warfare 2 in 2009. Along with music by Hans Zimmer and some of the best maps in the series, it also had Derail. This map was too large, too one-dimensional aesthetically, and suited the worst habits of the community at the time. Most of their lines of sight went unused, with almost all of the focus on controlling the central building, relegating the rest of the map to the trash.
7. Call of Duty 4 Wet Work
Like Derail after it, Wet Work was another near monochrome map with poor visibility, an uninteresting and sometimes frustrating layout, and was the ultimate spawn kill fest. The map was barely loaded before an endless number of anti-CoD4 frag grenades fell from the sky. Wet Work seemed tailor-made for the unwanted shards and sniper lines at either end of the map, as well as the game’s hard-to-break spawns, making for overall awful weather.
6. Modern Warfare 3 Recession
None of Modern Warfare 3’s maps were particularly good, but Downturn kind of made sure everyone saw it. In a sea of bland, uncomfortable experiences to play, this card was a gray mass that played slower than its size allowed. It also emasculated the game’s already weak killstreaks and, thanks to its jagged design, turned moment-to-moment gameplay as much a guessing game as it was a frustration.
5. World War II Gustav Cannon
Call of Duty: World War II is the definition of “okay”. A vast sea of mediocrity of which Gustav Cannon was the main pockmark. Like Derail, the titular cannon was the focal point of the map, but since it was surrounded by a nearly empty play area, whoever controlled the cannon controlled the game. Few weapons in the game were adequate for the size of the map, and if you stuck to the periphery, you would hardly ever get anywhere.
4. Piccadilly from Modern Warfare (2019)
Modern Warfare’s 2019 reboot took the bold step of doing away with the three-lane map design pattern that had helped carry the series for decades. The result was one of the franchise’s worst picks, of which Picadilly was the worst. More circular than linear, the map was confusing to navigate at best, and the many hideouts paired with a few quality flank routes made gameplay a chore.
3. Stormfront of Ghosts
Ghosts is possibly the worst game in the Call of Duty series, aside from Call of Duty 3. It’s also the only game with two maps on this list. Stormfront is the less offensive of the two, but it’s still absolute garbage. The map is too big, its focal points too scattered and it lacks fluidity. Moving from place to place wasn’t fun either, as the series hadn’t adopted infinite sprint yet, so you’ll probably be stuck in the middle of nowhere for nearly a minute before reaching anywhere resembling effective engagement distances.
2. Stonehaven from Phantasmas
Ghosts’ Stonehaven makes Stormfront seem small and well-designed in comparison. This map is bigger, rougher, and even less interesting to play, as it’s basically a large flat plain with a castle at one end. Its size meant you could spend a minute or more looking for someone to shoot at, and if you died you’d likely end up on one of its edges again, forcing another trek across country for another fight. Even the castle section wasn’t well done as it was somehow too big and was a single courtyard with a few upper levels and doors that could be locked, trapping both attackers and defenders.
1. Santa Seña Border Crossing from Modern Warfare II
Picking the Santa Seña Border Crossing as the worst map in Call of Duty history is tough, because Stonehaven should wear that dastardly crown. Modern Warfare II’s worst map, however, is littered with dozens and dozens of exploding cars, filling what amounts to a single-lane map with two underutilized side roads. Stonehaven is bad because it’s boring, Santa Seña is terrible because it’s boring and infuriating. There’s almost no way to regain an advantage here, and just like Wet Work, every second you spend on the map is another where you can fly randomly and at an angle you wouldn’t expect. The fact that the map is also taken from a bigger ground war, not a better one, only makes the game worse.
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