Call of Duty’s horrendous skins have destroyed Modern Warfare’s identity

Homelander, Nicki Minaj, Godzilla in a row ok top of the key art of Modern Warfare 2 (2009) featuring a lone American soldier in a desert camo suit

Homelander, Nicki Minaj, Godzilla in a row ok top of the key art of Modern Warfare 2 (2009) featuring a lone American soldier in a desert camo suit

It’s been nine years since the first crossover character in Call of Duty. In Call of Duty: Ghosts, Halloween’s foreboding Michael Myers was playable in the horror-themed Fog map, complete with Juggernaut-esque skills. Now, Call of Duty has been hacked up not unlike Myers’ babysitter victims, becoming a crossover breeding ground of The Boys’ Homelander and Nicki Minaj; I’m tired.

For years now, Call of Duty has sold out its identity for crossover cash in a world where a skin from a recognisable IP makes millions of players drool all over their debit cards. Since the appearance of Michael Myers, CoD has spunked out crossovers with Knight Rider, Elvira, Jigsaw, Rambo, Judge Dredd and even — more than bizarrely — modern-day Catcher in the Rye, Donnie Darko. Why are you wearing that stupid bunny suit?

Frank aka Donnie Darko skin holding a gun in Modern Warfare 2
expand image
"I can see him right now!"

While a short Godzilla vs Kong event in Warzone can be a fun month as battlefields become a monster-infested hellscape, Call of Duty’s consolidation into one package has made it so that these events will never go away. A Warzone Starlight skin now appears across multiplayer, a consumer-friendly addition on one side and a scum-sucking FOMO tactic on the other.

While these types of skins are accepted nowadays at the end of a game’s lifecycle, Modern Warfare 3’s existence as an extension of the Modern Warfare 2 ecosystem means that these skins are here from Day One. Players who purchased a bright pink Nicki Minaj skin are now running around Rust as soon as you open the game, holding $70 glowing purple guns and sliding through the desert sand.

It wasn’t that long ago that Call of Duty had an identity as a war shooter. Call of Duty 2 put me in the shoes of an American soldier storming Omaha Beach; Black Ops had me fighting my way out of a PoW camp. At some point, there was even respect for soldiers who risk their lives at war. While multiplayer was always an arcade-style runaround compared to campaign, it at least adhered to its set dressing and created a semi-believable atmosphere of warfare.

Omaha Beach in Call of Duty WW2 showing soldiers in a boat
expand image

Now, Call of Duty is a bubbly, smelly melting pot of IP, a fantasyland of characters, including an overpowered Groot skin that turns invisible during gameplay. And with all of these skins, characters and licensed brand deals, what exactly is Call of Duty’s identity anymore? At this point, it’s just the fact that you can shoot a gun in it.

Of course, CoD isn’t the only series to do this. Epic Games’ Fortnite is an H-bomb explosion of characters and IP, so much so that it’s been internally referred to as a Ready Player One-esque Metaverse by its creators. Where else can Rick Sanchez team up with Goku from Dragon Ball, John Wick and Venom for a game of battle royale madness?

However, unlike CoD, that zaniness is, somewhat sadly, Fortnite’s identity. It’s not an arcade shooter playing at a serious depiction of war, it’s a game that’s mascots are a llama and a man dressed as a banana. You can add web swinging, Thanos, the opening of the worst Star Wars movie and whatever you want in Fortnite; it (mostly) all slides.

I’m not against the addition of skins and cosmetics in games. For the most part, Overwatch 2 skins are fine and fit the game’s aesthetic. Halo Infinite has Samurai outfits, but at least they’re made to fit the series’ Mjolnir design language. For Call of Duty, they just added Homelander and Nicki Minaj, and called it a day. They’re very well-made skins, but they don’t fit CoD, outside of the series’ main goal of suckling money out of the wallets of its gamers at any conceivable turn.

At the end of the day, CoD’s sold its soul for $20 a pop. Gone are the days when golden guns were the weirdest thing running around Highrise; now it’s a man dressed as Spawn complete with Keith David voice lines. Oh, actually, there’s three of them in the match and they’re split across both teams. Masterful Gambit, Activision. Well done.