Summary
Though its first few entries were still pretty sizable successes, theCall of Dutyfranchise really hit the big time with 2007’sCall of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, a game that changed the landscape for online shooters. Over the next few years,Call of Dutycontinued to improve uponModern Warfare’s groundbreaking formula, and the franchise saw success after success. But it hasn’t all been smooth sailing fortheCall of Dutyfranchise.
ThoughCall of Dutycontinues to be one of the most successful video game franchises on the planet, its critical reception has seen a stark decline in recent years, with the series' most prevalent criticism being its repetitive nature, with its formula having remained largely unchanged for almost two decades now. But that doesn’t mean thatCall of Dutyhasn’t tried to innovate, and there’s one recent feature that deserves to find its way into other military shooters likeBattlefield: the Gunsmith.
Call of Duty’s Gunsmith Would Work Better in Battlefield
Call of Duty’s Gunsmith System Explained
First introduced in 2015’sCall of Duty: Black Ops 3, Gunsmith is essentially an improved version of classicCall of Duty’s custom loadout system. In this original iteration, Gunsmith allowed players to choose five separate attachments for their chosen weapon, along with applying a range of custom paintjobs and additional cosmetics. 2019’sCall of Duty: Modern Warfaretook the Gunsmith to an entirely different level, allowing players to drastically alter a weapon’s performance and purpose by picking from a massive range of attachments.
Since2019’sCall of Duty: Modern Warfare, the Gunsmith has become a staple feature of the franchise, appearing in every entry since, includingCall of Duty: Warzone. In 2022’sMW2, the Gunsmith even allowed players to fine tune their weapon’s individual attachments, being able to manually balance the gun’s statistics to suit the player’s needs.
Battlefield Could Make Better Use of Gunsmith’s Immersion
Both the biggest blessing and biggest curse ofCall of Duty’s Gunsmith systemis its complexity, and the immersion that comes from that. Customization has always been at the heart of multiplayerCall of Duty, and the Gunsmith feature feels like a natural evolution of that franchise pillar, allowing players to truly make their weapons feel like their own. That being said,Call of Dutystill very much bills itself as an arcadey shooter intended for more casual audiences, and the more complex Gunsmith gets, the less likely it is for those audiences to engage with it.
Instead,Call of Duty’s Gunsmith system might actually be more suited for a series likeBattlefield. Loadout customization inBattlefieldhas always been a few steps behindCall of Duty, butBattlefield 2042tried its best to innovate in its own way, allowing players to swap out weapon attachments on the fly. One ofBattlefield 2042’s few saving graces, this mechanic often felt quite satisfying to use, letting players swap between close-range and long-range at a moment’s notice.
But while this attachment-swapping mechanic was fun to use for a while, it wasn’t imperative toBattlefield 2042’s gameplay, and a system likeCall of Duty’s Gunsmith would work much better. Complex, intricate, and a tad finicky,Call of Duty’s Gunsmith could be used to great effect in a game likeBattlefield, where immersion is usually at the forefront of the experience. A Gunsmith system inBattlefieldcould really enhance immersion by doubling down on historical accuracy, allowing players to customize their weapons with a range of real-world attachments. Additionally, a big point of criticism ofBattlefieldin recent years is that its weapons have felt a little unresponsive, and that’s something a Gunsmith feature could fix, allowing players to drastically change their weapons and see the results first-hand.
