The Dropshot - A Call of Duty Podcast · The Dropshot, LLC

The Death of Call of Duty - Pt. 1

January 19, 2026·1 hr 21 min·4 clips

A Call of Duty podcaster declares he'll die defending his controversial opinion about MW19 being the worst game ever.

Casey and Tanner begin their multi-part series "The Death of Call of Duty" by establishing this as a subjective, complaint-focused retrospective rather than an objective review. They frame Modern Warfare 2019 as the start of the "crossplay era" that coincided with their podcast's launch. The hosts argue MW19 is the worst game of this era due to multiple fundamental problems. Visibility issues top their list, with players being nearly impossible to see in dark corners and maps like Shoot House's junkyard lane. They criticize the extremely fast time-to-kill compared to Black Ops 4, which they had enjoyed playing together on PC. The introduction of crossplay brought overpowered aim assist that they claim gave controller players an unfair advantage over keyboard and mouse users for years. Map design receives harsh criticism, with Grazna Raid being called the worst designed space in all of fiction. Other launch maps like Piccadilly and Azhir Cave are dismissed as terrible, though they acknowledge some decent maps like Shoot House and Hackney Yard. The removal of red dots from the minimap is cited as disrupting game flow. Audio problems compounded the visibility issues, making enemies impossible to hear approaching. Warzone's launch is described as an accidental success that Activision didn't initially understand, leading to the popular Verdansk map that the hosts consider poorly designed. The battle royale mode suffered from the same visibility and audio problems as multiplayer, plus additional issues like one-shot headshot snipers and buildings with no counter-play options due to lack of rappelling or zip lines. Cheating became a massive problem, with the hosts recounting a period where they encountered blatant aimbotters in three consecutive games, leading them to quit for months. The cheating issue was exacerbated by strict skill-based matchmaking that Activision repeatedly lied about, placing good players in high-skill lobbies filled with cheaters. The hosts criticize Activision's pattern of releasing fake or incomplete patch notes, requiring content creators like TheXclusiveAce to manually test and verify actual changes. They describe a cycle where each update would fix some bugs while introducing new ones, leading to game-breaking issues like the "demon polygon transmog" that made weapons invisible due to graphical glitches. The episode concludes with the hosts arguing that MW19 established all the negative trends that would plague subsequent Call of Duty games, making Infinity Ward the worst studio in their opinion. They acknowledge the game may have had some positive aspects but refuse to discuss them, maintaining their stated goal of explaining why they're done with the franchise.

As heard by us

A blunt autopsy of Call of Duty's long slide.

The episode starts its long postmortem on Call of Duty by getting straight to what put the hosts off: patch notes that felt off, cheaters, and Warzone turning into more trouble than it was worth.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You want the long, ugly version of Call of Duty's decline.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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