Every CoD Looks the Same and This Quiz Proves It

Twelve screenshots. Twelve different Call of Duty games. No repeated entries. Can you tell which is which? A quiz published by Kotaku this week lines up images from across the franchise's history and dares readers to match each one to the correct title. The results, judging by early reactions, are roughly what you'd expect: most people struggle.

The quiz spans everything from the original Black Ops to the freshly revealed Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, which launches October 23 on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch 2, and PC. Hints are provided for each image, but they're vague enough that you're still mostly guessing based on vibes and lighting. Call of Duty 3 sits alongside Infinite Warfare and Vanguard, and they all blur together in a way that feels almost deliberate.

I've played most of these games, and I'd be lying if I said I could confidently nail all twelve. The quiz isn't trying to dunk on the developers; it's pointing at something the series has been doing for years. When every game chases the same photorealistic military aesthetic, set in roughly the same kinds of environments with roughly the same kinds of characters, visual identity becomes almost impossible. Advanced Warfare had exosuits and Infinite Warfare went to space, and even those look weirdly similar in a still frame. The fact that Modern Warfare 4's reveal screenshots could be swapped with 2022's Modern Warfare II and most people wouldn't blink is a problem Infinity Ward should probably care about more than they seem to.

This comes during a week where Infinity Ward's multiplayer creative director Joe Cecot told press that the studio sees itself as distinct from Treyarch and Sledgehammer, describing the three teams as "different flavors of ice cream." Maybe so, but when you freeze-frame the output, the flavors look identical. Cecot also stressed that Infinity Ward had extra development time on Modern Warfare 4 and took "bigger swings" with weapon feel and mobility. Those might be meaningful differences controller-in-hand, but a screenshot quiz shouldn't be this hard if the games actually looked distinct.

Warzone is being delisted from Xbox One on June 4, with its in-game store closing June 25 and online access ending after Modern Warfare 4's first season launches. Players on last-gen consoles have until June 25 to spend remaining COD Points tied to their console.