Call of Duty players who are dedicated completionists will no doubt tend to try and play through the campaigns on the hardest difficulty. As someone who spends a great degree of time working through the campaigns time and again for achievements, I completely understand the sentiment. But the question remains of which CoD has the most difficult campaign.
Ranked tier list for Call of Duty veteran campaigns
For this list, every mainline CoD will be ranked and the “difficulty” is based on how long (and challenging) veteran runs can possibly be for each game. Realism (or higher) difficulty isn’t taken into consideration for these entries but the rankings would still stay quite similar. S-tier choices are the most difficult with E-tier choices being the easiest campaigns. Without further ado, here are all of our listings.
S tier: Call of Duty: World at War, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Call of Duty
By far, some of the most difficult games to play through on the veteran difficulty are the earlier titles in the series. Those such as Call of Duty: World at War and the very first Call of Duty held this standard with banners flying high. Specifically, in Call of Duty (2003), it isn’t possible to just regain health by usual means. Instead, you need to utilize first aid packs, which easily make the veteran mode more difficult.
Throughout all of these three titles, you will have to be extremely cautious around every corner in the campaign on the highest difficulty. Quite literally, as in Call of Duty: World at War, enemies are trigger-happy with grenades and will throw numerous at you in quick succession. If you were thinking of hiding behind cover and slowly dealing with enemies, then you will need a new strategy. The Heart of the Reich mission also rightly so continues to have fans talking about its difficulty through the years as this Reddit comment on Feb. 10, 2022, showcased.
In terms of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, One Shot One Kill and Mile High Club are definitely the most tense missions to complete. It is all too easy to have to reset a checkpoint and in Mile High Club specifically, you pretty much have to have every enemy spawn fully memorized. I personally recall working my way through it and was thrilled when the mission was finally complete: it was an enjoyable experience nevertheless.
A tier: Call of Duty: World War II, Call of Duty: Black Ops 1, Call of Duty 3
Everyone who has played through Call of Duty: Black Ops 1 will know just how excellently designed it is, but if you are playing in veteran mode then you can expect a brutal time. It is still rewarding but there are various sections that will keep your skills tested over and over. I personally recommend the use of smoke grenades whenever you have access to them as they do help a lot with your progress.
One pick for the A-tier that you may not have expected me to place here is Call of Duty: World War II, which was released in 2017. It shouldn’t be underestimated in any way how difficult it is, especially since like WAW, you can’t just gradually recover health naturally. Call of Duty: 3, on the other hand, gains its place in the A-tier thanks to the high-distance checkpoint placements along with level layouts that require you to be thinking ahead of the pack at all times.
B tier: Call of Duty: Black Ops III, Call of Duty 2, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
In B-tier, there are the titles that will still give you a challenge, but you can beat them much quicker with some patience and trial and error. In Call of Duty: Black Ops III, I found myself running around like a headless chicken on the veteran difficulty in levels after the halfway mark. If you wanted to get all of the achievements/trophies in the game, you had to actually complete the game without death for your character at any point—brutal indeed.
Call of Duty 2 is along the same vein as Call of Duty 3 in how it maintains difficulty throughout the campaign and that is by way of distanced checkpoints. For example, you will be going up against already tough encounters and then if you are eliminated at any point, you can be transported back for 10s of minutes of gameplay, and it can be a splinter in the side for already difficult missions.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 also does not offer you too much support for your veteran playthrough endeavors. The AI companions for firing back at enemies with you I have personally noticed don’t actually help out too much. This, of course, means that in every firefight it will be down to you (and only you) to deal with the enemies in any way you can. Nonetheless, with persistence, this campaign won’t take you too long to get through so the B-tier is suitable for this entry.
C tier: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (2022), Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019), Call of Duty: Black Ops II
CoD players will likely be much more familiar with some more of the recent veteran campaigns, namely both Modern Warfare reboots. The campaigns are of a fair difficulty to progress through in the game mode and you shouldn’t run into too many issues—but they are still challenging.
I recall the very early Picadilly Circus level on the 2019 Modern Warfare taking a little while to complete simply because of how many enemies there were running around in combination with innocent civilians to avoid. It was like cat and mouse hunting around the shops for enemies to take out without losing too much cover protection.
Call of Duty: Black Ops II was nowhere near as intensive as the first Black Ops entry, but it was still highly memorable in terms of the missions on offer. Veteran did still provide a significant sense of satisfaction so it is worth the run through.
D tier: Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, Call of Duty: Vanguard
Kicking off the D tier is Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare and if you are playing through the game cautiously while in veteran mode then this shouldn’t take you any longer than a week or so to complete, especially if you’ve already completed the game before. The most difficult setting for Infinite Warfare I found to be the “Specialist” difficulty, which would easily make this entry an S-tier. If you want a challenge to last a while, go with that one.
Both Vanguard and Black Ops: Cold War are uncomplicated to finish in veteran mode, and with Cold War especially, you should even choose the harder difficulties if you have already played some of the campaigns higher up on the list. It feels like a gentle breeze to work your way through compared to others—barring some small conflicts that can get intense.
E tier: Call of Duty: Ghosts, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
Finally, we have the E tier, and even though these are at the bottom of the list it doesn’t mean their campaigns are bad in any way. For example, I personally much prefer both Ghosts and Advanced Warfare’s campaign story over that of Vanguard—who could even forget Riley the dog from Ghosts? But when looking at the difficulty of veteran, though, these titles are the easiest in the series to beat.
The best thing I found about a game like Advanced Warfare for the veteran difficulty was how easy it could be at times to avoid enemy fire thanks to the exosuit movement. It was extremely snappy and efficient to be able to hop back into cover with little damage to the character.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2011), on the other hand, was still a difficult campaign to get through in veteran but you would eventually get through sections in a fraction of the time compared to titles in the B or A tier.
Overall, whichever CoD you decide to play through on veteran, it is still worthwhile giving it a go as there is a deep sense of reward found with each completion. Even if that does indeed involve many waking hours stuck on one particular mission—we’re all looking at you, Heart of the Reich.
