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A decade ago, Call of Duty sidelined its iconic progression system to dabble in gacha instead, and I was glad I'd forgotten

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Welcome to the Supply Drop era.

Advanced Warfare: A soldier using a riot shot to block gunfire from another player jumping from a staircase with dual-wield machine guns.
(Image credit: Activision)
18WENKU headshot - Rory Norris
Rory Norris

This week: Building a large collection of high-end guns in Marathon, which I'm sure to lose when my luck turns.

Besides the moment-to-moment shooting, what's the one thing that's made Call of Duty the success that it is today? If you ask me, it's the progression. You level up your account, unlocking new guns as you go, which pulls you into the camo grind, all for you to prestige and do it all over again. It's a dopamine rush that worms its way deep into your brain. I still remember the incredibly obnoxious (but admittedly cool) level-up sounds from the original Modern Warfare trilogy era.

Advanced Warfare introduced the short-lived weapon variants feature. Basically, you'd unlock weapons like you normally would by leveling up, but each gun also had a handful of tiered variants that significantly tweaked their performance. They were similar to today's cosmetic-only weapon blueprints but with a very real impact on their stats and performance.

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Advanced Warfare: The MP11 Goliath elite weapon variant.

Image credit: Activision

Advanced Warfare: The Bal-27 Obsidian Steed elite weapon variant.

Image credit: Activision

Advanced Warfare: The M1-Irons elite weapon variant.

Image credit: Activision

For example, the MP11 Goliath variant gave this SMG bonus damage at the cost of handling, which resulted in a bafflingly quick time-to-kill in close range. Likewise, the Bal-27 Obsidian Steed gained bonus damage and mobility but reduced accuracy, handling, and rate of fire compared to its base counterpart. And no variant was more iconic (or infamous) than the ASM1 Speakeasy, which turned this SMG into a Tommy Gun that absolutely ripped.

Try your luck in the free Supply Drops, or pay a few bucks to still try your luck at getting some of the strongest guns.

It was an interesting idea, in all honesty. If you didn't like a base weapon, perhaps you would like one of its variants instead. And it also led to some pretty cool designs, like the aforementioned Speakeasy. The only issue was that weapon variants were inextricably linked to gacha mechanics.

x300 ADVANCED SUPPLY DROPS! (INSANE OPENING and ROYALTY ELITE GUNS!) - YouTube x300 ADVANCED SUPPLY DROPS! (INSANE OPENING and ROYALTY ELITE GUNS!) - YouTube
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