salutations Internet people. I never really got into CoD in years past, but I have the itch to plat something new so I thought I’d check it out. Im looking for the best game in terms of gameplay, with a preference towards faster paced run and gun or long range, or a nice mix. I don’t intend to play all the games to canonical order is pretty much irrelevant, and if it fits the bill I generally prefer older games. thanks

Black ops 1 best cod for me personally

World at war or black ops 1

Black Ops 2. Many started there and it was a great place to start.

Its just the campaign youre playing? I would start with modern warfare 1 the original, they remastered it several years ago. that way you can play through that trilogy which is great and also its the first cod game that bascially uses modern mechanics so it will lay good but only improve from there. the stry is pretty great too

If it's platinums you're looking for, the games I recommend the least are the the last 3 games (MW3 2023, BO6, and BO7) as they do not have platinums. They are merely dlc packs for the cod hq thing.

If you're not looking for a zombies experience in your plat journey, I would not recommend any treyarch game (Black ops) nor would I recommend Infinite Warfare/WW2/Vanguard, although if you want to 100% I'd add advanced warfare and ghosts to that list.

If you want a purely campaign based platinum, I believe the first two Modern Warfare remasters (MWR and the MW2 remastered campaign) are probably you're best bet. The MW2019 platinum has a dlc achievement for spec ops, but is other completely campaign. I can't speak for MW2 (2022) as I haven't looked at that games achievement and do not know what it needs, although the last 3 games are essentially dlc for the game so you'd need to do the last 3 games to 100%.

I don't remember if ghosts has mp achievements or if it's purely campaign and AW has exo survival which is pve like zombies, but it's definitely not zombies. Dlc does add zombies and dlc for ghosts add extinction which is another unique pve mode.

Lastly, if you are looking for zombies in any way, I would definitely play a black ops game. Infinite Warfare has a MP achievement that I've heard is bugged and WW2 zombies is very much hit or miss. I would not recommend BO4 or BO Cold War as BO4 has blackout achievements and BOCW has fire team achievements, both requiring game modes that are too dead to use for achievements unless you boost with a group.

BO1 has a very minimal number of achievements to do in zombies that should take like an hour or two (excluding dlc, that will add a much larger amount of time) as long as you have someone to do 2 specific trophies with. MP should take 30 minutes. Rest is campaign.

BO2 requires you to prestige in MP which will take a little while, although it also requires winning combat training matches which are mostly dead, so it may be a little hit or miss finding a game of that. I'd also focus on party games (which getting top 3 counts as winning). BO2 asks a little more of you in terms of zombies and will require multiple people for the tranzit Easter egg. Rest is campaign.

BO3 has a few MP achievements, but I believe the game is alive enough to get them after playing for long enough. It has a few zombies achievements, may require someone (I don't remember), but you at least don't need to do an easter egg.

The rest of the Black Ops games either require a dead game mode or don't actually have a platinum.

Black ops 2. Whatever you do just never play modern warfare 3 (2023) as it is probably the worst video game to ever touch the planet in human history.

Honestly, you can start with Black Ops 1. All you really need is to beat the campaign on Veteran and find someone to help with the Crossbow trophy in Zombies. I'm not even a hardcore CoD player and I managed to get the Platinum on PS4—I'm literally one trophy away from doing it again on PS5 right now.

MW2 2009 or World at war

Came to say this