Infinity Ward and Treyarch have been making Call of Duty games since the very beginning of the franchise, and since then, people have been arguing about which studio they think makes a better Call of Duty. But what about today, what about in the modern day? Over the course of the last handful of years, what are each studio's strengths and weaknesses?
Not to worry, because in this article we'll tell you everything you need to know about Treyarch vs Infinity Ward: who makes a better Call of Duty?
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Treyarch vs Infinity Ward: Call of Duty Graphics
As a AAA franchise, gamers expect top-notch graphics from Call of Duty, as well as buttery smooth performance, and they have for a long time, so which studio does it better?
This category is an easy Infinity Ward win. Modern Warfare (2019) set the bar for Call of Duty graphics, and its engine is not just still being used today but has become the main engine of the franchise going forward with even Treyarch's next game set to rely on it, and for good reason, too.
The engine just looks gorgeous. It's photorealistic but can also be vibrant and colorful; materials look excellent; environments are richly detailed; lighting is evocative; and it can even be quite performant, too, managing 120FPS on next-gen consoles and a familiar 60FPS on last-gen consoles.
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Treyarch vs Infinity Ward: Call of Duty Sound
A big part of immersing yourself in a game comes down to sound design. How do your weapons sound? What about your equipment? And can you make out what you need to hear clearly when there's chaos all around you?
On one hand, the sound design in modern Infinity Ward games is superb. Weapons sound incredible, and the sound of each weapon is unique, extraordinarily powerful, and even realistic, too. It's generally a joy to fire a weapon in a game like Modern Warfare (2019) or Modern Warfare II.
In comparison, Treyarch weapons sound a bit more muted and aren't as thunderous and awe-inspiring. However, Treyarch excels in another area of sound design: balance. Footsteps, for example, are notoriously not great in recent Infinity Ward games, either too quiet or too loud, and you can often hear footsteps from too far away or through walls.
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Plus, firefights in Infinity Ward games can become overwhelming, and you may well have to turn your headset down just so you don't blow your ears out, which definitely doesn't help you hear footsteps and further cuts down on clarity. Treyarch on the other hand usually manages to balance footsteps well, and you can almost always hear what you need to hear even during firefights.
Treyarch vs Infinity Ward: Call of Duty Gunplay
When you add up graphics, sound design, and animations together, fans generally agree that Infinity Ward games play better than Treyarch games. As in that moving around, shooting, reloading, and taking fights is at its best in a game like Modern Warfare (2019) or Modern Warfare II.
This isn't to say that gunplay isn't smooth and satisfying in a Treyarch Call of Duty, of course, it is, but the level of detail possible with Infinity Ward's engine, the care the studio puts into its animations, and the fantastic sound design of each and every weapon is just a peerless experience in the modern day.
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A lot of what makes compelling gunplay comes down to those technical features that Infinity Ward tends to excel at, so it's not too much of a wonder that the basic, moment-to-moment gameplay in an Infinity Ward Call of Duty is often more immersive and polished than in a Treyarch Call of Duty, but Treyarch games tend to excel at another important aspect of the gunplay experience: weapon balance.
Treyarch vs Infinity Ward: Call of Duty Weapon Balance
Infinity Ward weapons may feel amazing to use, but when you start actually shooting at other players and doing damage, Infinity Ward games start running into a ton of trouble that Treyarch games have a lot fewer issues with.
For one, the TTK of Infinity Ward games is oftentimes shorter than that of Treyarch games, which makes balancing weapons a nightmare. When a submachine gun can kill you in just a few bullets across a map, it becomes much more difficult to make a sniper rifle feels as compelling as a fast, automatic weapon.
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Then, there are attachments. In Modern Warfare (2019), it was often hard to understand exactly what attachments did, and quickly it became obvious that there were just a few attachment combinations that were going to be best, cutting down on how customizable your weapons actually felt. In Modern Warfare II, almost every attachment cuts down your ADS time, which is often a dealbreaker, so guns can feel like they're best without too many attachments, which once again cuts down on how customizable weapons are.
In a game like Black Ops Cold War, Treyarch tells you exactly what each attachment does to your weapon, and attachments generally have familiar tradeoffs you can understand at a glance and use to build a gun that's right for you. You can make an AR quicker and more mobile at the expense of range and recoil, or you can make an SMG punchier and viable at longer distances at the cost of mobility.
Plus, Treyarch games tend to have longer TTKs than Infinity Ward games such that it's a lot easier for each weapon class to have its own unique feel while still being totally viable, and you won't feel as much like every gun will shred any opponent instantly as long as you get the first shot off.
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Treyarch vs Infinity Ward: Call of Duty Map Design
In this respect, it's not particularly close. Treyarch, time and time again, has proven that as a studio it understands how to build Call of Duty maps that play better than Infinity Ward maps.
In Modern Warfare (2019), for example, map design was one of the game's greatest weaknesses. Maps were often large with confusing layouts, and they were absolutely littered with corners you could hide in and power positions that you could camp in and wreck your competition from.
Treyarch maps tend to be a bit more approachable and have three distinct lanes without feeling overly simple or like there's only one path forward. Modern Treyarch maps are highly detailed, but they aren't filled with so much detail that it's tough to make out enemies or find a good flanking route.
A good Call of Duty map comes down to threading the needle between building an interesting environment that doesn't feel formulaic or boring while still creating something that's competitive and allows for a variety of different playstyles from camping to flanking.
In general, Treyarch excels at doing this much more consistently than Infinity Ward does, most especially in the modern era.
Treyarch vs Infinity Ward: Call of Duty Overall Balance
When it comes to perks, equipment, killstreaks, and everything else, plus how it all comes together, Treyarch usually manages to create more balanced Call of Duty games than Infinity Ward does.
For example, in Modern Warfare (2019) and Modern Warfare II, killstreak spam is a permanent issue, beloved perks like Ninja are gone, silencers don't keep you off the minimap, and field upgrades can cause endless frustration. Needless innovations, like timed perks, or bad implementations of familiar features, like turning scorestreaks into a perk, are also fairly common.
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In a game like Black Ops Cold War, killstreak spam isn't as much of an issue, all the perks you want are on offer, silencers and the minimap work like you'd expect, and field upgrades don't usually radically change games. New features like wildcards tend to build on the experience and not take away from it, while fan-favorite features like FOV sliders or weapon stats also get added.
In general, the interplay of the various systems in a given Call of Duty tends to work better in modern Treyarch games over modern Infinity Ward ones.
Treyarch vs Infinity Ward: Call of Duty Realism
This is another category where the divide is quite massive. There's just no comparing the two studios in this respect, as Infinity Ward often nails realism while Treyarch usually doesn't bother with it that much.
This has been a hallmark of both of these studios forever. Infinity Ward often tries to bring more and more realism to Call of Duty and cut down on the arcade-y, video game-y feeling you get when playing Call of Duty, while Treyarch leans into those same characteristics and often builds mechanics and systems around what feels good rather than what's more realistic.
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As a result, Infinity Ward Call of Duty games can often look, feel, and sound more immersive than their Treyarch counterparts, while Treyarch games often end up a lot more balanced and competitive than Infinity Ward games.
If you're looking for weapons to perform similarly to how they do in real life, you'll probably prefer Modern Warfare, but if you're not looking for tactical play and immersion in Call of Duty, you'll probably prefer Treyarch.
Treyarch vs Infinity Ward: Call of Duty Innovation
In terms of innovation, one studio of the two has always been pushing the franchise forward. One studio takes those giant leaps, and one studio has the courage to follow a particular vision for their games, stick with it, and not be swayed as much by what's popular, and that's Infinity Ward.
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Whether it's introducing gunfight, building Warzone, creating DMZ, overhauling the Call of Duty engine, or anything else, Infinity Ward is certainly the more innovative studio that takes more risks. While Treyarch may, ultimately, make more polished games that work with fewer issues, Treyarch games can feel less fresh and unique than Infinity Ward counterparts.
Of course, this means that Infinity Ward Call of Duty games can feel less like they're built around what players want, but oftentimes, when players ask for all the same features and mechanics they liked in the past, that experience can add up to one they don't stick around for because it feels rehashed.
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