The following list is my personal favourite villains in the Call of Duty franchise ranked. It doesn’t take into account anything from Zombies (there’s good ones there too) or any other mode except for Campaign.
5. Jonathan Irons (Advanced Warfare)
A controversial pick who, in my opinion, narrowly edges out the likes of Imran Zakhaev and Khaled Al-Asad from the Modern Warfare series, and Lev Kravchenko and Nikita Dragovich from the Black Ops series. This is due to a memorable performance, in which actor Kevin Spacey pulls a General Shepherd on the player. The CEO of Atlas; a major private military company for hire, Irons becomes increasingly hostile towards the countries that use his services, later revealing a plan to unleash the devastating WMD Manticore.
4. General Shepherd (Modern Warfare 2)
Speaking of General Shepherd (voiced by Lance Henriksen), this one hurts. Possibly the biggest swerve in Call of Duty history is having the good guy who has been helping you throughout the entirety of the game suddenly betray you, killing a fan favourite character in the process (he was my favourite too). Nothing will ever compare to the feeling of getting revenge on this son of a bitch in form of a perfectly thrown knife.
3. Vladimir Makarov (Modern Warfare 2 & 3)
Remember, no Russian. Vladimir Makarov (played by Roman Varshavsky) simply has to be in the top three as he takes Task Force 141 to the brink over the course of the original Modern Warfare trilogy. The reason my boy Soap didn’t make it like so many other characters, this guy is incredibly devious and always seems to be one step ahead. That is, until Captain Price gets a hold of him.
2. Raul Menendez (Black Ops 2)
Portrayed by Kamar de los Reyes, Menendez does a lot of the heavy lifting in the (goated) Black Ops 2 campaign. Fueled by revenge after the accidental death of his sister at the hands of one Frank Woods, this angry Nicaraguan beast goes full visionary/terrorist and almost gets away with it. Seemingly uncatchable and a true force to be reckoned with, Menendez ranks highly due to being a menace for decades.
1. Gabriel Rorke (Ghosts)
That’s right! Got ya, bet you didn’t see this one coming. Arguably the best part of Ghosts’ (admittedly underrated) story – Gabriel T. Rorke. The man’s a machine and actor Kevin Gage really brings him to life. Brainwashed by the Federation after being left behind during a failed mission to assassinate their leader, the former Ghost commander is tasked with hunting down his squad mates. He literally can’t be killed, surviving multiple near death encounters, and is the only surviving Call of Duty antagonist on this list (not counting the Mobile timeline).
What do you think to our list of top Call of Duty villains? Let us know in the comments or over on Facebook & Twitter!
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