Call of Duty ranks among the most polarizing of franchises in the gaming world. There are a couple of reasons for this. This first is that CoD is so well known and such an iconic brand, of course, it has its haters. You don't sell over two hundred million games without making a few enemies, and the detractors for this franchise are as vicious as any out there.

Don't get us wrong, they have some very valid points. Among them is the fact that every Call of Duty game is essentially the same. The bread and butter of the franchise is pumping out visually impressive, exciting shooters-on-rails with a slightly new twist from time to time.

While there has been plenty of discussion about which games are the best and how to rank the titles within the series, less attention is paid to the individual missions. Anyone who has played them knows that CoD has some of the greatest missions the gaming world has ever seen, along with some of the worst. Here are ten atrocious missions along with five of the greatest. Be forewarned, we're going with the assumption that you've played the games as even the most recent has been out for over half a year, the spoilers will be plentiful.

Honorable Mentions: Early Games

Considering that we only have five spaces for the amazing missions in this series, none of those from the early (pre-2007) games made the cut. Given how great these titles are, however, it would be ignorant of us to not at least mention missions such as "The Battle of Point Du Hoc" in COD 2, or the Volga river missions in the first game. And of course,  Finest Hour, along with about half of the campaign for United Offensive, a criminally underrated campaign from the early days of this series. We decided to focus on the later games because, among them, there is a far greater gap between the great missions and the repulsive garbage.

15 Terrible: S.O.G/Crash Site (Black Ops)

Okay, we will admit, there is something great about each of these missions. If you're a fan of classic rock music, the inclusion of Creedence Clearwater Rivival's "Fortunate Son" and The Rolling Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil" made us feel like we were actually there, taking it to the NVA in Southeast Asia.

Unfortunately, these missions share in irritatingly heavy reliance on vehicles, which can create an unpleasant feeling with players given that the rest of the game is a first person shooter. These missions certainly aren't the worst on our list, but with regard to the amount of time spent piloting a boat, or being driven around in the back of a Jeep, they certainly weren't as awesome as a pair of Vietnam War missions could have been.

14 Terrible: The Strike Force Missions (Black Ops 2)

The Strike Force missions from Black Ops II were an interesting concept that was poorly done. For those who managed to mentally block the memory of these missions or never played them, or have just forgotten, the Strike Force series of missions put the player in charge of a new squad consisting of soldiers and drones in a hybrid FPS/RTS playing format. See? Interesting concept, but the difficulty was too inconsistent (regardless of settings), and these missions served more to break up the very legitimate action in the game, than to actually enhance the experience. The fact that these missions did affect the end of the campaign was a decent touch, but the missions themselves were more of a headache than a pleasure to play.

13 Awesome: All Ghillied Up (Modern Warfare)

The first of our "awesome" designated missions is one of those iconic missions that has almost taken on a legendary status in the world of gaming. Why did we list it so high up the list? Because everyone who has played the games knows "All Ghillied Up" would be here. It is obvious and undeniable.

While Modern Warfare was incredible up until this point, "All Ghillied Up" changed everything. No longer were we some Superman type character, massacring our way through hoards of enemies; rather, we got to play as a young sniper: Lt. John Price, on a mission with Captain MacMillan to assassinate Imran Zakhaev.

The use of stealth and teamwork in this mission, along with the sense of urgency and the imminent threats of not only a large enemy force but also the radioactive areas around Pripyat make this one of the greatest missions in all of gaming, let alone CoD.

12 Terrible: Blood And Iron (World At War)

World at War has the reputation among many in the online community of being a vastly underrated game, as it was sandwiched between arguably the two strongest games in the series. We need to offer a shout out to the WaW campaign overall, as there were a few missions including "Burn 'Em Out," "Vendetta," and "Downfall," which were close to being on this list in the "awesome" category.

On the other hand, however, "Blood and Iron" was more tedious than anything. The mission saw Dimitri Petrenko and Viktor Reznov in control of a T-34 tank with a flamethrower, blasting and barbecuing their way through German artillery and tanks through Seelow Heights. While the use of a tank sounds like it might be a nice change of pace from infantry work, the mission was too easy considering how late it came in the campaign, and nothing particularly interesting happened throughout.

11 Terrible: Old Wounds (Black Ops 2)

Black Ops II was a very solid game, bringing us to new locales and building on the exciting narrative created by the first game. Plenty of returning characters, along with betrayals, some choice in action on the part of player, and of course a near-futuristic setting made it a welcome addition to the franchise. Unfortunately, not every mission was a gem, and although "Old Wounds" sounds great on paper, the mission ended up being the dullest in the game. It brought Woods and Mason to Afghanistan and saw the two help a Mujahideen base from a Soviet attack.

On the surface, it sounds like it has the makings of a decent mission, and we will admit, that the events of the mission do push the plot forward, but fighting on horseback was mechanically poor and unexciting, along with the brief moments of combat that made this mission boring and anti-climactic. This was a filler mission with a strong premise, ultimately a failure.

10 Awesome: Suffer With Me (Black Ops 2)

Many levels in Call of Duty games get us profoundly excited but then bring us back down with scenes that are painful and even agonizing to watch. While watching Soap MacTavish, Gaz, Griggs, Roach, and Ghost die in the MW games was rough, plenty of good characters died in the other Black Ops games. Of the more recent titles, BO2's seventh mission "Suffer With Me" was an amazing ride that culminated in one of the most powerful, infuriating, and indeed agonizing cut scenes in the franchise.

The opening scene was Frank Woods was intense, followed by a casual start as some of the operatives get ready to go after Manuel Noriega in Panama. The mission takes place at night, and based on the chatter over the radios throughout, along with Woods' cut scenes, everyone knew something was up. The mission's finale involves a crucial sniper shot made by Woods, who is told to shoot a masked prisoner, who he believes to be Raul Menendez, but instead it is his long time friend Alex Mason.

9 Terrible: Loki (Ghosts) 

If we wanted to get lazy, we could have occupied many of these "terrible" missions with various ones from Call of Duty: Ghosts. The developers tried some interesting things with the story, but it was all a little too far-fetched for many fans. The inclusion of the dog wasn't well received or well executed, and the character development wasn't up to par on this one. The game sold well, but of course it did...it's a CoD game. But enough about the damn game, and on to this stinker of a mission.

As is the case with a few other levels in the "terrible" part of this list, there are some interesting elements to "Loki", the second to last mission in the game. You're floating through space with a firearm while blowing away enemies with a space station being torn to shreds in the background. It sounds amazing, but somehow it managed to be incredibly boring and tedious.

8 Terrible: Death From Above (Modern Warfare)

This mission played an important part in the Modern Warfare campaign and was kind of cool for the first thirty seconds, but the novelty was quickly lost. In "Death From Above" we took the role of a gunner in an AC-130 gunship as that crew provided devastatingly effective support for Soap, Price and the rest of the SAS group. There is virtually no challenge to this mission; really, you have a Howitzer, a 40 mm cannon and a minigun, if you can't waste the people without flashing beacons in time (regardless of difficulty), how did you make it that far in the game in the first place? This mission never had to exist, and instead, we could have remained as Soap and just designated targets for the AC-130 if Infinity Ward was so desperate to have that craft in the game. The mission served as a change of pace but not much more.

7 Awesome: Terminus (Advanced Warfare)

We understand the fury that many of the more seasoned Call of Duty fans have with regard to games like Ghosts, Advanced Warfare and Infinite Warfare. If you started out with the originals and then got blown away by the first two MW games and Black Ops, the more recent titles, especially those in a futuristic setting seemed out of place.

With all that said, Advanced Warfare brought a campaign that was amazing from start to finish. In terms of final campaign missions, they all get our blood pumping but few are as much of a thrill as "Terminus." Armed with AST suits kitted up with a chain gun, missiles and rockets, Mitchell and Gideon blast their way into Irons' stronghold and finish him. This fast paced mission, which features an absurd amount of firepower (even considering this is AW), a sense of urgency and a vicious desire for revenge after the death of Cormack, may be the best final mission of any Call of Duty campaign to date (saying that will get me a lot of hate, I eagerly await your death threats).

6 Terrible: Takedown (Modern Warfare 2)

While we do love the Modern Warfare games and recognize that number two is likely the strongest of the three (many argue the best in the entire franchise), we won't overlook the poor design and tedious gameplay in the Favela missions, especially this first one. The opening is exciting, with Rojas' assistant opening fire, killing Roach's driver and then attempting an escape on foot. The character then tracks him and drops him with a knee shot. From there the mission quickly goes downhill, ironically as we climb upward through the Favela. The irritating level design, which often allowed enemies to pop out behind the player, despite thinking we had cleared an area, which may well mimic the reality of fighting in such a neighborhood, made this a mission to forget for many fans.

5 Terrible: Atlas  (Advanced Warfare)

The second mission from Advanced Warfare started out alright. The first five minutes were an entertaining mission to save the President who has been captured at Camp David. Of course, after some light action, we realize the entire damn thing has been a training simulation.

The rest of the mission is basically a slightly less entertaining training mission and while it is necessary to have these tutorials in a game like this one, "Atlas" is not the way to do it. Like we said, the first five minutes were decent, but the main part of the tutorial is boring, and then you get to play the first five minutes all over again with some new gear and skills. In all honesty, this is a kind of developmental laziness that is almost insulting to those who bought the game.

4 Awesome: Cliffhanger  (Modern Warfare 2)

There are plenty of memorable moments throughout MW2's campaign, including the knife toss through General Shepherd's eye, the demise of Roach and Ghost at the safe-house and of course "No Russian," but when it comes to outstanding missions, "Cliffhanger" takes it. It starts out with Roach and Soap scaling a mountain, and they make their way into a remote Russian base in search of an ACS Module. They are able to recover it, but Soap is compromised. They launch an impressive surprise counter attack, and manage to fight their way across an airfield, and before hopping on snowmobiles to make their escape, dodging Russians, trees and gunfire before a massive and unrealistic leap across a canyon to safety. To call this mission varied and exciting would be an insult. What a ride!

Please note, for those of you enraged that we didn't include "Wolverines!" as our awesome MW2 mission, it was a very close call, and ultimately, the stealth snow assault took the win here.

3 Terrible: No Russian (Modern Warfare 2)

Don't misunderstand our objection to this mission, we aren't against the content. Obviously, the thought of massacring civilians at an airport (or anywhere) is repugnant, but for the purposes of the game, it serves the plot, drives us forward in the game with renewed hatred for Makarov. After all, the civilians getting shot up are in a video game, so who cares?

The problem with this mission, however, is that there was no challenge to it. It was boring; five to ten minutes of walking and firing (if you chose to fire), followed by a few waves of police with riot shields and then your character gets shot. Like we said, it served its purpose, and the end was exciting, but there was very little challenge. Granted, massacring unarmed NPC's wasn't meant to be difficult by any means, but the point still stands, it wasn't much of a mission, and while it served a purpose, it lacked a challenge.

2 Terrible: Birds Of Prey (Ghosts)

We said this earlier, and it still stands true. Ghosts is almost universally recognized as one of the weakest games in the franchise, and this brutal mission is one of the reasons. You start out in an Apache helicopter and all you do is strafe some platforms at a poorly designed base. It sounds like it could be exciting, but really it just amounts to a few minutes many fans won't be able to get back. For the portion of the mission that takes place on the ground, Hesh and Logan just blast their way through some enemies in unimpressive surroundings until they reach Rorke. The mission is pathetically lackluster, and also quite short, which is a good thing because if we had to play too much more of it, whether on the ground on in the air, we may have just put the controller through our screen (keyboard for PC gamers).

1 Awesome: Vorkuta (Black Ops)

The first mission of Black Ops, in which we got to participate in the failed Bay Of Pigs Invasion and attempt an assassination of Fidel Castro, was an incredible way to start this highly anticipated game. The second mission of that campaign, however, blew us away. Set in Vorkuta, a Soviet era labor camp, this mission brings back a familiar voice in Viktor Reznov, who guided us through World at War. The mission to escape from Vorkuta was dark, visceral, but ultimately one of the most exciting in the entire series. From Reznov's leadership, pushing us forward as we accomplished the necessary tasks to escape, to the battle cries of other prisoners as we progressed through the prison, and, finally, the firefights and daring escape once you get above ground were a nonstop adrenaline rush.