The 5 Vince Zampella Games You Need to Play Next

The shooter world pauses to honor Vince Zampella’s towering legacy—five must-play milestones trace his influence from Medal of Honor and Call of Duty to Titanfall, Apex Legends, and a pivotal turn on Battlefield 6.

Vince Zampella is gone, and if you play shooters at all, you know how much of the genre runs through his work. From World War II sandstorms to modern black-ops chaos to wall-running mechs and a chatty battle royale, the man helped build the template and then kept upgrading it. He even had a hand in Battlefield 6 before he checked out. If you want a quick tour of what made his brain so good for games, start here.

Five Vince Zampella games worth revisiting

1. Medal of Honor: Allied Assault

   Early 2000s shooters were a flood, but this one jumped out for how cinematic it felt at the time. You were not just shooting; you were dropped into set-pieces that actually felt staged and intense. The D-Day landing is the mission people still bring up, and for good reason — it is a perfectly tuned panic attack. Sure, it looks its age, but the design holds.

   Release date: January 20, 2002

   Developer: 2015, Inc.

   Publisher: Electronic Arts

2. Call of Duty 2

   Zampella and the Infinity Ward team pushed the WWII campaign formula forward here. The big swing: you could approach objectives in a looser order, which gave the missions some welcome flexibility. Pair that with then-cutting-edge ally and enemy behavior and you get a campaign that still plays smoother than you expect from 2005.

   Release date: October 25, 2005

   Developer: Infinity Ward

   Publisher: Activision

3. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (2007)

   The pivot that changed the franchise for good. Modern settings, tight storytelling, bombastic set-pieces, audio design that thumps — it set a new ceiling for shooters and then climbed past it. The characters and missions became instant touchstones, and the pacing still makes other campaigns look sleepy. Fun bit in the credits: Infinity Ward leads, but Treyarch is listed too.

   Release date: November 5, 2007

   Developer: Infinity Ward, Treyarch

   Publisher: Activision

4. Titanfall 2

   After co-founding Respawn, Zampella basically did the thing again: a shooter that feels fresh immediately. The campaign is the star — clever mechanics that constantly reinvent themselves, an emotional core that sneaks up on you, and missions paced like a great action movie. People have been asking for more ever since, and you can see why five minutes in.

   Release date: October 28, 2016

   Developer: Respawn Entertainment

   Publisher: Electronic Arts

5. Apex Legends

   Battle royale, but made fast, fun, and surprisingly strategic. Apex lives in the Titanfall universe, so the lore heads get plenty to chew on, but it is the moment-to-moment that hooks you: slick movement, crisp gunplay, and a roster where mixing abilities actually changes how the match flows. It is endlessly replayable because the team synergies and chaos keep reshuffling the deck.

   Release date: February 4, 2019

   Developer: Respawn Entertainment

   Publisher: Electronic Arts

That run alone explains why his name carried weight. If you have history with any of these, you probably already feel it. If you do not, pick one and dive in — they make the case for him better than any tribute ever could.