By: Tyler Miller
For the past two weekends I played the beta for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and oh my gosh I can’t express enough just how much I’m looking forward to this game. Where do I even start with it? I guess I’ll just start with how it plays. There’s definitely a learning curve with this game. I wrote about this when I played the Gunfight Alpha, but those matches were very quick. Playing through more matches that were far longer in length gave me a better idea for how things feel and control.
The new engine that the game is running on and the added realism causes the guns to kick differently and have some powerful recoil. This is something that honestly takes some time to get used to and learn how to control for each weapon. I’m typically someone that’s pretty good at Call of Duty, but for the first time in years I was actually struggling to do well in multiplayer solely because I was having a hard time adjusting to how weapons controlled. As more time went on I got better, but even this past weekend I was having tough moments. Just to be clear this isn’t a complaint at all. It’s been tough but more importantly, it’s been fun. Getting a feel for these weapons has been a blast and I’m excited to take the time to get good with them and have a better handle on them.
Being able to utilize the Gunsmith feature in class creation also went a long way towards me getting a better feel for the weapons. Gunsmith is actually deeper than I ever expected it to be. As you play with a weapon you level it up and unlock different attachments for it. While this is standard for the series, Modern Warfare does it differently with each part of the weapon having multiple attachments for you to unlock and choose between. It was a bit overwhelming to see the many different attachment options and seeing how they can affect my weapon, but it’s cool to be able to mix and match my attachments however I please. And as much as I like the Pick-10 system that has been commonplace in the series for a while now, it’s been nice not having it here. Being able to fully stack up my weapons and still have my perks and equipment is so great.
Throughout these past two weekends with the game, I played dozens of rounds of Team Deathmatch, Domination, and Headquarters across a couple different maps. These maps all played well with each of the different modes which gives me high hopes for the rest of the multiplayer maps. I like that they don’t adhere to the three lane structure that we’ve become accustomed to, and harken back moreso to the map design style of the original Modern Warfare and its sequel. It keeps the matches feeling a hair unpredictable and fresh since it requires me to stay aware of my surroundings and pay attention to the many different spots that people could be hiding in.
The beta also gave us the opportunity to try out some of the game’s new multiplayer modes: NVG (Night Vision Goggles), Cyber Attack, Realism, and Ground War. I gave each of these a shot aside from Cyber Attack since it’s a Search and Destroy-esque mode and I’m not really a fan of S&D. Realism mode strips away your HUD and makes all headshot a 1-shot kill, but otherwise doesn’t change anything about the game. It was cool, but I don’t think I’ll play it that much. It’s a bit too hardcore for my tastes, but it was interesting to try out.
NVG was one of my favorite modes in the beta. It puts you on a map at night time and everyone has night vision goggles equipped. With the goggles equipped you can’t aim down sights and are forced to hip fire, but you have a laser sight to help aim at targets. The thing is that while the goggles are equipped, laser sight is visible to everyone else that’s wearing them (which is basically everyone in the game), so you have to be smart about how you maneuver around the map. Night vision goggles were available in the original Modern Warfare to use in multiplayer, but they weren’t really useful and really just put a green filter over the screen. Here though they actually serve a purpose and contributed to a fun and different way to experience multiplayer.
The standout mode of the entire beta was by far Ground War. Now this mode has been in past games, but it was a TDM/Domination variant with a max player count of 18 instead of 12. It was cool but it never really felt as epic as the name of the mode sounded. That isn’t the case anymore. The new and improved Ground War is a full on 64-player Domination mode on a larger map with vehicles for you to use. It’s essentially the Conquest mode from the Battlefield franchise. Honestly, it works really well here!
It’s chaotic and hectic with the high player count, the vehicles, and all the killstreaks going off, but it never becomes something that’s hard to keep track of or a miserable experience. It allows you to really play any kind of way you want to and not be punished for it. When I played this, I thought back to my days playing Ground War in Modern Warfare 2 and thinking about just how epic it would be if we could have even more players, and now I finally have my answer. My time playing Ground War was some of the most fun I ever had in a Call of Duty game and I’m so excited to play even more of it when the full game comes out next month.
This past weekend of the beta actually allowed cross-play between Playstation, Xbox, and PC for the first time in the series history and it surprisingly worked pretty well. I was in a couple of cross platform lobbies throughout the weekend and my experience was mostly problem free. I did encounter some connection issues in some of the lobbies, but that may also have been partially because of my internet. It was largely a smooth experience and it has me excited to be able to play with people on other platforms.
My time with the beta wasn’t without any faults though. Spawning continues to be a big issue. I can’t even count the amount of times that I spawned, took a step and then got shot because an enemy was coming around the corner. Or the times that I spawned literally in the line of sight of an enemy and died instantly. I’ve even seen people spawn directly in front of me. Now I’m not constantly having terrible spawns, but I’ve had enough for it to be a problem. Infinity Ward has noted that spawning is an issue and has stated they’re working on fixing it, so I hope that it’s all good when the final game comes out.
Playing this beta has brought back memories of how I felt playing the original Modern Warfare games back in high school. I remember all the times I hated the other team for dominating us so hard and the times where I was going on a nice killstreak only to be thwarted by a guy who was up in a building that I wasn’t paying attention to. Most of all though, I remember all the fun I had with the games. I was excited for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare already, but this beta has sent my excitement levels through the roof.
TheComfySpot 