Infinity Ward puts the “shooter” in “arcade shooter”. We’ve been moving fast over the last two years, as Treyarch has had the helm of the Call of Duty ship. I’d dare say they put the “arcade” in “arcade shooter”. With the franchise being an annual affair, however, things eventually change. Playing Modern Warfare 4 over the course of Call of Duty: NEXT and during the beta period so far, it’s been very different from what I’m used to. That’s exactly what Call of Duty fans need, even if they may not think so in the first few matches.
Modern Warfare 4’s gameplay is a far cry from what we’ve experienced over the last two years of Black Ops, and even feels separate from Modern Warfare III. Coming from the smooth and silky sprinting of omnimovement, you’re going to suddenly feel sluggish. It’s like running around outside, and then putting on a twenty-pound vest – you just aren’t moving the same. While it’s not to the detriment of the gunplay, which is still world-class (although not without its own issues), it certainly takes getting used to the flow.
That said, there have been strides taken by Infinity Ward to “smooth out their rough edges”. This is an evolution of Modern Warfare II, but with the team taking steps towards making a game that doesn’t forget to be fun while embracing a more realistic take. I remember the clunkiness of Modern Warfare II’s movement, and I don’t feel like Modern Warfare 4 is fighting me the way that game did. It’s like the foundation of Modern Warfare II was combined with the unintentional movement benefits of Modern Warfare 2019. I still get more dead slides than I’d like, but compared to MWII, this is much better. Some of this is the fault of tactical sprint, which I still don’t care for. After a year in Black Ops 7 where it was locked to a perk no one used, this added mechanic throws me off and is generally cumbersome.
Guns are, of course, where the sauce is in Modern Warfare 4. There’s something about an Infinity Ward title in how meaty the guns feel, with a chonky sound that erupts from the barrel as you shoot each one. It’s almost a religious experience – IW just knows how to replicate the best feeling of shooting a gun. Thankfully, they’ve toned down the visual recoil and smoke in MW4, making your aim much more manageable than previous titles. I’ve also been really impressed with sniper rifles so far; they are incredibly satisfying, and you just feel accomplished when you nail that cross-map shot at the beginning of a Search and Destroy round.
Time-to-kill has long been an issue between Infinity Ward and the community, but they’re certainly attempting to make some changes. While there are times you just feel like you’ve been deleted, the changes that have been made this first week have been substantial. Kudos to the team; you usually kill in about four bullets as of now. I literally had to rewrite this paragraph because they may have found a good middle ground for the current TTK right at the end of the first week of the beta.
Attachments are another weird hill that Infinity Ward tends to die on. There are a lot of them, and they carry a lot of pros and cons on each one. I’ll give them credit again for changing the baseline optics, which had aim-down-sight penalties, but the attachment system is just so bloated. It may make more sense once we get to try DMZ, but does it have to be copy/paste for multiplayer? Gunny is a new “AI gun builder” meant to help with cutting through the crap, offering a custom-built weapon based on your choice of style (long range, short range, or balanced). However, I see it more as a gimmick that isn’t as necessary if there were more simplicity to the systems in place.
I do appreciate a lot of loadout changes though, even in the midst of the attachment debacle. Operators being a loadout option is awesome, allowing you to show off all the ones you’ll eventually purchase. Melee as an included part of your class was something I didn’t think would survive from the last two games. Per-loadout killstreaks are something I’ve always wanted, and with an “apply to all” button, you can still easily stick with the same ones for every build you make.
Speaking of killstreaks, there are good and bad here. First, I love the combat drone. This little guy makes me think of the sniper drone in Black Ops 7 but with a machine gun. It’s super cool. Second, being able to supplement your current streak with objective score is a nice touch as well, ensuring your teammates don’t run off and leave you to hunt for a cruise missile. For the third and the bad, UAVs are the worst yet again. It’s just too easy to get them, and you can use a perk to need only two kills for one. At that point, you might as well not even put them in the game, just add a permanent Harp to the mini-map and let us fight it out. I can’t even offer feedback on how to handle it, but something needs to be done.
Map flow is always on my list of things Call of Duty needs to do right, and Modern Warfare 4 is trending better in that regard. Some of the maps are boxy, but at least they have intentional lanes, allowing you to find your route and make a play. There are still doors, but there does seem to be less of them. So far, I’ve been able to pick up on the timings from different spawns, although the spawns themselves need a tremendous amount of attention.
I’m still finding the actual design of the maps to be middling. While there are a few good flanks available, the lanes themselves are just odd and a tad too open. Maybe it’s the way Infinity Ward does verticality, with second stories and plenty of stairs, but unless it's an open street, they aren’t always straightforward. I could still be getting my flow together coming from two Black Ops games, but I don’t want to simply iron up five steps out of spawn. At least the maps are varied environmentally, with fun settings that I’m enjoying and more color than expected. That said, I’m not a big fan of Transit 213, which is essentially Shipment 2.0.
From a competitive standpoint, I certainly don’t see much here yet, not that betas are ever indicative of the best maps available. Rooftops (and possibly Lotus) so far is the only one that makes sense in the Call of Duty League, and I may even be stretching there. I also don’t understand Infinity Ward’s addiction to 5+ Hardpoint hills – there are times I have trouble memorizing four! With how small some of these maps are, it’d be worth cutting out a hill or two. Lithium arrives in weekend two, and from what I remember from my presentation in May, this is considered their most competitive-focused map. Get at it, pros; with Hijack being playable next week and a possible third mode, it’s time to start the testing.
Arguably the biggest elephant in the Modern Warfare 4 room right now is matchmaking. There’s a lot of “open playlist this” and “SBMM that”, with a sprinkle of “classic matchmaking my butt”. The discourse is exhausting. I find myself in the middle. As a journalist, I’m not as good as a lot of these professional players and content creators, so I get how they want to get easier lobbies. At the same time, I don’t want them in my lobbies. Considering I’ve watched myself get trounced, yet at the same time drop 78 eliminations in another match, it’s hard for me to be angry with the matchmaking. I hope they continue to make adjustments, but in the end, all that matters is the health of the game and what keeps players engaged and sticking with it. The top 10% are not the end-all, be-all of the community.
Kill Block is the shining star of Modern Warfare 4, and might be Infinity Ward’s most genius concoction in their history. A map that shifts as you play is insanity, and somehow it works perfectly. Gunfight is a great mode, but it’s even more fun with Kill Block. There are over 500+ combinations, with more coming down the line, which makes for outstanding replay value. Once this “map” arrives in other modes, it’s going to be a showstopper. I don’t think it’ll be able to work in all of them – it’s more suited for round-based ones – but Search and Destroy just sounds electric on Kill Block.
Communication should be the regular for a live-service game, and it’s been nice to see Infinity Ward working on that from announcement to now. I don’t think they handled the recent matchmaking posts well – especially the community manager ones – but the constant correspondence and patch notes during the beta have been encouraging. It’s something that’s been missing considering how Modern Warfare II was managed, and it does show more community focus despite what said community might say. They won’t always get it right, and sometimes they’re going to ignore some criticism. But, the tone has been mostly better this time around.
As much as we’ve been talking about multiplayer, there’s been a first in this beta: a campaign mission. I don’t know that I have a lot to comment on as this mission is brief and more of a gameplay slice, but it’s looking good. It’s a more “hoorah” type of narrative, with the new South Korean squad battling towards a North Korean nuclear plant. The mission took about twenty minutes, following the quite standard Call of Duty cadence. Move through trenches, take out hostiles, proceed to a checkpoint, get in a tank, blow stuff up until a cutscene demands you exit, take out a tank on foot, go inside the plant, find out it's not that easy to keep it from melting down, barely survive swimming to the water release lever, watch as the stairs collapse, parkour up to evac, and then barely make it to a helicopter on top of the plant to exfil, with the mission cutting off right before you see if a squadmate lives. Still, it's a return to the basics that make up good Call of Duty campaigns. Add in Captain Price’s darker, espionage-laced levels, and it should make for a fun romp.
In conclusion, Infinity Ward has a long way to go to further improve their formula, but it’s good to see they’re working at it. Still, after two years of Black Ops, there is something fresh about playing a Modern Warfare title. While you have every right to not like Modern Warfare 4’s style, don’t be swayed by your initial impression when coming off of two years of Treyarch pacing. Give it a second to click, because when it does, you feel like a super soldier. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 marches to launch on October 23rd, with campaign early access starting on October 16th. You can pre-order now on Xbox Series consoles, PC, PlayStation 5, and for the first time, Nintendo Switch 2.
