Xboxaddict.com Article
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II Multiplayer Beta Impressions
by Adam Dileva
Hello Again Old Friend
The latest Call of Duty release is on the horizon and I’ve been able to play the beta for Modern Warfare II these past few days. Now that it’s concluded, I figured I would note down my impressions. Now don’t get confused, as this latest release is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, a direct sequel to Modern Warfare (2019) but it's not a remaster or remake of Modern Warfare 2 (2009) either. This 19th main installment of the Call of Duty series may have a confusing title and timeline of where it fits in, but once I got into the beta and leveled up a bunch, I had a hard time putting it down.
For whatever reason, it seems that I'll really enjoy a Call of Duty here and there, skip a few years, then come back to it like it’s brand new. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (referred to as MWII from here on) feels slower pace in general, but has a quicker TTK (Time-To-Kill). With upgraded graphics, audio, Gunsmith 2.0 and a few other surprises, I was starting to really enjoy my time with the beta only to realize that my progress won’t carry over to the full game at launch, as expected. Even though you won't carry progress over, you will get some sweet cosmetics once the game launches if you hit certain levels in the beta.
Gameplay and What’s New
Like other Call of Duty releases, you’ll be able to choose the operator you want to appear as during matches. These are visual aesthetic only and don’t act as Classes or give any bonus perks or abilities, simply choose who you like the look of. Next you’ll find a mode you want to jump into when it comes to Multiplayer, and while only three modes were listed on the main screen, I was able to find the other modes available during beta by starting a match search then backing out, allowing me to pick some old favorites like Domination or Team Death Match for example. This was my first taste at how convoluted and confusing the new menu system is.
There’s a slew of improvements, additions and changes to some of the gameplay as well. For starters, dipping your toe into water won’t instantly kill you, as now aquatic combat is an option when we see the new maps come launch. Doing a Ledge Hang is now a viable strategy as well, allowing you to dangle from a ledge with one hand, able to shoot with your pistol from the other. This should make for some spectacular replays and drops on enemies, literally.
Some of the bigger maps allow you to use vehicles, and now everyone in those vehicles can lean out the windows to shoot at enemies. Vehicles have different destruction areas like tires, bumpers and doors as well. With nine vehicles now included, ranging from quick ATV and UTV’s all the way to an APC or Heavy Tank, these drastically change the flow of matches and you’ll need to adjust if you see them coming to your AO.
Gameplay in general feels much slower movement and tactical wise, yet the TTK seems incredibly quick. With the maps included in the beta, there didn’t seem to be as many corridor bottlenecks that many of the other Call of Duty’s relied on, now opting for more triple-laned pathways. This means you don’t have to funnel your team down the meat grinder just to try and make headway, almost always having another way around to flank the enemy team. Because of this design, I found running around as fast as possible like in previous entries ended up usually getting me killed, slowing the gameplay down a botch in general.
TTK and the Minimap
As for the TTK (Time-To-Kill), like some other Call of Duty’s, it’s almost always a matter of who shoots first as to who’s going to get the kill. While I like a quick TTK as I generally play Hardcore mode, even in Core modes it seems quite quick. The downfall to this is that you sometimes get more people ‘camping’, as they want to initiate the firefight to win the encounter which is almost guaranteed.
Then there’s the change to the minimap, seemingly a hot debate with longtime fans currently. In previous Call of Duty titles you had to be very mindful of when you shot an unsuppressed gun, as it would give a red ping on the enemy team’s radar pointing out exactly where that shot came from. In turn, this made the gameplay somewhat devolve into running to the map to find the enemy rather than actually searching.
The big change with this year’s MWII is that the red dot on the minimap is gone, instead putting a red dot on the compass bar at the top. This makes it much more generalized as to someones location and not simply running to where that red dot on the minimap showed up. This in turn plays a part of the slower paced gameplay, and I’m all for it. A downside though is that there’s very little reason now to use a suppressor, as the minimap ping was the main reason you opted to equip said attachment.
Perk Up
A subsequent result of this as well is how and what Perks you pick, which has also drastically changed from the norm. Instead of choosing the normal three perks, you instead have different tiers. You choose your two Base perks, a Bonus perk and then an Ultimate perk. Your two Basic perks are passives you get from the beginning of the match like normal, the Bonus and Ultimate though are where the big change is this year. After a few minutes in the match your Bonus perk unlocks, then later in the match the Ultimate one does lastly. This multi-tiered approach to the Perks does change the matches and flow, as eventually you’ll have more passive perks, unlocking quicker the more kills you get and better you do.
Spawn Killing
While it’s much better, this year especially in Team Deathmatch, certain modes like Domination still have terrible spawn flips, resulting in some spawn killing or basically instant deaths as you respawn. While it does seem better than previous years’, it’s by no means perfect yet, so the frustration is still there when it happens to you.
New Game Modes
The beta focused on three main multiplayer modes, but as mentioned above, if you chose one then back out, you could then choose the other modes also included. Your staples of Team Deathmatch and Domination make a return, but there’s also a handful of new modes, and while not my type of thing, are sure to gain a following. The three new highlighted modes are Knockout, Prisoner Rescue and Invasion.
Knockout mode is interesting, having both teams try and control a bag of money for a minute, but whomever is carrying the cash is shown on the map for everyone to see, so you need defenders if you want any chance of survival. To make things more interesting, there are no respawns, but teammates can revive you though. Playing with randoms I rarely got revived, but I could see this being quite tactical and have a lot of strategy with a good team of friends.
Prisoner Rescue is another new mode, pitting a kidnapper versus rescuer team of hostages. The ‘bad’ guys have to protect the prisoners from being captured and taken away, whereas the rescuers are trying to do just that, extracting them. Sure it’s a slight deviation of classic CTF, but this mode also has no respawns other than team revivals as well.
Invasion is probably the most unique addition to the new modes. Here is a 20 versus 20 match on a very large map, playing out almost like a Battlefield match with numerous vehicles accessible as well. It plays much like a TDM match without any objectives to capture but mixes players and bots, almost like classic Titanfall. The larger teams add some fuel for the chaos, as does having to deal with powerful vehicles, changing the tone and speed of the match compared to more traditional modes.
While I was disappointed there was no Hardcore mode in the beta, I’ll cross my fingers and toes that it makes and appearance come the launch. Surprising though, there’s a 3rd Person Moshpit Mode included as well. That’s right, in over a decade, a third person mode is making its way back to Call of Duty. Sure it’s just TDM and there’s nothing else different mechanically, but there’s simply a different feel for the gameplay when you play in third person as opposed to typical first person.
Guns and Gunsmith’ing
The beta didn’t give access to every weapon and attachment, but gave enough variety to get our whistles wet. I’m an LMG user, but sadly these aren’t unlocked until later on, so I started with a typical M4 Assault Rifle. This is also where I started to realize how poorly the menus and how convoluted its layout was, especially when it comes to weapon and attachment unlocking.
Like most Call of Duty’s, the more you use a weapon the more proficient you become with it, which is how you unlock more going forward. An odd design choice though is that some are unlocked at specific levels, and others you have to grind certain weapons to then get the new base for the gun, thus changing it. For example, level up your M4 enough and at specific levels you’ll unlock being able to convert it to a FTAC Recon or a 556 Icarus LMG. Level up the FTAC Recon and it unlocks the FSS Hurricane, or level the 556 Icarus to unlock the M16.
Here in lies a problem; this isn’t explained in any way and I only accidentally stumbled upon the Progression tab by accident. So while you can see certain guns in the categories, it doesn’t explain easily or very well HOW you actually obtain the gun. The same goes for attachments. I’m of the old school thinking that getting a certain amount of kills with my iron sights unlocked my first scope, then subsequent kills with that scope unlocks more scopes. Nope, not here.
Instead, scopes unlock for the class of guns once unlocked, but the problem is that certain attachments are only along the level unlocks on specific guns. For example, I want to use the 556 Icarus as my main weapon since I like my LMG, but I need to grind out the FTAC Recon and then the FSS Hurricane just to unlock a specific scope for the gun I actually want to use. You can see where this can be frustrating. Perhaps there will be some sort of tutorial once the full game launches.
Also, you’re only able to put 5 attachments on a weapon at a time which is where the latest Gunsmith 2.0 comes in, so there’s a heavy balance of what suits your playstyle best. Do you opt for a specific scope instead of a muzzle of barrel attachment, or vice versa? You’ll have to do a lot of experimenting to see what works best for you and each gun. That said, once I got some of the attachments for my LMG and got used to its recoil and ADS time, I was completely hooked, it’s just a shame that the unlock paths are confusing and convoluted, forcing you to use guns for a brief time that you may not want to.
Beta Woes
Now, it’s a beta, so I don’t expect it to be a perfect and flawless experience, I understand that. That said, with launch only a month away I did have quite a few issues, even being unable to play for a full day and a half due to some server end bug on their end. I’ve been lucky without having any crashes, but I did have one instance where somehow my geometry was all messed up and somehow downgraded, making characters look like PS1 era models. Again, it's a beta, so not a deal breaker, but expectations are high when AAA games as big of this make a showing.
To Play or Not To Play
Once I played each of the few maps a handful of times, learning the main hotspots and corners, I actually started to really enjoy their layouts and pathways. Animations are smooth, as expected, and of course it all looks very sharp and easy on the eyes. The audio seems to have gotten a boost too, as I was able to hear footsteps much clearer and each gun sounded much more impactful, especially when I was leveling up my FTAC Recon. Maybe the slower paced gameplay is why I noticed more audio cues, but either way it sounded great all around. I would recommend wearing a headset to have even more focused audio when it comes to footsteps.
Without a doubt, the lowlight was the confusing and buried menus. Not being shown that weapons can unlock new ones was kind of a shock, as is not showing HOW you actually unlock specific attachments. The main menus are very large and blocky, though I’m hoping this gets tweaked and toned down come launch.
Set to launch October 28th, one other gripe I have is more on a Publisher level. There’s been a price hike this year, so now the least expensive way to play on release will be at an $89.99 CAD price point. Yes, that gets you the Cross-Gen bundle, but for those that won’t make use of it, you’re forced to pay the extra $10 from previous year. Alternatively you could pay $129.99 CAD for the Vault Edition if you want all the extra bonuses, but that’s quite an investment. Sure the full game will also have a full campaign, but it’s a shame that fans will have to pay more now just ‘because’.
MWII is going to be basically what you expect from a Call of Duty game, a fun shooter with a healthy population of players, even more so with crossplay. Maybe it’s the multi-year break from the series I’ve taken, but after getting my LMG with some attachments, I was having a hard time quitting the game after each match or at the end of the night. Call of Duty is that familiarity that you’ve come to enjoy, or not, but I quite enjoyed my time with the Multiplayer Beta the last few days, going from probably ignoring this year’s entry like usual to really wanting to play it at launch.
**Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II Multiplayer Beta was provided by the publisher and previewed on an Xbox Series X**
