Does Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 including Warzone 2 have a future at all? That will be decided in the very, very near future.
Let”s make like Paul Panther and turn back the clock. It”s early 2020, we all still think Corona is a beer brand, Call of Duty Modern Warfare (2019) has been out for a few months – and despite incredible financial success, player numbers are rapidly dwindling. Balancing issues, map design bloopers and plenty of wasted game mode potential (hello, Ground War) are deflating faster than those outraged chickens But then comes the rescue: Warzone takes the world by storm, Modern Warfare is saved – just in time!
Modern Warfare 2 actually wants to prevent such a close call from happening again at all costs. In 2023, no big new Call of Duty will be released, but presumably just an add-on, so that the direction of travel can be clearly followed: MW2 and Warzone 2 get all the support in the world to really take off.
However, just ten weeks after release, the future of Modern Warfare 2 is anything but certain. The player numbers are not shrinking to zero, but they are falling with every week – the displeasure of influencers, fans and the press is getting louder and louder.
The future of Modern Warfare 2 is not certain.
The new Call of Duty is at a crossroads and once again Season 2 desperately needs to pull the cart out of the mud.
What”s going on?
Let”s take stock, because a lot has changed since release. Warzone 2 and DMZ have been launched, and there are two new old maps, Shipment and Shoothouse, and of course lots of bug fixes. Many major technical problems have been fixed, including the broken weapon tuning. The crashes have also been reduced noticeably, although still far from completely. After ten weeks, Modern Warfare 2 is better than at launch – but still not good enough.
The Steam reviews are currently at an even 61 percent positive, with no significant upward swing in the last four weeks. And that”s in line with what you hear on YouTube, Reddit and the like: MW2 is a good game – but not yet out of the woods.
My opinion: Infinity Ward has to show with Season 2 in two big areas that they have understood the fans.
1. Warzone 2 needs to be fixed
Currently, comparison videos between Warzone 1 and Warzone 2 keep trending.For example, here:
Although fans are not yet so desperate to retroactively nostalgise Caldera, there are clear arguments to be found where the old Battle Royale came out on top:
- Movement: I still think Modern Warfare 2”s removal of slide-cancelling is the right idea. But tactically there”s just too little you can do with movement in MW2. You can”t throw in plates while running, sliding does almost nothing, there”s simply little to master for someone who used to be able to win confrontations mainly with movement.
- The Time to Kill: Modern Warfare 2 generally has a TTK that is far too low. In Warzone 2, whoever lays on first usually wins the gunfight. This prevents a too strong weapon meta like in the predecessor, but it also makes the confrontations less tactical. The one who just lurks wins. The regular multiplayer also has this problem.
- The in-game economy: What I loved Warzone 1 for being able to gamble with custom loadouts there. Warzone 2 makes that so, so hard because they”re so darn expensive and money is comparatively scarce. And even if I farm money to the hilt, I can only buy one drone at the buy stations. Warzone 2”s in-game economy is currently pretty rubbish.
Apart from the movement, these points can be fixed relatively cheaply through patches. And a better time to kill would also make the sparse movement options less of an issue. I am convinced that if Activision were to bring back Verdansk today, the loss of players for Warzone 2 would be dramatic. This is where the sequel urgently needs to bring its own guns to bear.
2. Regular PvP needs to be fixed
Modern Warfare 2 gets boring in the long run. That”s how my acquaintances feel, that”s how I feel, that”s how many of you feel. In regular multiplayer, there”s simply very little scope for how different games can feel in the long run. I always run down the same corridors on Raceway, the skill-based matchmaking always makes me sweat like an ox (do oxen actually sweat?) and the most I decide is whether to lie down somewhere as a sniper or seek confrontations via Run & Gun.
This problem has plagued CoD multiplayer for years, in MW2 it”s bigger than ever in my eyes: due to the erratic spawn system, low TTK and rather sparse maps, all matches roughly boil down to a one-to-one ratio in kills and deaths.
Season 2 urgently needs to offer new maps, but also a revised weapon balancing, in order to somehow bring momentum back into a PvP that simply attracts too few people for 70 euros compared to the free Warzone 2.
Can Modern Warfare 2 be saved?
Modern Warfare 2 is at a crossroads. The game now stands on a solid technical foundation and so many basic ideas actually work really well, for example the weapon variety. I am sure: Infinity Ward can save this game if the right decisions are made in Season 2. But if they don”t, the future looks pretty bleak.
What do you think?
