Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, the proven multiplayer beta
Call of Duty
Nineteen. Infinity Ward has spent nineteen years developing shooters for the Call of Duty series and some might reasonably think that the Encino-based studio is now so familiar with these types of projects that it doesn't suffer any pressure when working on one. The team is taking care of putting the finishing touches to Modern Warfare 2 before its release, scheduled for October 28, 2022, but never as now is facing a set of challenges on which the future of the brand itself could largely depend. The game is not in fact a Call of Duty like the others, but the direct sequel to the most successful title in the history of the series, comes after a couple of iterations that have greatly disappointed fans, and the design choices that characterize it will be the foundations of Warzone 2.0, a free-to-play experience that has earned Activision several billion dollars in the past.Having said that, we can better understand how the weekend just ended, for Infinity Ward, can be it was a particularly intense and delicate weekend. The doors of the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 beta have opened wide to welcome one of the most uncompromising communities in the entire industry, and millions of PlayStation players have flocked to the servers to give a first taste of what the multiplayer sector will be. game. Eager to test the design choices and the many novelties of this chapter, we too have thrown ourselves among the playlists of the beta to discover all the secrets, ready to tell you about them in this article. So here is our tried-and-tested Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 beta, the result of several hours spent in the company of the test that took place these days. Will Infinity Ward be able to give the right direction to the gameplay of this chapter?
In the name of continuity
Modern Warfare 2 restarts from the excellent foundations laid by its predecessor The beta proved to be an excellent tool to test all those new gameplay mechanics presented during the Next event and offered a broad cross-section of the contents that we will find waiting for next 28 October. In the four days that have passed since the opening, the test session has given the community three totally new environments and five different game modes, among which Knock Out and Prisoner Rescue stand out, alongside the more classic Team Deathmatch, Dominion and Search & Destroy.Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is the direct sequel to the 2019 chapter and no one could reasonably expect the apple to fall that far from the tree, even considered how good that reboot was. particularly high. Infinity Ward has chosen to build on what the studio did three years ago and today offers a very similar, but significantly refined multiplayer experience, which draws much of its aesthetic and founding principles from that video game. The setting is strictly contemporary, while the pace of the action has never been so staid as in this chapter, even after some changes to the movement system that we will deepen in a moment. In principle, Infinity Ward's obvious will was to craft a multiplayer formula not suited to the most frenetic play styles, while favoring those in the habit of moving around the map by carefully checking each corner and each line of fire.
The first evidence of this new philosophy, which among other things could already be glimpsed in the first Modern Warfare, is the removal of the so-called "slide cancel", a stratagem that allowed players to stop the animation of the slipped in the middle to move much faster and not expose yourself to the disadvantages of the tactical sprint, which makes its return in this edition. For three years, Warzone's entire movement system, especially in the competitive landscape, was based on the gimmick of the slide cancel, and its absence directly revolutionizes the pace of Modern Warfare 2 gameplay and, consequently, also that of Warzone 2.0. .
As far as time to kill is concerned, we know Infinity Ward and we know that the studio has always had a habit of presenting a substantially faster TTK than those that appear in the shooters of Treyarch and Sledgehammer. Again, tradition has not been betrayed. Paradoxically, the time to kill of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 risks being even faster than that seen in 2019 and, although the matter remains 100% a matter of personal taste, we are sure that this choice will expose Infinity Ward to some complaint from the community. For our part, we can confess that we were perfectly comfortable with this setting, but nothing will prevent the studio from listening to requests from fans to make the necessary changes before launch.
Gameplay news on the test bench
Hanging from a ledge, while everything around ignites the war, is never a good idea in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 During last week's Next event, Activision and Infinity Ward had unveiled in detail the slew of gameplay innovations that will make their debut in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and, since some of them concerned the movement system, we couldn't wait to try them to see if they could in somehow making gunfights more unpredictable now that slide canceling is a distant memory. In addition to the slide and the now well-known "mounting" (the ability to place the weapon on a surface to buffer the recoil), the game includes two brand new features, but both have not been able to convince us completely. The first allows you to cling to a ledge rather than jump over it, to peek at the other side and fire with the secondary weapon: if at least on paper it could be a good idea, after a few games we quickly realized that remaining stationary in a position of absolute vulnerability leads quickly to respawn, even in a game with a more relaxed pace, but which is always based on the rapid rotations of the map by the two teams.The second is the dive, an element that has already appeared in other Call of Duty, and which makes its return in the 2022 edition. While this feature can be really useful on some very rare occasions, such as when you need to reposition yourself to survive a grenade, it does not offer any real advantage in firefights. The time it takes the character to shoot after the dive animation is in fact endless, so forget about throwing yourself over a corner to surprise an opponent and riddle him with shots. Also because "bunny hopping" will always be more effective than diving and with all the movement limitations of this chapter it will be the only real expedient this year to catch enemies unprepared.
The reload animation of the 'weapon can no longer be interrupted to respond to a threat Another notable novelty is the gradual reloading of firearms, which will indirectly apply a substantial increase in the use of pistols. While in the past it was always possible to cancel the reload animation to quickly respond to the appearance of an enemy, in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 the animations are consequential and cannot be interrupted, so once you have extracted the magazine from the rifle you will be forced to witness the entire process of loading the weapon, before returning to fire. This innovation implies that for the first time since 2003, as Gaz said, switching to the gun will actually be faster than reloading and, in this sense, we expect secondary weapons to end up taking on greater weight in the game economy. especially when equipping a fire mouth that has a particularly long reload animation.
Maps and game modes
The middle lane of Mercado is a real meat grinder Beta offered us the opportunity to get a first look at Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2's maps and game modes, which we got a little taste of this weekend. On the subject of maps, it is still early to give definitive judgments on the quality of their design, but what is certain is that the promise of the developers to make the arenas more linear and understandable has been fully centered. We have tried four of them and, although it will take some time to absorb their strengths and weaknesses, they all seemed well congenital and sufficiently balanced, although we must admit that none of these have the character and charm of those of the first Modern Warfare, resulting perhaps a little too anonymous.The good news is that one of the main problems of the 2019 edition did not recur during this beta. Throughout the weekend we have never had problems with respawns, a symptom of how Infinty Ward has made the right choice in proposing an experience very similar to the previous one, to refine it and improve it from all points of view. function ready (fn) {if (document.readyState! = 'loading') {fn ()} else {document.addEventListener ('DOMContentLoaded', fn)}} ready (function () {window.addEventListener ('message', function (event) {let target_origin = 'https://aff.netaddiction.it'; if (event.origin! == target_origin) return; if (typeof event.data == "object" && event.data.hasOwnProperty ( "type") && event.data.type == "embaff") {let embed_id = event.data.embed_id; if (embed_id == '793') {document.querySelector ('#_ aff_embed_793'). setAttribute ('height ', event.data.embed_size);}}}, false);}) We also had the opportunity to try the two new modes presented during the Next event, Knock Out and Prisoner Rescue, both characterized by an exquisitely tactical soul and by the absence of respawns. The first is basically a deathmach with no revives, so the formation that is eliminated last wins the round. The second instead involves escorting (or defending) two hostages to take them to an extraction point, a goal that without teamwork is impossible to complete. Both do not bring who knows what revolution in terms of game mechanics, but we feel we can fully promote them as they not only push players to collaborate, but are also very consistent with Infininty Ward's idea of making the action more reasoned, more intelligent. .
Specialties and Gunsmith 2.0
There will be dozens of modifications applicable to a firearm Specialties have always represented a constant, a point of reference for the Call of Duty series. Introduced for the first time by Infinity Ward in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, they have often been the only element of continuity between the many chapters of the saga, and it is bizarre to think that it is the studio that invented them that has now revolutionized the operation. Starting from this year, in fact, there will be four Specialties that can be equipped, and they will no longer be all active from the beginning of the match, but will gradually unlock over time and as the player accumulates points. If the first two are available immediately, the third is received only after about four minutes of play, and it will be necessary to wait eight minutes before seeing the fourth and final Specialty, which includes perks such as Inflexible, Maximum Alert and above all Phantom. >The choice to revolutionize a system that worked perfectly in the past is almost inexplicable and has several obvious criticalities relating to the snowball effect, which sees a team gain a considerable advantage at the beginning of a match which then drags on throughout the match, getting bigger. A Specialty such as Phantom, for example, can only be obtained after several minutes of play, so the formation that receives a UAV first will be able to count on the absence of any countermeasure, will exploit the advantage to collect more eliminations and will consequently obtain a greater number of UAVs and other kill streaks in turn. We do not know if Infinity Ward will have the time to listen to community feedback and return to a more classic configuration, but what is certain is that the new system does not seem to bring any benefits, and risks negatively affecting the game balance.
If the Experiment of Specialties has not brought its fruits, that of Gunsmith 2.0 has proved more than successful and we can't wait to find out what will be the true potential of the new editor, present in the beta in a version very limited. What really impresses is the amount of modifications for each weapon: with the fact that several firing platforms now share accessories such as optics and silencers, the number of the latter seems to have doubled, offering the player a degree of customization never before seen in a Call of Duty. We want to investigate the progression dynamics of the equipment before making definitive judgments, but the feeling is that Infinity Ward has applied a real paradigm shift in this field compared to the past.
Technical profile
A scene from the Prisoners Rescue mode As far as the graphics sector is concerned, also in this case Modern Warfare 2 benefits from all those elements that made its predecessor a technical avant-garde, after years of backward shooters. On PS5 the beta has shown itself in great splendor, presenting simply stunning weapon models, a great ambient lighting system (perhaps a little behind that of the first chapter) and once again extraordinarily faithful animations, which bring the weapon to emit copious puffs of smoke after the trigger is pulled.On the Sony flagship console the performance in terms of fluidity is nothing short of stellar, while we could not try the game on PS4, although we have received several reports of frequent application crashes, which in some cases forced players to reboot the system. Of course, every consideration will then be confirmed in the review phase, but the feeling is that Infinity Ward, from a technical point of view, really knows where to put their hands.
After several hours spent in the beta companion, it is evident that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 represents for Activision the spearhead of a brand that in the last period has not always managed to convince its reference audience. Infinity Ward has corrected the mistakes of the past, perfected the gameplay formula of its previous chapter, and is now ready to carry the future of the series on his shoulders, aware that he has all the credentials to make a bang once again. Some design choices are not very focused, it is true, but except for the Specialties everything seems to be in its place, and we can't wait to discover the real potential of the new effort by the Californian studio.
