Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II shirks revolution for refinement.

For a series that has been burning at both ends for nearly two decades, sea change is hard to come by yet entirely expected by a large cadre of players and critics. Where does the franchise go from here? How does a first-class multiplayer prove itself digestible by the masses while striving for something different?

The choice by Infinity Ward to eject from celestial warfare in favor of a reboot of one of the most beloved Call of Dutys was an obvious one. Hollywood, a space gaming constantly rubs shoulders with, has been firebombing theaters and streaming with sequels and reboots and remakes of numerous properties. Why not Call of Duty 4? After all, it had been several years since Call of Duty‘s boots felt particularly grounded.

2019’s Modern Warfare dialed back the arcade-like locomotion from the past few years, taking itself at a realistic pace. A campaign touched upon modern issues while the campaign sought to invite everyone back into the fold with varied maps and weighted weapon feel.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II is an extension of this ideology. Infinity Ward is continuing with their narrative reboot of Price, Ghost, Soap, Gaz, and crew through current-day warfare and providing a multiplayer experience offering a tantalizing hint at what’s to come when Warzone 2.0 finally drops.

For a series that has done its best to avoid using known proper nouns when naming its battlefields, I was shocked when Modern Warfare II involved the likes of Iran and Mexico to its lexicon. Call of Duty usually works to create fictional Middle East settings so as not to ignite comparisons to current conflicts. Yet Modern Warfare II opens with a mission heavily influenced by the assassination of Qasem Soleimani, an Iranian general, that escalated tensions between Iran and the United States.

In this game the target is a military figure named Ghorbrani, whose death sparks the events of Modern Warfare II. What follows is the work done by Task Force 141 to track down Ghorbrani’s successor Hassan Zyani and the identification of an American-made ballistic missile Hassan was in possession of. The typical globetrotting and escalating violence ensue in typical Call of Duty fashion.

As a player who has enjoyed these campaigns for years now not only because of their spectacle but their attempt to be different, Modern Warfare II was not an exception. I firmly believe that mileage always varies when it comes to Call of Duty campaigns. They are loved, loathed, forgotten, and any shade of grey in between. Part of my enjoyment is derived from recognizing that these narratives, while based in real-life conflict, are more in line with popcorn action flicks and political thrillers of the 90s and 2000s.

Infinity Ward–and by extension, other Call of Duty developers–has sought to inject more personality and mission variety into its narratives rather than just escalating scenarios of more casualties and bigger explosions. The series has seen branching narratives, genre shifts, stealth arcs, and perspective changes, all in service of trying to tell the stories of soldiers who are pushed to the limits.

Modern Warfare II‘s campaign features a number of stunning and equally surprising missions, taking the game places I would not have expected. A setpiece later in the game with a stormy assault on an oil derrick gave me chills, not just because of its pacing shifts reminiscent of Modern Warfare 4‘s similar mission. Subverting traditional shooter missions was one extended survival sequence where players are injured and must eliminate and infiltrate enemy ranks while crafting equipment from around the environment. Despite the walking speed being a bit too sluggish, this was a unique spin on a traditional Call of Duty level that experienced players wouldn’t be used to.

Of course, the usual bombast of large-scale assaults in enemy territories exist. But I lately prefer when Call of Duty throws players into a wrenching pull for survival. The first mission in the game where players hunt for Hassan involves a night infiltration, rife with night vision sieges on enemy homes and involving a desperate shootout inside a downed copter to rescue teammates.

Call of Duty has attempted to turn its campaigns into more than just shooting galleries of blood and shocking moments. While Black Ops and other entries have had their share of gruesome deaths and unexpected twists, Modern Warfare 2019 and Modern Warfare II use realism to make their impact. A moment where players have to pull a gun on a civilian provide brief pauses meant to temporarily question the trigger pull. Being set in real world locations sharpens the impact of human villains who can burn the world alive when tugging at the proper strings.

I don’t think that Modern Warfare II will revolutionize how players tackle the subject of violence or morality the way The Last of Us has or even Bioshock. However, the writers are growing more aware of crafting campaigns with weight, not just flash. A soulless Call of Duty campaign is a mindless one, gunning down a room of “bad guys” until the next cool moment occurs. Still, this is one of gaming’s biggest franchises and players don’t often come to Call of Duty looking to have their actions seriously questioned. They would rather feel like the semi-invincible soldier that is going to save the world.

An argument can be made for either but a balancing act is truly a difficult one. Infinity Ward’s original inception handled World War II with grace and then tackled the modern battlefield in a post-9/11 world–not an easy task. Modern Warfare II borrows a decent amount from its similarly named predecessors and that’s okay, a welcome return to form for many I would assume. 2019’s campaign brought human characters to the forefront, especially Middle Eastern oppression. Call of Duty broaches these topics with a gaming spin, often seeking to present tougher narratives as more than just killing dozens of people.

Does the game ask you to turn your brain off? No. Would it be better to do so? Not necessarily. I often see criticism levied at the series for never going too far or trying and failing to evolve. In recent years, there has definitely been a growing sentiment regarding violence in gaming, player agency, and games like this that don’t attempt to thread every needle available. Were Modern Warfare II to do that, it would eliminate a substantial amount of entertainment from a product that so desperately wants to entertain you while often raising your eyebrows. And maybe there is a place in the near future for a narrative-driven entry in this franchise, where all the focus can be set on trying something entirely different. I’m happy that Infinity Ward have found their current niche and become comfortable with reliving the “adventures” of familiar characters and pushing the envelope further down the line.

Maybe it doesn’t help that Modern Warfare II looks and sounds the best the series ever has. Bringing this much realism to the forefront can make these displays of chaos hit a bit closer to home. Personally, the game’s almost photo-realistic depictions of the city streets of Amsterdam or the dusty voids of Mexico and Iran draw me further in. The absence of tangible sound outside of environmental noise fills me with tension, wondering when that quiet will break with the echo of gunfire and shouting. This package delivers a peek into the gritty nature of modern combat by incorporating actual events into its narrative. What’s alarming is that it can often feel like more than just a story in a game. Curious players may look into the events that inspired Modern Warfare II, fostering questions of their own rather than shrugging it off as a game trying to preach or teach them a lesson that doesn’t matter.

In terms of narrative structure, it has also been increasingly apparent the Call of Duty universe is expanding far past the actual campaign. Warzone has featured story beats between seasons and major releases and I have no doubt that Modern Warfare II is going to continue this trend. Because, at its beating heart, Call of Duty is a multiplayer-focused experience where players hone their skills in the crucible of online play.

Progression and gun tuning are at the forefront of multiplayer this year. Modern Warfare II features the standard modes that should always be expected: Team Deathmatch, Control, Hardpoint, Kill Confirmed, and more. At the most basic level, expect the game to feel up to the standards of Call of Duty with tight controls and some of the best gunplay available.

Gun progression has been completely overhauled in Modern Warfare II, creating a more rewarding track for players who enjoy grinding out levels and camos. Completing objectives, getting kills, and finishing challenges rewards players with overall level experience and gun experience. Standard equipment, perk, and gun unlocks happen over the course of 55 levels. Guns follow a similar path but diverge from previous methods.

Guns can hold five attachments, ensuring that players have to be more mindful of their selections where Vanguard allowed every attachment slot to be filled. From there, leveling up a gun will only unlock a specific number of attachments tied to that specific gun. The polar shift here is that players have a branching family of gun unlocks that require specific guns to reach a certain level before unlocking a separate gun down a progression tree. To unlock a submachine gun, players may have to get a battle rifle or LMG to level 14 and so on.

Initially, it is a strange system for Infinity Ward to keep players from naturally unlocking guns as they progress. In previous games players would often find a handful of guns they favored, grind them to max level, and potentially move on to other weapons as the community sought out a meta. Now, players have to try their hands at multiple weapons and weapon types if they want to unlock everything.

While this may come across as a kind of gatekeeping, it forces players to become acclimated to the entirety of Modern Warfare II‘s arsenal, especially the weapons they may never have touched otherwise. The benefit is that attachments unlocked in one gun unlocks those attachments for the entire progression tree/family. It is slightly frustrating to be locked out of red dot sights until unlocking it for a specific gun but most non-casual Call of Duty players are going to hit level 55 in the first few weeks of playing.

Part of me also suspects that Infinity Ward is trying to give players a crash course in weapon handling before Warzone 2.0 launches. Considering how random and varied those weapons can be in that mode, it’s helpful for players to know how a gun handles with the fewest and most bizarre attachments. Better yet, Modern Warfare II features a gun range where players can test out these new weapons, a feature that has been painfully absent from the series.

Where gun tuning really begins to shine is when a weapon reaches max level. After doing so, players have the ability to tune certain attachments to further refine how they act. These tunable attachments have two sliders that players can manipulate to see the benefits and downsides of adjusting them. Perhaps an underbarrel can be tuned to have better recoil and accuracy but that ability to line up a shot better means the gun is harder to handle and won’t draw as fast. Attachment tuning gives Modern Warfare II one of the most complex Gunsmiths in the series and ensures that the Call of Duty community is going to be ablaze with weapon builds.

Playing in matches has been quite enjoyable because the maps have been built primarily around 6v6 encounters, unlike 2019’s maps that accounted for varying amounts of players. None of the maps truly feel bloated and most of the empty space is on the fringes. Farm 18, Embassy, and Crown Raceway have been favorites of mine not just in terms of where encounters can take place but because of their visual language. Crown Raceway looks like an everyday setting with cars racing in the background as players kill each other in stark white bays. Farm 18 from the Beta had a great three-lane setup with multiple pockets of chaos, as did Embassy. However, my personal favorite so far has been Santa Sena Border Crossing. It’s a small map filled with a jam of cars that make engagements claustrophobic and deadly. I know this map upsets many because of how easy it is to trigger chain explosions with the cars but I find it to be so different that I don’t mind the madness.

Time to kill is a constant question in Call of Duty and Modern Warfare II leans towards fast. If a player has the jump on you from a close range, it can be hard to counter and live. But this is also a matter of playstyle preference that is unique to every individual player. Someone is going to kill you and it’s going to piss you off. Whether they are running and gunning, camping, or just got lucky with a cooked grenade, there are ways to die in Modern Warfare II that won’t feel great. Initially I thought the game was catered more towards camping and holding down territories but an effective player with a fast draw can also burst through a door and smartly take out another.

Two new modes, Prisoner Rescue and Knockout, are 6v6 limited life modes where you can’t respawn when downed. Prisoner Rescue has one team defending prisoners while the other team has to extract them. Knockout is simply a deathmatch. Unless you’re on a team where everyone is playing smart, the downtime in waiting to be revived can be agonizing, much like in Search and Destroy. These modes have a lot of value for strategic play and have fans–like me–but definitely provide a different thrill over the standard modes. A 32v32 Ground War mode and a 20v20 Invasion mode give a taste for Warzone. While Ground War acts like it has before, Invasion is more of a mass Team Deathmatch that features AI and human opponents. In this mode, the AI characters are easy to kill and worth less points.

Unfortunately, smaller modes like Gunfight, which became beloved in 2019, aren’t here, at least not yet. Hardcore playlists are also on hold until the first season, meaning that the meatiest bits of Call of Duty are all players get right now. It will keep the community tight but does feel somewhat short-sighted.

After the beta, I was left curious about how the perk system would play out and have found it to be just one of the many adjustments I’ve made in how I play Call of Duty. The slow trickle of extra perks throughout a match never got to a point where I noticed one side steamrolling the other. Instead, I enjoyed making a perk loadout that I would enjoy and add that extra bit of spice to my gameplay.

In terms of overall enjoyment, Modern Warfare II rewards players the more they invest in it. But I know there will be gripes in the coming weeks that overshadow the launch woes many have experienced. Skill-based matchmaking has been hotly debated since the beta and is going to be brought up a lot among the community. There is a certain joy in being tossed around lobbies and completely destroying worse players and a humiliation in being completely decimated. Modern Warfare II is attempting to smooth out those waves in favor of a more balanced experience.

During my time with Modern Warfare II I never felt exceptionally and consistently better than the people I was up against. One or two great matches would often lead to a harder fight the next time around. To progress in levels and not feel that climb in dominance can take the wind out of the sails but I think players should also realize that matchmaking in its current form may help mold them into better players by not resting on their laurels. Sure, I got annoyed at rarely receiving a killstreak but once I honed my skills, I felt more rewarded knowing that I was up against those of similar skill.

What hasn’t been great are things like laggy servers and a few crashes. While my game never crashed, I had rubberbanding and chunky movement multiple times during launch week. At the time of writing, attachment tuning has been disabled because it can crash the game, meaning one of the game’s best features can’t currently be accessed. Bugs have caused pinged players to be seen through walls even after death. There’s no way to currently see challenges or your individual combat record, which is a strange absence considering I can’t recall when these weren’t available at launch. Plus, the user interface just isn’t that great. Navigating weapon trees and finding information seems to have one or two extra visual steps. Because these are usually extremely clean, I was surprised at how much I didn’t enjoy looking through menus.

And as players wait for the first season on content to begin, there is also the cooperative Spec Ops mode to consider. It feels mostly improved from 2019 where players would eventually get to a point in the objectives that endlessly spawning enemies made things too difficult. Here, players are treated to more objective focused rounds that reward stars based on performance. Right now, there isn’t much of a reason to go back and play a Spec Ops mission after getting three stars outside of focusing on the kits that act as classes. Leveling up kits unlocks new bonuses that make players more viable in hairier situations. But I suspect those will be more important when the three-player raid drops for the game… whatever that will be.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II is a continuation of one of the best Call of Duty games in years. Rather than acting as yet another overhaul, Infinity Ward has fine-tuned the standout first-person shooter to provide one of the deepest multiplayer customization options in the space. A campaign packed with highlights boasts a number of missions that spin the formula in exciting ways. Despite many woes at launch, players are treated to top-notch gameplay and movement that continues to satisfy, especially now that weapon stats can be adjust in granular ways. And with more content to come, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II is sure to satisfy.