Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Dev Doubles Down on Controversial Gameplay Changes

The Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II beta just concluded its first weekend and despite lots of user feedback, Infinity Ward is doubling down on some controversial gameplay changes. Call of Duty has long been stereotyped as a franchise that doesn't change much and while the formula largely remains the same, the series is pretty different from when it began or even 10 years ago. Call of Duty has gone from World War II to modern battles to the future to space and all the way back around to where we began. Now, Infinity Ward is gearing up for another Modern Warfare entry, but it's making some big changes in the process. Over the weekend, PlayStation fans got to go hands-on with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II and form their opinions on the game.

 While there are positive opinions on the game and some negative ones as well, a lot of people seem to be in agreement that Infinity Ward made some unnecessary changes. The most notable change makes it so you don't appear on the mini-map unless there's in active UAV. In previous games, you'd appear on the map as a red dot whenever you fired your gun, unless you had a silencer. It helped you know where the action was and kept matches flowing, particularly on larger maps. Despite fans vocally protesting this change, Infinity Ward noted in a blog post that it doesn't want to "punish" players for firing their weapon and have no plans to revert back to the normal mini-map. The developer is looking to balance the new perk package system with faster earn rates and making the perks feel more powerful in the beta's second weekend. You can view the full list of Infinity Ward notes following the beta's first weekend.

Mini-Map Dot Rules

• Currently in the MW2 Beta, we only show enemy player dots when a UAV is active. The design reason for this is that we do not want to punish players for firing their weapons. We also want players to actively search out the origin of a gunshot versus just traveling directly to where the dot is on the mini-map. We continue to gather feedback on how the game is playing in regards to this topic.

Target Tracking

• We've seen feedback that it is hard to track targets once you get into a firefight. We agree this is an issue and we have changes incoming to reduce muzzle smoke opacity and to increase the visibility of the muzzle flash to help engage someone who is firing at you. These changes should help with tracking your opponents in combat.
• We are also investigating more ways to visually differentiate Enemies and Friendlies outside of the standard nameplates above heads of the opposing players. We will be trying a few changes in Weekend Two… more on that later this week.

User Interface

• We've seen the feedback around difficulty editing perk packages, managing loadouts and accessing the armory. We have identified some UX issues as well as some bugs– these are things we won't be able to adjust in time for Beta Weekend Two, but they are top of mind ahead of launch.

Perks

• We've seen varied feedback on the Perk Package system. Some players love it and others feel it's an unnecessary departure from the original system. We feel it's a nice shake up to how perks work and to the general progression of a match. We've also balanced the ultimate perks to be more powerful as you earn them later in the match. We'll continue testing throughout Beta Weekend Two, including drastically accelerating the earn rate of these to see how players react. Our goal remains improving the flow of all perks ahead of launch.
• Dead Silence is another hot topic as many players have expressed that they would like to see it as a Perk instead of a Field Upgrade. We believe it is important to game health that rushers are not able to move at high speeds without consequence. Dead Silence as a Field Upgrade creates a balance between freedom of movement and predictability of combat.

Footsteps

• Footstep audio in week one of the MP Beta was very high, giving players long distance directional information about enemies. For Weekend Two we have some changes coming in. We are reducing the range of footstep audio for the various player movement states (jog, sprint and tactical sprint). This will help soften the cost of moving around the map. The second change is that enemy and friendly footsteps are now distinct. This should help players better understand what's going on as things move around on the battlefield. More details to follow.
  

Slides

• Sentiment around the removal of slide-canceling remains positive. We are aware of the workaround and are contemplating how to handle it for Weekend Two of the beta. Additionally, we have some other slide changes for launch which will make this movement feel a bit more fluid and snappy.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II's second beta weekend kicks of on Thursday, September 22nd. This weekend will let Xbox and PC players join in on the action, giving all fans the opportunity to try the game out. Whether or not Xbox and PC players will increase the pressure on Infinity Ward to revert some changes remains to be seen.

What do you think of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @Cade_Onder.