After processing the Call of Duty NEXT event, it was time to jump into the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Open Beta. We had our hands-on as well and it feels like a more focused and refined gameplay stemming from the previous Modern Warfare (2019).
Here’s our first impressions and some new things we noticed in our hands-on preview:
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2
Developer: Infinity Ward
Publisher: Activision
Platforms: Windows PC, PlayStation 4 (Previewed), PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S
Release Date: October 28, 2022
Players: 1
Price: $59.99 USD
Since this a multiplayer beta, the focus is on the multiple game modes that come available to play. Team Deathmatch, Prisoner Rescue, and Knock Out were a few that were playable on 4 different maps during the playtime.
Some maps feel familiar like Farm 18, while others feel new and take advantage of new tactical gameplay elements like Mercado Las Almas, a marketplace with close quarters via alleyways and some small tunnels.
A lot of the maps have corridors more than open spaces for combat, at least in the maps chosen for the beta. Maps also have seem to have removed the doors from certain areas so gameplay flows a bit better as a result.
Pacing feels a bit strange at first and does take some getting adjusted to, as well as the relatively quick time to kill (TTK). All of the same mounting mechanics return and a lot of fan favorite weapons like the M4, which to me is a staple. There are some new things sprinkled in and even new systems implemented to stop camping such as earning perks.
When you read “earning perks”, what it means is that you can still equip them to your loadouts, but through gameplay like capturing objectives or getting kills in Team Deathmatch, you can earn them for their actual use. This is in an attempt to control camping by putting players at a disadvantage that don’t play objectives or sit in one spot.
Other changes in Modern Warfare 2 include the killstreaks, which are typically only in Infinity Ward Call of Duty titles, but these can now be toggled to be scorestreaks for your preferred playstyle.
Weapons have the same customization that you’re used to in more recent releases, the biggest difference is the weapons themselves and how they feel and sound. However, there is one addition that I felt made this a bit more tactical.
While holding a main weapon, switching to your pistol sidearm shows a new animation that slightly moves your main weapon to make way for the pistol. It’s a small animation change but it does show that it’s not just a copy and pasted game from years past.
Graphically, it’s fine but older consoles like the PS4 that I played on have started to show their age with the new improvements. Since it won’t hit the PC until after this goes live, I can give some leeway to what I saw during the play sessions. Be mindful that this beta is still unpolished so these can all change and fixed since there are some graphical glitches.
Turning off the motion blur per object and in the world made viewing easier and if you’re on PC, historically, it will save you some performance.
Even being on base PlayStation 4, the graphics in Modern Warfare 2 aren’t that bad, but it is noticeable. Most times when loading in for a session the textures are a blurry mess for the initial intro cutscene of boots on the ground and it is also the same for distanced objects.
Shadow quality is fine and detailed with almost nothing being lost but reflections do tend to be blurry, most likely due to saving performance since there have been occasions of dropped frames in extreme situations. Every frame matters in Call of Duty and any little but of latency can make a difference.
A minor note is the sound effects for weapons has more bass than previous entries from what I could hear and footsteps are noticeably louder when using something like Dead Silence and the surround sound picks up directions very well.
Capturing flags in domination have the same sound effects from MW 2019 so so nothing new on that front is here, possibly for parity between this game and the revamped Warzone 2.0 experience.
Ultimately, you may have fun with this beta to get a feel for new mechanics and start to learn the maps before it’s launch in October. The full game is out for everyone on October 28th with the special Vault Edition that grants access to the single player campaign one week early.
Expect more maps in multiplayer to be in South America where the main game takes place. This was a small preview of what we played and hopefully you get time to experience it for yourself.
The Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 reboot is set to release on October 28th, 2022 across Windows PC (via Battle.net and Steam), Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5.
