Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2019 by Infinity Ward was a big departure from classic Call of Duty Games. It had a gritty campaign dealing with the impact of modern conflicts at home, introduced large open maps, added weight and heft to its gunplay, and mastered features like Gunsmith, where players built and saved detailed weapon blueprints. MW 2019 had a sandbox-style Ground War mode and also fast competitive modes like Gunfight. The first year of MW 2019 was extremely well planned as a live service game, with the free-to-play battle-royale Warzone launching and hosting memorable events such as The Haunting of Verdansk, a series of mysteries that led up to a rocket launch and even included zombies.
In this video, David and Aaron talk about how MW 2019 was so different from classic Call of Duty games and why that matters. We’ll dig into the campaign and how it put players into scary situations, in some cases with only a few enemies in a level, such as with the well-known Clean House (London) mission. We’ll go over a few places where the campaign did cross the line. We’re also talking about multiplayer and how Infinity Ward's maps are clever at all sizes, as well as the genius of the Warzone map being made up of core maps so that players were already familiar with it when it launched. We go over how the sandbox gave players a lot of tools and then set them free to try things such as using thermal scopes to see through smoke and using Javelin launchers to hit out-of-reach snipers. This game came out at the perfect time to appeal to lapsed Battlefield players and mil-sim fans, although it wasn’t a great fit for all Call of Duty players. Fans of Sledgehammer and Treyarch’s styles grew frustrated with a departure from the three-lane map design, ability to camp, and slower movement. Some fans rebelled when Modern Warfare's beta didn’t include an always-on mini-map, causing Infinity Ward to put it back into the game.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 will release on October 28, 2022 for Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PS5, and PC. We got a hands-on preview of the game, so head on over to youtube.com/gamespot and watch Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Preview - Bigger, Smaller, & Less Controversial.