Modern Warfare (2019)—Beta Impressions

Yeah I know I used an Avengers quote; tell me it doesn't fit here.

There's another Call of Duty coming out this year. Elsewhere, the Pope sh*ts in the woods and bears are catholic, or however the saying goes.

I joked in an article I released in January about how I believed, with Infinity Ward at the helm, Call of Duty 2019 could sink the series. After the horrendous Ghosts and the underrated-but-still-weak Infinite Warfare, I really could not see them reclaiming their glory days... unless they returned for another Modern Warfare.

Having played the original trilogy, and MW Remastered, to death, I was intrigued by what this new reboot could do to revitalise the series. Having now played the Alpha and both Beta weekends; it turns out there is quite a bit.

Call of Duty has never the most realistic shooter series around, especially when stacked against the likes of Battlefield or ARMA. However, with the change in game engine (FINALLY), their claims of "gritty realism" don't sound hollow in their mouths.

The new engine makes the game look gorgeous. The lighting and character models have been completely redone and, yes, are much more realistic. The advanced movement has now been fully binned. Even the stripped down version seen in Black Ops 4 has been taken back to the drawing board. The never-ending knee-slides are gone. You can still slide, but it's shorter and fits with the more realistic movement system.

Being able to mount your gun on the environment is a great change. It's similar to the contextual leaning they introduced in Ghosts, only it's not inconsistent and rubbish. It allows you to hunker down and greatly reduce the recoil of your weapon; with the trade-off of meaning that you are exposed. A quick shot to the head will see you back at the options menu.

Infinity Ward experimented a lot with the radar and how you see your teammates. The initial way was for your opponents to be visible through walls via a blue highlight. However, if an opponent was between you and your teammate, you couldn't see them. They've since altered it so each person on your team has a blue circle over them, but I feel like this isn't quite clear enough either. It's better than the former, but I'm hoping Infinity Ward can find the solution come full-launch.

Unlike the sometimes-literal laser guns of Call of Duty's gone by, they've taken a few cues from their main competitors, Battlefield. Bullets take time to travel through the air, the guns each have a satisfying weight to them as you fire. I find myself getting shot in the head more than ever before, but it's very cathartic hearing the clunk and watching an enemy drop. That sentence will probably going to flag me on a database somewhere, but don't worry, FBI, I'm British. I'm too busy drinking tea and blessing the Queen.

Pleasingly, unlike what I'd experienced in the 2v2 Alpha, there doesn't appear to be one gun that stands out as completely broken. I found that out when I tried to use an AK-47 against a guy with an SMG, and got rightly twatted.

Transitioning from the Alpha to the Beta, there no longer appears to be any one gun that comes across as game-breaking. Each gun has its own pros and cons, and it's more down to you to pick the right load-out for the map and your play style.

Class customisation has been reworked again, but mainly focuses on your guns (as you'd probably expect in a first person shooter). The three-perk, one lethal, and one tactical equipment is fairly standard. Infinity Ward have taken a leaf from Treyarch's Pick 10 System and implemented it for weapon attachments. Each gun can have up to five attachments, or four and a bonus perk. It's nice that the attachments come with drawbacks, as well as benefits to your choices, meaning that it may take a while before you can fine-tune guns to your liking.

The ability to change your class mid-game is a welcome change. You've been able to do this in Battlefield for years, it's baffled me why it's taken until now for Call of Duty to follow suit, but I'm appreciative of it now being there.

What else. The maps look really good. It's nice that they've finally binned the three-lane layout that's held Call of Duty back for a few years. The environments feel much more natural, especially Hackney Yard. They arguably look better on the Night Vision mode; NV goggles illuminating the surroundings in a wash of greens. The more natural design does make for some viscous choke points, but with a competent team, you can work around it. I like that there are different sets of maps depending on the game modes. 2v2s take place in a rotation of tiny maps, then there's huge scale battlefields for Ground War.

Ground War is now basically a regular Battlefield match. It's 32 on 32. There was only one map in the Beta but it was a lot of fun. Right now, Ground War only has Domination available as a mode. With the larger maps and increased player lobbies, the capture points are upped from three to five. It is complete chaos and I absolutely love it.

The spawn system on GW is a bit dodgy in my opinion. There were a few instances where I would choose to spawn on a flag to find myself stood behind the fella that sniped me, granting me an easy kill. It happened to me the other way around too. I guess it could just be the risk of spawning on a flag, but surely, of all the places it could put you?

I also don't like that you can pretty much always see everyone on the map. They nerfed it slightly with occasional radar pulses, but I think having that as a constant renders UAVs pointless and therefore overpowers Counter-UAVs. For me it's too much information to constantly cram onto the mini-map.

However, on the whole, I am really quite impressed with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. It's much-needed overhaul has, from first impressions, paid off. If the campaign and Spec Ops can all be at the same standard, we could be looking at not only the best Call of Duty in recent years, but the best ever made.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is due for release on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC on October 25th.