It’s a struggle for me to write an intro to get into the body of talking about Modern Warfare II (2022), which is, surprisingly, an increasingly common sentiment as new iterations of the Call of Duty series release. The more they release, the easier it is to just begin discussion by saying something along the lines of “well, it’s CoD.” Often, in the echo chambers of social media, many people will just immediately praise the game upon release (or, the opposite, that this is the worst game ever in the history of the series), leading to instances of purely positive or negative feedback loops in which the discussion boils down to just “I love this game” (or “I hate this game”). This, in and of itself, isn’t necessarily a bad thing, however; the discourse does often do wonders to bring attention to elements of the game which can and should be celebrated, just as equally as elements of the game which can and should be criticized, although often to a fault. In trying to capture my thoughts on this game, I found myself in these same instances: endlessly positive or negative feedback loops, failing to do more than just mention either the explicit good or explicit bad without any form of real perspective, sort of taking the form of a list rather than a review.
Before we get into the review itself though, it’s important to establish context. We’re still, as individual and global cultures, adapting to a (maybe?) late-stage COVID world. Remote work is still happening, while some businesses are now mandating a full return to in-office work; the world is still adapting and healing, and that is bound to have some effect on the production and outcome of the game. That said, there’s also the whole slew of other things to consider regarding the development of this game, namely the instances of rumors and accusations leveled at both Activision/Blizzard and the development companies behind Modern Warfare II (2022), which have almost assuredly had some effect on the production of the game as well. While I will not address these rumors and accusations (most, if not all, of which have truth behind them), I do believe that it is important to say that an impressive amount of time, passion, and dedication went into this game from the multiple development teams behind it. The employees of Infinity Ward, Treyarch, Sledgehammer, Raven, High Moon, and all others have done an insanely large amount of work to create a product that, I at least hope, they are proud of and take pride in having created, and they deserve all the praise in the world for having created such a product within the conditions and circumstances of the time in which it was created.
Enough putting it off, I suppose. Oh, and the tl;dr for those of you who don’t want spoilers: the campaign and multiplayer experience are good, albeit slightly stunted experiences which I believe any CoD fan will enjoy, modern or classic.
!! SPOILERS AHEAD FOR Modern Warfare II (2022), CoD 4: Modern Warfare, Modern Warfare 2 (2009), AND Modern Warfare (2019) !!
Modern Warfare II (2022) Review
Campaign
To say that the campaign of Modern Warfare II (2022) (which, for my sanity, I will refer to as MWII from now on) is an extremely entertaining time would be a blatant understatement. Bringing back elements of the MW ’19 campaign which worked excellently, the campaign presents a narrative that works in tandem with its gameplay instead of against it. While the quality of the narrative definitely varies in spots (namely Graves being an easy to spot traitor, General Shepard being reused as a villain which was to be expected, and Valeria being El Sin Nombre being easy to spot as well), overall it is an enjoyable experience that feels, mostly, like the sequel that MW ’19 deserved.
The only real hitches that I have with the campaign come in three separate areas: predictable twists, that one moment (you know the one, it doesn’t even exist anymore as it was patched out, the “hold LT/L2 to Deescalate Civilians” part), and disgusting armored enemies ew. In terms of that last one, that may be partially my fault as I do enjoy pain and decided to play the game on Veteran difficulty the first time through, which is the hardest difficulty available to you before beating the campaign once. On Veteran, all enemies can very easily kill you in just a few quick shots, which is the norm for CoD campaigns on Veteran; the problems begin with enemies which can very easily do this same thing, are extremely aggressive, and have armor that acts as another health bar with three times the normal health. Often times, taking down these enemies would boil down to figuring out where they would be on repeat checkpoint attempts, throwing a C4 or using a grenade launcher to take their armor off, and then spraying and praying for a headshot.
However, on the big items I take issue with:
Plot points being predictable don’t detract from the gameplay of the campaign being fantastic, but they do detract from the overall narrative quality of the game. Pegging Graves as a traitor was easy as soon as we knew he was PMC that often worked for Shepard, and the reutilization of Shepard as a villain was, although expected, not disappointing but not shocking either. The reveal that Shepard was turning on Task Force 141 doesn’t come as a big shock to the player, however, the events following the betrayal do. By injuring the player character and putting them on the backfoot, trying to survive while navigating the streets of a town, they supplement the betrayal we expected with new shock: we expect Shepard to betray us, we don’t expect Soap to be bleeding out for nearly an entire level while we narrowly avoid dying at the hands of Shadow Company mercs trying to find and kill us. While I enjoyed this supplementing of expected shock, I wish other twists had more to them in this way. Graves was an easy mark for a traitor due to his status as a PMC commander and having loyalty to Shepard, a known traitor. Supplementing this shock, however, could be difficult; to make the betrayal at the hands of Graves more shocking, we would need more personal events attached directly to Graves himself beyond some pretty explicit war crimes. As for the Valeria/El Sin Nombre twist, I don’t really have any idea myself how to possibly improve this. I do like the character of Valeria and her motivations as both herself and as El Sin Nombre (who I would love to see come back in a narrative capacity later), but by putting emphasis on only one character from the in-game cartel (Valeria) we are given no other characters to potentially believe to be El Sin Nombre.
That said, the highlight of the campaign quite easily comes in its biggest moments. The big, flashy, set piece-like moments are visually and mechanically fantastic. The game features not one, but two back-to-back AC130 levels which were a highlight of the original CoD 4: MW, a final level that is insanely tense from beginning to end, and a level that echoes the oil rig level from the original MW2 and the cargo ship from CoD 4: MW, and other tense moments in between. While some moments seem to attempt to be parallels that don’t quite meet the mark (the hill descent from MWII vs the snowmobile escape from MW2, for example), every moment is still enjoyable and feels amazing.
The biggest moment, however, definitely is that final level. After chasing the main (who is really the secondary) antagonist across the world and capturing him once, you track him down to Detroit and attempt to apprehend him in an office building. The chase begins from the roof, rappelling down to a specific floor, at which point you clear and begin searching downward after he isn’t where the launch controls are believed to be. Upon finding the launch controls further down the building, he ambushes you on a floor with at least two of his men, leaving you unarmed but in possession of the launch controls, which Laswell walks you through the debug and remote detonation processes of as you attempt to not get caught. This was, alongside the survival section from immediately following the Graves/Shepard betrayal, the most tense section of the game and the most intensely enjoyable one as well. If the room to room clearing was the hallmark of Modern Warfare ’19, I whole heartedly believe that the survival sections of Modern Warfare II are the hallmark of that title.
Multiplayer
This is the section which, in large part, I struggled to write about without falling into the same spiral as mentioned before. In large part, this is MW ’19 multiplayer, polished even further and it feels amazing. However, on the other hand, there’s a lot of staples of the CoD multiplayer experience missing or design choices that feel weirdly decided upon. This is the part where I am gonna get much more widely critical of the game, but please know that I still feel that this experience is wonderful and absolutely worth the price of admission if you’re a fan of the series— and will continue to be as they add more content in upcoming seasons and content updates (though, more on that particular side of things later).
My first impressions of the multiplayer came from the beta, of which I only got to experience two matches of as I was on my honeymoon during the duration of the beta. From these matches, I thought that the new movement systems felt great but needed some polishing (though I later realized that this was just me getting used to the movement) and the damage models felt pretty well balanced but fell heavily in favor of SMGs in almost every gunfight.
Going into full release, the damage models seemed to have received some slight rebalancing but, often, gunfights still fall in favor of SMGs and pistols as opposed to any other guns (although occasionally assault rifles will win out against them). The easiest solution for this that I can think of would be to up the time to kill (TTK) ever so slightly for SMGs so that they still have somewhat of an advantage due to their fire rate, but not so great an advantage that they can cause enough damage to kill in a timeframe where most, if not all, other guns quite literally cannot kill.
Which brings me to another point which, in some small amount, would alleviate that problem: hardcore playlists. The game launched lacking some key experiences missing (namely hardcore and league play), which only some players lamented the lack of. I, unfortunately, am one of the players that will, given the opportunity, play entirely hardcore. A mode where guns really don’t outperform each other that lacks a constant mini-map (only showing up when a UAV is called in) is my favorite way to play, as it makes the experience much faster paced. The camo grinding (which is different this time around from previous releases) requires some specific actions from some weapons that struggle to perform them. For example, the Platinum camo challenge for all guns is reliant on longshots— a feat which can only be performed by achieving a kill at a distance of about 40 feet or greater for assault rifles. Some of the maps quite literally cannot accommodate this (looking at you, Border Crossing), while others can easily accommodate this but are held back by the damage model of some guns (I’m talking more about the 74U and 545). While this is, yes, definitely a matter of opinion, I would have loved to have hardcore at launch or, at least, announced for season one (which, as of writing, comes out tomorrow, sorry to myself for dating this article).
But, to take a step back: map variety. This game offers a fairly wide variety of maps— however, the issues come in assessing the individual quality of those maps. I think that there are about five great maps that are present right now (namely: Farm 18, Mercado Las Almas, Embassy, Crown Raceway, and Taraq, though Mercado can be hit or miss depending on the lobby), while the remaining four maps are interesting at best, or not fun at worst. One of the biggest offenders was mentioned earlier, Border Crossing: a map that features three lanes, one with a ton of cars which can explode (which can and will explode at the worst possible times for you, usually by random semtex or grenade) and very poor long range sightlines, one which is an extremely thin hallway with no long range sightlines, and the last lane which features no cars which can be exploded and once again has no long range sightlines. Again, this is a personal issues, but it does factor into the problems I’m encountering with these maps at this time: going for longshots for ARs on these maps, especially Border Crossing, is near impossible. While I do see what the map designers were attempting to do with these maps (Hydroelectric in particular was this close to greatness as a five lane map with water-based shortcuts), there are unfortunately issues (usually regarding weapon balancing) that hold them back from greatness. I would love for Hotel to make the list of great maps, but due to SMG usage being a large part of the meta currently, the map becomes a hellscape for anyone not using an SMG or shotgun.
So, Season One came out at this point in the essay and changed some things. Not many, but let’s go over that.
Season One has, at release, added one new map to the multiplayer mode: Shoot House, a legacy map redesigned from MW ’19. This map features many of the same design principles as the ’19 iteration, most notably the end-to-end sightlines directly through the middle lane of the map. Admittedly, my experience with this map is very limited due to the addition of another mode, which we will get to later.
Last topic for multiplayer and Season One before I wrap up this section: new weapons. With Season One comes two new weapons, the Victus XMR sniper and the BAS-P submachine gun. The Victus performs similarly to the other snipers, having a decent upper chest/headshot one-shot range, while the BAS-P submachine gun falls neatly in line with the other SMGs: being very fast to kill.
Overall, I like this multiplayer experience. I would much prefer if they added hardcore to the game as, typically, that is how I prefer to play (and it would make longshots for the platinum camo much easier). As of release (and, unfortunately, as of the time of writing following the release of Season One), it feels as though there’s this air of relative incompleteness about the multiplayer experience. It definitely is a good time, but it feels as though it required a bit more weapon balancing and development time to get out the tenants of the average CoD multiplayer experience. The lack of a league play (hardcore was added under the new name: Tier 1) mode, as well as the overall superiority which SMGs and pistols still have over the weapon sandbox as of writing. Additionally, it feels like there are some elements of the social aspect that aren’t quite finished yet, either; the social tab is broken as of now and remains as such, and I sincerely hope for it to be fixed as of posting (will update this to let you know if it is or isn’t).
Now, onto that other mode I alluded to that everyone definitely already knows about: Warzone 2.0.
Warzone 2.0 (and DMZ, but mostly DMZ) First Impressions
Warzone 2.0 was brought online and added in the Season One update of MWII (2022), and with it came the expected Warzone 2.0 as well as a new gamemode called DMZ. In traditional fashion of myself, I completely ignored Warzone 2.0 and went straight into DMZ.
I know I said in the delay post that this was gonna be a first impression about Warzone 2.0, but really I want it to be a first impression of DMZ, as that is vastly more interesting in my mind.
Utilizing the best elements of the PvE sandbox of campaign, the PvP sandboxes of Warzone 2.0 and multiplayer, and moshing it together within the Warzone 2.0 map of Al Mazrah, the PvPvE mode DMZ was born. While you have the option to run in solo, you also can run with a squad of two or three people (and you can autofill if you want a squad but your friends aren’t on).
The gamemode is, ultimately, a cooperative mode in which the squad must deal with both enemy players and enemy AI, completing objectives, looting buildings, and surviving within a time limit. If the squad fails to extract within the time limit, they will be provided with a final exfil chance which, while risky, allows more time to complete more objectives overall. Some of these objectives include radioactive material extraction, HVT elimination, weapon cache destruction, supply cache extraction, among others. Additionally, within the map are a weapon crate which provides great rewards but the area of which is always marked on map, and a radioactive zone which requires a gas mask and/or radiation blocking pills.
Remember how I said Season One added two new weapons? I lied, to your face, so I could mention the other one here. Sorry. In DMZ, entering the radioactive zone and killing the boss named “The Chemist” will drop a special variant of the new M13B weapon, which extracting with will unlock both the variant and base model of the M13B.
I haven’t had more than four games in the mode, but it has been a fantastic time so far. The people I’ve played with have been fun, the mode itself has been a wonderful blend of tactical and action, and it feels like what I always wished the additional modes from Warzone had been. It reminds me in some small part of games like Hunt: Showdown, except instead of fighting for the same one or two objectives, there are plenty more scattered around the map which will occasionally end up pitting you against enemy squads for the same objective. There are also strongholds on the map which, if you have keys for, can result in amazing rewards which you can exfil with for additional experience points, higher quality gear (such as larger backpacks and plate carriers which can carry upwards of three plates), and better contraband weapons.
The loadout system works as such: you have three possible insured slots, with only one unlocked at first, unlocking the other 2 by completing faction missions which, themselves, provide smaller rewards until you complete the one which provides the insured slots. Weapons in the insured slots will not be permanently lost when dropped in the DMZ (by choice or by death), but will require undergoing a timed retrieval period, which is often very long but can be shortened by playing the mode more. The other loadout weapons are contraband weapons, which are lost permanently upon dropping them before exfil or dying with them; any weapons picked up from enemies and taken out of the DMZ are added to your inventory as contraband weapons.
I absolutely love this mode so far and look forward to the future of it, hoping sincerely that they support it going forward in the upcoming seasons of MWII (2022).
Conclusion
Ultimately, I really think that there’s solid bones within this project, as well as competent design and nothing but promise. I would recommend it to any CoD fans, both new and old, and feel as though this is a perfect direction for the Infinity Ward led games going forward.
However, that isn’t to say that the game is without flaws. Consistent glitches, bugs, and errors, on top of the lack of series staples at launch such as league play and a small number of launch maps with no legacy content until Season One, makes the game feel like it may have needed just a bit more time, although I feel as though perhaps at this point we should swap to a permanent 2-year cycle in which the games come out, minimum, of 2 years apart, if not more. One year for release, one year for additional content, repeat; a system which not only will allow developers to more fully explore their passions and iterate, but hopefully would also allow them to do so without ravaging themselves with overtime and being so severely overworked.
final tl;dr – if you like Call of Duty, you’re gonna like this game, and you probably know it. If you really want, put it off until a sale comes about, but you will most likely like this game, especially if you were a fan of Modern Warfare (2019).
Hey there, thanks for reading my first real post back to, well, posting. I hope to have another one ready (on time this time) for Friday two weeks from now, on December 2nd. I might do a mini-post first impressions thing for Pokemon Scarlet/Violet if I feel so inclined, that should be up sometime before Thanksgiving if I decide to go that route.
C. B. Irby 