The much-anticipated Call of Duty: Modern Warfare released on 25 October, and as expected, the competitive community have been quick to voice their opinions. Many of the biggest names in CoD were vocal on exactly what gets a thumbs up and what definitely needs to be improved.
Modern Warfare plagued by early issues
It’s normal for there to be various problems when a new Call of Duty is released, with numerous parts of the game that need fixing. One major issue found by players early on was the effectiveness of the Dead Silence feature. The footstep audio is unusually loud compared to previous titles, and many members of the community aren’t too keen on it. Atlanta FaZe player, Chris “Simp” Lehr, tested the feature in a private match, uncovering the root issue behind it:
With the new Call of Duty league starting in early 2020, pros are eager to get these problems sorted as soon as possible. Some players, including OpTic Gaming’s Austin “Slasher” Liddicoat, are becoming frustrated with the issues that continue to arise each year.
Another major issue that players have with the game is the size and design of the maps. Call of Duty multiplayer maps have traditionally been three-laned and small to average-sized. Modern Warfare brings a whole new feel to multiplayer with large open maps that are very different from what we are used to. Many casual players may enjoy this change, however, from a competitive standpoint, it could be a big problem – with the main complaints focusing on the Respawn game modes and a broken spawning system.
Positive signs from the CoD community
However, things aren’t all bad. Despite the negative feedback, players have taken a liking to how Search and Destroy is played, loving how it brings back tactical gameplay that wasn’t possible in previous titles. We’ve already seen multiple online Search and Destroy tournaments, and the Dallas Empire squad seems to be dominating the opposition. The newly-formed squad of James “Clayster” Eubanks, Anthony “Shotzzy” Cuevas-Castro, Cuyler “Huke” Garland, Indervir “iLLeY” Dhaliwal and Ian “Crimsix” Porter, have won five out of six tournaments they’ve played in.
And another bright spark came shortly after the community raised the Dead Silence issue, with the feature fixed in a recent game update. It seems that the developers are eager to listen and act on feedback from the community. Co-Design Director at Infinity Ward, Joe Cecot, published a tweet reassuring players and detailing the areas of multiplayer that the team are working on. After some previous bad experience with developers, it is refreshing to see a tight relationship between Infinity Ward and the CoD community.
New York Subliners player, Doug “Censor” Martin, is feeling optimistic about the upcoming year after Infinity Ward were so quick to act on the communities feedback:
If the developers at Infinity Ward can work closely with the competitive community then we may be in for an exciting year of CoD. It will be interesting to see how it plays out with a brand new competitive league format and a completely new style of gameplay from the new instalment.
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