The PlayStation 4-exclusive 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2v2 multiplayer alpha has come and gone, but we’d be willing ꦫto bet that it took up a majority of most fans’ time this past weekend. Love it or hate it, there’s no denꦛying that what Activision and Infinity Ward presented to players was unlike anything seen in recent iterations of the ultra-popular FPS franchise. That said, will the series’ soft reboot live up to the hype, or are we in for yet another run-of-the-mill title?
Looks Can Kill
While the alpha was only a small slice of what we expect to get our hands on come October, it still shed a ton of light on the look and feel of the new engine. It’s been quite a while since a CoD game has received a facelift of this magnitude, and, visually, Modern Warfare seems to be a definite upgrade from Black Ops 4. Though things come off as a bit gr♍ittier and less saturated than the aforementioned title, that only serves to better the development team’s more realistic approach.
The most notable enhancement in this regard has to be the use of volumetric lighting, something which hasn’t really been seen in any proceeding titles. God rays shimmer through tree branches, and shadows are now cast dynamically and can make certain areas noticeably darker. Beyond that, fire effects now cast a glow which is reflected off of nearby textures and weapon models, and smoke and explosions now dissipate and dither without the cartoonish overemphasis seen in other CoD games.
What’s more, the weapon handling has been noticeably tweaked in comparison to other Modern Warfare games. Firearm recoil is now dynamic as opposed to a generic single loop of animation, and it makes some bulkier weapons like the famous Desert Eagle .50 caliber pistol feel all the more unwieldy. While individual weapon textures aren’t particularly dazzling, the more realistic feel helps to keep the experience grounded and slows the pace of matches when compared to the inhuman, arcade-like precision of weapons in CoD games prior to this one.
But How Does Modern Warfare Play?
In terms of the actual gameplay, the 2v2 alpha didn’t offer a ton of variety, though we weren’t exactly expecting a massive smattering of content. It was released to test and generate hype for Call of Duty’s new small-scale mode, something which hasn’t really been experimented with since the Modern Warfare 3 days.
On the whole, these matches are lightning-fast and are somewhat evocative of the most intense moments of a Search and Destroy game. Teams of two are tasked with hunting each other down in extremely tight confines, and it’s not uncommon for games to come to a fiery conclusion in ten seconds or less. Should a match drag on for much longer than that, a flag will appear in the center of the map, and the first team to capture it wins the round. The first team to reach six wins is the victor, and, though that means a total of eleven matches could be played, these encounters typically don’t last much longer than the length of a standard Call of Duty team deathmatch session.
There’s a tactical element present here which feels slightly evocative of Ubisoft’s 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Rainbow Six: Siege. While the 2v2 mode is a far cry from the endlessly complex intricacies of that game, the fast-paced, close-quarters action of these games both reward players who think quickly and can adapt to ever-shifting battle scenarios. Though it still looks and feels, for the most part, like a Call of Duty game, this 2v2 mode does away with a lotဣ of the random chance of previous serꦕies entries in favor of some more skill-based, engaging encounters.
Things are ramped up even more in the OSP mode. Whereas the original 2v2 mode, dubbed “Gunfight,” gives everyone the same random class to work with at the beginning of each match, OSP scatters weapons and tactical equipment throughout the arena and starts players off with nothing save for their bare fists. This mode is particularly chaotic, as it’s more difficult to anticipate where the enemy team may be and what sore of heat they’ll be packing. On the whole, it’s a refreshing new take on CoD mul🤡tiplayer which will hopefully replace the endless cascade of TDM and Domination game modes mandated by the dwindling player bases of the older games in the franchise.
More Maps Please
One small sour note here may stem from the map selection. While we likely have yet to see the majority of maps available in this new mode, what was on offer varied somewhat drastically in quality. Some maps like King or Pine offered tons of nooks and crannies to hide in and made the act of hunting down the other team a particularly hazardous chore, while other arenas like Stack more or less spawn the opposing teams in each other’s line of sight, resulting in matches which can quite literally be ended in less than a second. Call of Duty has played host to 💜dozens of community-derided maps over the years, of course, and, while there’s nothing downright terrible here, some of these arenas will definitely have outstayed their welcome over the course of the game’s lifecycle.
Yet, as it stands, Infinity Ward’s new Modern Warfare title seems to be shaping up to be a major innovation in the long-stagnant Call of Duty series. With an exhilarating and meticulously designed set of mechanics, 2019’s upcoming CoD re🧸lease may come closer to re-capturing the series’ late 2000s glory days than any other game in recent memory.
