2019 brought Call of Duty fans a return to modern warfare both as a setting and as a soft reboot of the original trilogy that elevated the first-person shooter genre to unimaginable heights. With a little under two months to go, Infinity Ward and Activision have been steadily ramping up the marketing for the next entry, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, with a short teaser for one of Modern Warfare 2's upcoming multiplayer maps that will be playable in the beta, Farm 18.This isn't the first teaser that fans have received. During the Call of Duty League Championship last weekend, the Marina Bay Grand Prix multiplayer map was revealed, which takes heavy inspiration from Formula 1 racetracks, pitting players in gunfights around the venue while an actual race takes place. Farm 18 takes inspiration from a previous venue fans of the shooter have experienced in 2019's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.Shared on Infinity Ward's Twitter account, Director of Multiplayer Design, Geoff Smith, talks about the concept behind Farm 18. The team at Infinity Ward loved Shoot House from Modern Warfare and wanted to expand upon the concept. Farm 18 is set in an industrial cement factory with the middle of the map featuring a Shoot House type building full of close corners and chaos while offering options for pulling back and taking part in longer range fights outside of the complex.
After Geoff Smith shares his insight on the map, Senior Environment Artist, Ashley Thundercliffe, gives insight into other factors that played into the design of Farm 18 as well as some insight into the development side of map creating. When the Design team approves of the layout of a map, it falls onto the Environment team to then transform the layout into a living, breathing map. With Farm 18, Thundercliffe shares that the team had to strike a healthy balance between fun and overgrown foliage as too much foliage would promote players camping, detracting from the overall fun, whereas too little wouldn't make the facility feel immersive enough which was an issue in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War.
Developer insights on map design are always a welcome sign and a great way to drive up fan excitement. Although it may seem far away, Modern Warfare 2's release is right around the corner. Next month will seemingly bring fans of the series new information of the upcoming sequel to Warzone and a full reveal of the multiplayer component of Modern Warfare 2 before the launch in October.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 launches on October 28 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.