The recently released Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is predictably drawing huge amounts of attention, with players now being able to experience the official release of the title's massively anticipated multiplayer. As a result of this huge influx of players populating the launch of the title, discourse surrounding the game has reached a fever pitch.
While plenty of positives are being noted in relation to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2's multiplayer, it remains that there are some significant negatives that fans are already beginning to highlight. The most glaring of these negatives concerns the current absence of things like stats and leaderboards, which have been iron-clad staples of the online CoD formula up until this point.
The Basics of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was recently released on October 28, marking the second installment of what is likely to be a trilogy of reboot titles concerning the iconic Modern Warfare games. The title sensibly picks up from the events of 2019's well received Modern Warfare within its campaign, featuring familiar members of Task Force 141 and beyond.
The campaign of Modern Warfare 2 has been available to pre-ordering customers since October 20, with Activision providing a range of multiplayer-based rewards for early campaign completion. Following tonnes of feedback from Modern Warfare 2's closed beta, the multiplayer of the new release is undoubtedly the most hotly anticipated factor of the game, with most CoD titles being defined by the reception of their respective multiplayer modes.
Modern Warfare 2 is a sizable and decidedly ambitious title, with eyes already turning toward the inbound release of Warzone 2 on November 16. With other modes being included like a return to the defining Spec Ops of the original MW2, there is a huge amount of content for players to explore, but that has not stopped fans from scrutinizing the core multiplayer above all else.
Lack of Leaderboards and Stats in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Despite the short amount of time that the Modern Warfare 2 full multiplayer has been available, there is one core element of gameplay that fans are rightfully concerned about. As it stands, Modern Warfare 2 does not possess any kind of overall leaderboards for its multiplayer, with no stats being available to view for the player.
A "barracks" portion of the Call of Duty online user interface has long been a key staple of the franchise, being a menu in which players can check crucial stats such as their K/D ratio, score per minute, and time played. Not only this, but the barracks additionally served as a way to compare important stats between a player and their friends list, greatly improving a sense of community and competition within the title.
Players are completely unable to do this in the current state of Modern Warfare 2, making it a much more hollow and narrow experience in which the wider progress of gameplay is significantly hampered due to there being no real tangible way to gauge career statistics. When considering how this absence of stats extends to being able to view detailed statistics of specific weapon usage, it is additionally made all the more difficult for players to fine-tune the many weapons of Modern Warfare 2 to best suit their play style. While a form of barracks menu will likely come in the near future, it is bizarre that Modern Warfare 2 has launched without such an important factor of extended gameplay.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.