Despite releasing year after year the Call of Duty franchise still manages to come in as the best-selling game annually almost every year. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare looks to be taking the series back to the roots that made the franchise so popular. They're not only taking multiplayer mechanics down a familiar path, but they're remixing the original story and telling a new version in a high-quality single-player campaign.
Let's now look at five ways Call of Duty: Modern Warfare will refresh the franchise and five ways it will feel like every other entry.
10 Same: Same, But Different
Call of Duty has seemed to operate by the same, but different approach over the last decade-plus. It seems that with each new title they focused on making sure it felt like the same familiar Call of Duty, but changed enough to justify a new annual release at a $60 price point.
Some years, there have been entries that are drastically different than their predecessor or successor, but ultimately at the end of the day, you know what you're getting when you purchase a new Call of Duty game.
9 New: Less Is More
Sometimes, the longer a franchise goes on, the more it's weighed down and convoluted by its legacy and history. Over the years Call of Duty has seen the implementation and iteration of several gameplay mechanics and features and the game began to feel busy and bloated.
Infinity Ward is looking to strip things down to what made the simple approach of the Modern Warfare series so well-received. If they can stick the landing then the less is more approach can do wonders for the long-running franchise.
8 Same: Lack Of Innovation
The Call of Duty series innovated online console multiplayer games in the mid-2000s alongside Halo 2 and those early online days for console helped mold the series into a blockbuster annual release. Since then the series has tried some new and inventive stuff, but you'd likely never see the word innovative mentioned.
The series has always had some of the industry's best shooting mechanics and gun feel which they've leaned on for the last decade-plus as a new game is released every year.
7 New: Killstreaks
Players have become upset and tired over the focus on scorestreaks in multiplayer. For a game focused on killing the enemy players online, it has a system that can be taken advantage of and doesn't reward only solid gunplay.
Modern Warfare will ditch those in favor of the classic and simply killstreaks the sub-franchise was known for. Stripping it down goes back to that less is more approach and having players focuses on stringing together kills could make the game feel refreshing in a back-to-its-roots sort of way.
6 Same: Microtransactions
Whether or not Modern Warfare contains gun crates doesn't mean there won't be microtransactions. At the end of the day, Activision has always seen them as a great way to earn a ton of additional revenue via their best-selling game franchise that happens to release a new entry every year.
Expecting a new Call of Duty to release without any microtransactions is like hoping you don't have to pay taxes. Players are just hoping they're entirely cosmetic with no pay-to-win mechanics.
5 New: Gunfight 2v2
The new 2v2 gunfight mode that was featured in the Modern Warfare Beta already has fans excited for the game's full release. The mode has two teams of two battling it out in tense round-based matches.
The mode puts a focus on teamwork, focus, and skill as loadouts are irrelevant since the mode chooses the players' weapons for them. Players felt like it truly brought back a part of the Call of Duty series they felt has been missing for several years. Try and find yourself a solid companion and try it for yourself.
4 Same: Veterans Will Thrive
Playing Call of Duty is very much like riding a bike, but every year the frame of the bike changes. Sure there will be a learning curve as you get used to the new features and details, but the core stays the same, which makes it feel like home after a couple of hours.
If you're one of the many lapsed Call of Duty players returning specifically for Modern Warfare, be prepared to run into the hundreds of veteran players who return every year like clockwork. It may be a new game, but to them, it's a fresh coat of paint.
3 New: Back To Modern
The simple fact that Call of Duty is returning to the Modern Warfare series after 8 years has lapsed fans wanting to hop back in. Through preview coverage, fans have seen teases of the familiar stripped-down gameplay and mechanics that made the sub-franchise so beloved to them.
With the confirmation of a return to killstreaks and an impressive looking single-player campaign, this will likely be the entry in the series that sees the return of the highest number of lapsed players in years.
2 Same: Guns Will Be Familiar
Call of Duty features new and interesting guns every year that change depending on the setting and theme of that year's entry. With Modern Warfare it will feature many of the guns from the original trilogy and those guns will likely feel very familiar.
The franchise is often ridiculed for multiplayer gameplay decisions or horrible microtransactions, but everyone knows how good the first-person shooting gameplay feels. They're some of the best in the world at making gunplay feel good and don't look for that to change.
1 New: Solid Narrative
Infinity Ward is doing something interesting with their 2019 soft reboot of the Modern Warfare series. They're taking many of the familiar characters from the original trilogy's story and delivering a brand-new campaign set in the world and inspired by the events of its original telling.
It's going to be interesting to see how it pays off as it's essentially rewriting arguably one of the franchise's best campaigns. If it's bad then the recent remaster of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare will have it sting a little less.