The Call of Duty: Modern Warfare open beta went live this weekend and ended on Monday. This look at the latest in the long-running shooter franchise harkens back to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and takes a lot of the multiplayer back to basics. For the most part the experience was stale, but one mode redeemed the demo.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is taking a more grounded, realistic approach to Call of Duty after the futuristic takes on the formula with Infinite War and Black Ops 4, and 2017's throwback to old school CoD with WWII. The latest entry is also a throwback to 2007's Modern Warfare, a game that changed multiplayer shooters forever. The campaign is going to darker places than ever before and the multiplayer... well, it's a lot like Call of Duty 4.
The beta has three different matchmaking hoppers for players to jump into. The first is a selection of traditional Call of Duty multiplayer modes including Team Deathmatch, Headquarters, Domination, a new take on Search and Destroy called Cyber Attack, and larger player count versions of some of these modes. The second option is "realism mode" which is similar to hardcore mode in previous games. And the third is the new 32v32 mode Ground War. The Gunfight mode that made its way to the PS4 beta earlier in the month did not make an appearance in this wave of open betas for all consoles.
On a mechanical level, Modern Warfare is simple. The gunplay is still satisfying and smooth in the tradition of the franchise, but long gone are the traversal abilities from games earlier this generation. In a year with Apex Legends and Doom: Eternal, Modern Warfare's movement feels slow. There's plenty of small quality of life improvements that help mitigate the feeling that this is a decade old formula. Being able to open and close doors and quickly press the right thumbstick to stick to cover and lean are great additions, but aren't quite enough to make the game feel truly modern.
It's in the traditional Call of Duty modes that this age is most felt. Even the "new" Cyber Attack mode is just a reskinned Search and Destroy, a fan favorite mode from older games, that is slightly more forgiving allowing players to revived downed teammates. The maps were visually drab, and like the old Modern Warfare games, it's still easy to get killed right after spawning either by a player or someone's attack helicopter killstreak. The game's progression system limited beta players to only a handful of starting guns and perks for a majority of the playtime.
However, a new feature lets players break the progression a bit in a refreshing way. After getting killed, the option to copy loadout appears on the death screen. This allows players to copy the loadout of the player who killed them, which is a great way for newer players to experiment with weapons, especially in the context of a limited time beta.
But let's stop beating around the bush. Ground War, full stop, is the absolute highlight of the beta. For Battlefield fans, think of the mode more or less as Conquest. Big team action where players attack, hold, and defend 5 control points around the map and score for each control point they hold. This type of large-scale tug of war with vehicles feels a lot like last years Blackout mode in Black Ops 4. In both cases, Call of Duty has taken a mode and made it faster and more frenetic than its competitors.
The vehicle's feel great to control, but even more satisfying is destroying enemy team vehicles. For a pre-release beta the balancing between soldiers and tanks and choppers already feels spot on. The Karst River Quarry map uses a contrast of wide open spaces and tight corridors, making fighting over each objective feel different in the way Domination doesn't quite nail. The game incentives players to spawn on teammates with an EXP bonus, encouraging everyone to get back into the action and play together. It is surprising to see Call of Duty double down on such a team-based mode, but it created the most dynamic encounters in the beta.
The beta was not without its share of technical issues, though. While Ground War may be the best part of the beta, it was the only time where connection issues repeatedly reared their head. The larger player count lead to occasionally noticeable latency. On Xbox, the beta also had a severe bug where players could not start playing at the start of the period. They were bounced and given an error message telling them its "too early" to play.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare may be adding and improving a good deal on the franchise formula, but it's hard to tell from this specific beta whether that will pay off. The Ground War mode adapts the Battlefield model of play to Call of Duty surprisingly well and if modes like Gunfight, the co-op Spec Ops, and the rumored battle royale mode are on the same level, Modern Warfare could have the widest range of multiplayer options in a shooter yet.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare launches on October 25 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.