A Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 player has discovered text on one of the in-game tip screens that indicates that the Specialist bonus may be coming to the game’s multiplayer. Familiar to many long-time fans of the series, Specialist lets players who have built up killstreaks in Call of Duty’s multiplayer modes forego rewards like UAVs in order to gain additional perks with each kill instead.
For players looking to reach the top of the leaderboards in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’s multiplayer modes, knowing when to use the powerful bonuses granted for killstreaks is a necessity. A staple of the franchise’s multiplayer modes, killstreak bonuses grant players limited-use special attacks that have the potential to turn the tide of battle. These bonuses can range from UAVs that can point out enemy locations, to the devastating Tactical Nuke Killstreak, first introduced in the original Modern Warfare 2, that kills all players on the map. In previous Call of Duty titles, choosing Specialist mode let players choose additional perks in place of these killstreak bonuses.
In a post on r/ModernWarfareII, Reddit user LightsOut16900 posted a screenshot from one of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’s tip screens that seems to indicate that the Specialist role will be coming to the game at some point. The tooltip, which explains Modern Warfare 2’s wrap killstreaks, has text noting that Specialist perks do not wrap since they are persistent as long as a player is still alive. Although Infinity Ward hasn’t made any official announcements about Specialist mode being added to Modern Warfare 2, this short string of text already has some gamers speculating that it could arrive in a future update.
Several people responding to the post were excited by the idea of Specialist possibly coming to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, with some expressing hope that it would help reduce the amount of UAV spam in multiplayer matches. Other gamers shared stories of their favorite Specialist strategies in previous Call of Duty titles, noting that they preferred the additional perks over the available killstreaks. As some fans have begun to wonder how long Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’s multiplayer mode will be supported after the release of Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0, bringing back Specialist could alleviate gamers' concerns that Infinity Ward will abandon the multiplayer when Warzone launches.
Bringing Specialist to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 could help shake things up in the game’s online multiplayer battles, giving players an incentive to experiment with new strategies for getting the best kill-death ratio. Reintroducing the fan-favorite perk would not only provide a huge dose of nostalgia for long-time fans of the franchise, but would also make a for a great Easter egg if it were to show up as part of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Season 1.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.