Call of Duty is arguably one of the most famous first-person shooters of all time and has come a long way since its first release in 2003. Over the years it has kind of developed a love and hate relationship with the gaming community. Ranging from solid gameplay, revolutionizing multiplayer mode to almost becoming a blatant series with no new addition to the gameplay except for the graphics. What started in a world war two setting went literally everywhere one can imagine: modern, future and even space.
However, since 2016, the year in which Infinite Warfare came out the developers took a slightly different approach by releasing a remastered version of one of their most acclaimed and financially successful title, Modern Warfare which came out in 2007. The following year they returned back to their roots, taking a cue from Battlefield, that is a game set in familiar surroundings of world war two, in their title WWII. The curve was broken in 2018 in the form of Black Ops 4, ditching traditional single-player mode and including their own take on the infamous battle royal mode called Blackout.
Just ahead of E3 2019, developer Infinity Ward announced their new title named Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, a soft reboot of their famous subseries. Again, continuing their act of resurgence which they began in 2016 and kind of drifted apart in 2018.
Here a list of things to expect and look out in the upcoming title:
Single player campaign:
The single-player campaign makes a return after a year-long hiatus. The single-player campaign and its storyline have always been the heart of the modern warfare series. With this reboot or reimagining, one can expect a similar kind of treatment to the storyline and the way it is presented. Like, switching the point of view between multiple characters.
As each character unveils a completely different part of the story and how the pace and nature of the gameplay are affected with it to compliment the switch in the narrative. Something like the ‘No Russian’ mission in Modern Warfare 2 in which players have to massacre a bunch of NPCs. Similarly, the tone of the storyline is going to be darker and more gruesome as the developers want to explore the limits where moral lines are blurred during the time of war.
Graphics:
As it is after a long break that the developers are returning back to this hit sub-series, one of the most essential aspects is going to be how far can they raise the bar of graphics quality with the latest release. One of the striking features about this game is going to be its new engine. Developers have said that they have been developing this brand-new engine for five years. It will also support DirectX Raytracing (
However, it means that the developers will be working with Nvidia to support this feature. In this case, the engine will have to support DX12, as it is a
Gameplay:
One thing for which Call of Duty has faced maximum criticism from even their loyal fanbases have been, how through the course of time their gameplay has become blatant and repetitive with no addition of new elements. Not only that, buggy or below par AI have taken out the challenge from the Call of Duty games. In the reveal trailer of the game, which is full of action-packed sequences, among the chaos, one can notice a few things which could mean a step-in right direction.
There is a sequence where a gunman is shooting a militant while staying in cover behind a car, the angle of the gun and the recoil just looks realistic and natural. Small details, but these are the things that make the experience more immersive for the player. When it comes to buggy AI, we can only hope the developers pay heed to it and make it more challenging, rather than stand still in one position and shoot waves of the enemy coming in a linear manner.
Multiplayer:
It has become a custom nowadays for every other shooting game to have a battle royale mode. It would be like a breath of fresh air if they stick to the classic multiplayer mode which CoD revolutionized in the first place, with some of its own bag of tricks. It is also kind of obvious that this game will feature the blackout mode as well following the footsteps of Blackout 4. Talks are also going around of co-op mission mode which can be a good addition to the multiplayer segment and will be a huge boost as the game will also support cross-platform play, which means you and your friends can shed some lead together irrespective of what console you have.
Cross-platform play is always a welcome move as it gives players an option to play with a more diversified set of gamers and a reason for console owners to crib about when they get smoked by PC elites, talk about those framerates.
Since the day of its announcement, the game has generated a lot of positive buzz within the gaming community. All the information which have surfaced so far about the game is a step in the right direction. As CoD was slowly and steadily losing its own identity to keep up with competitors like Fortnite and other battle royale type games. If pulled off correctly it could mean the end of resurgence curve of CoD which began in 2016. It is also a major step towards winning back their die-hard fan base whom they have already got excited.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare comes out on October 25, 2019.
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