Infinity Ward has dropped more than 24 minutes of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) multiplayer gameplay. Despite touting increased realism and additional, simulation-style features, the pace and brutality of play (at least in these modes) seems largely unaffected.
The biggest change by far is the removal of the mini-map, long a mainstay of Call of Duty multiplayer modes. In the video, players are shown being much more dependent on audio queues to ferret out players coming in to flank them. The mini-map is still available, but only as a killstreak reward.
In addition, there are changes in how the player characters move and fight.
At one point we see a player sneak up behind an enemy for a melee kill. But, rather than the quick flash of a knife, a detailed animation plays out. The player firmly grasps his quarry by the back of the vest, then steps on his knee from behind to down him and fully take control of his body. Only then does he pull his knife with his off hand and plunge it into his victim’s throat. It’s a far cry from the insta-kill knife maneuvers of previous games.
In another scene we see a support rifleman running toward the fight with his weapon carried vertically against his shoulder, which makes sense since that rifle and its optics likely weighs much more than a regular rifle or carbine.
It’s an accumulation of these little flourishes that has me most interested to see the completed game. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is coming to PlayStation 4, Windows PC via Battle.net, and Xbox One with cross-platform play. The game will be released on Oct. 25.
