Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II | The Multiplayer Experience

I've followed, reviewed, and supported Call of Duty since it's golden years. Without fail I've played each new release despite my growing concerns over the multiplayer experience. I witnessed the ups and downs of matchmaking, saw skill based matchmaking introduced, and the lobby system in general struggle to maintain a from the start experience. Problems that continue to persist.

With each new release I stuck by my own claims saying that the biggest problem with Call of Duty was not so much the game itself or the gameplay, but the players who were playing it. To an extent that claim has always held true. Multiplayer continues to be what kills the CoD experience over time. From toxic gamers to hackers, and modders it has grown increasingly problematic. Fast forward to MW2, and almost immediately those player problems reared their ugly heads to an extreme, but that was not the only problem this time around ...

In the early days and weeks of MW2's launch it became abundantly clear that something was not right. A lot of base features were missing, there were technical issues, and the gun play itself was suspect. Though the game offered a ton of new loadout options, modes, and offline/co-op content it failed to perfect any of it to a retail worthy degree. Rumors began to circulate around the community that guns were basically presented with tuning, and attachment options that did not do what the descriptions said. In fact at one point the base guns without attachments were better than guns with attachments. The Pros & Cons setup had returned, and with it the same trade-offs as before, supposedly. Having seen a guy test this technically though it only resulted in Cons. 

On top of that gun sway was a huge issue as was recoil. This accompanied by a lack of overall balance had applied adjustments rotating on the regular. With the developers taking turns buffing and nerfing base gun archetypes. Each type getting their time to shine, and fail. It's the same kind of Meta chasing nonsense that the Fighting Game genre sees with it's characters, and their move sets. For whatever reason Activision's onboard developers have yet to master balance when it comes to gun loadouts, and to be honest I think it has to do with the stacked tuning feature which further offsets what would otherwise be more static/controlled builds. You add in too many variables, and it's harder to manage. 

As far as the perk system goes the new timed acquisition of five perks is something the community was also not keen on. Instead of having the perks from the start some of the best perks would only come into play towards the middle or end of the match making them useless for a good portion of it. It would effectively force the player to move around the map or hunker down in a corner until they were safe enough to move freely. With the overly effective spy planes, and counter spy planes this made for a multiplayer mess. Maps themselves were also not helpful in that the flanking spots, and vantage points far outnumbered that of older maps. Even some of the older maps were reworked to include new tactical set pieces, and camping corners. Most of the community was and is divided on whether or not MW2 is more camper friendly or run & gun friendly. I tend to say it's more of the same.

Having done my thing, which is camping like a "mastard (master bastard)", I have found camping to be extremely effective if done right. The perk system even with the absence of Cold-Blooded, and Ghost can be used to maximize Claymore resupply, and can be doubled or even tripled down when the munitions box is your field drop. I have footage on my Youtube channel of doing this very thing. It usually takes me about a week from launch to learn the ins & outs of all maps, and with this setup I can camp just about every room or corner without fail. That along with the footsteps which can be heard well enough in advance to alert you to someone's approach it gives me enough time to adjust aim, ready for fire, or reposition if need be. 

Then there's the footstep audio. In all honesty the footstep audio remains one of the game's most glaring issues when it comes to getting players to move around and play the objectives. You've got people hard scoping from vantage points for one hit kills, and campers holding their ground waiting for the sweaty crowd to come running through, because of it. The only thing I've seen done to effectively combat the camping is players who utilize the DDOS killstreak, or dolphin dive past explosives with the Bomb squad perk keeping them from taking a fatal hit when the explosives are triggered. Claymores seem to be far more effective than the mines this time around as well, and with the mines players can more often than not just sprint past them without them doing the intended damage. That being said there are some dirty tricks for campers to use against all this. Sometimes all it takes is adapting to the way the other players play, and using high damage dealing weapons to catch them as they try to get past your traps.

When it comes down to the modes I've played I have played mostly team based objective modes including kill confirmed. Mostly kill confirmed for the bonus XP that can be farmed. Speaking of XP that is another huge issue facing this latest release. Outside of the XP boosts, earning XP for levels progresses at a snail's pace. It is beyond ridiculous, and is similar to Vangaurd's same XP earnings. Aside from that earning the new unlock points for the battle pass system is also a tedious chore. To begin with you will get a huge boost to point credits if you pay the premium for the battle pass. This will quickly unlock a good portion of the mapped out battle pass. After that it's a slow crawl to the finish line.

As mentioned in the battle pass trailer what you unlock is determined by which path you take on the battle pass map. It is basically a map with regions connected kind of like a honeycomb. Each section has five rewards that cost one battle point each, and each battle point will take several matches to unlock. To unlock the big reward from each section of the battle pass you must first unlock the four base rewards. Things like charms, stickers, banners, and the new loading screens. That and skins for vehicles. In the way of free and paid rewards you will find the new guns, some CoD points, and lesser cosmetic items. Paid subscribers get access to special weapon blueprints, and Operator skins. The usual premium stuff. There are 100 rewards to unlock as per usual.

For those of you wondering about the storefront it has been fairly lackluster. Players cried about the over-the-top cosmetics so we ended up with some really bland and basic looking weapon blueprints. That and some really pitiful looking Operator skins. I hope this changes. For those of you looking for the earnable in-game cosmetics, banners, and icons MW2 does go that extra mile. There are a ton more banners to unlock, and new groupings added to the usual themed grind. There's plenty in the way of weapon camos, and dare I say it but this is by far the richest, and most player friendly grind of the game this time around. Once you unlock a camo it is there for all weapons. With the master class skins being only available for mastering individual guns/classes. Worth noting is the fact that each of the base guns has their own unique set of unlockable camos with simple to complete requirements.

Tacked on to the gun cosmetics is something new called a Gun Screen which acts as a replacement for Vanguard's watches, and is also a k/d counter. They come in different varieties with added special effects that are sometimes animated. In addition to that there's a new customization slot for what is called a Large Decal. This is separate from the three smaller sticker slots. Charms also make a return to the setup. All in all that's what I've took note of so far. Expect more details in the future as I continue to play through MW2 ...