MWII 2023 | The Content Evolution

Call of Duty's most recent release has been met with a lot of criticism. For a lot of players it fell short of what was promised, and what was expected. Balancing issues were hardly ever resolved, and most efforts from the development team seemed to go towards the monetization efforts, and adding new quality of life features that should have been there from the start. 

For me, the journey from start to this near finish has been bittersweet. I initially got my kicks camping unsuspecting players to death in multiplayer as I so often do, but found the late game to be lacking in said fun. I spent a majority of my efforts on maintaining a positive k/d, and grinding away at battle pass after battle pass. Sometimes this was satisfying, and other times it was infuriating. The anti-cheat that was supposed to counter cheating, and punish cheaters never worked. Not once did I see it work, especially in multiplayer. This alone was enough to ruin the experience for me, in the end.

Looking back at my time invested in MWII it could be said I've given it way too much attention. That I've spent too much time playing it when I could have spent that time doing something else. Friends have gotten onto me about my OCD habit regarding the battle pass, and constantly poke fun at my inability to stop playing. Even through controversy, and a lack of polish I've continued to play. Why? I couldn't really tell you other than it is an OCD problem. 

Beyond the bad, lies some good though. The teams over at Activision have added some cool features to the game to build upon it's once lackluster foundation. Today, for example, I noticed a feature that allowed you to select skins in a lobby without having to access the Operators menu. I also noticed that guns are now in an XP boost rotation allowing the grind for weapon leveling to be boosted without the need for XP tokens. These weapons are marked in the loadout menu with a specific XP icon and a description detailing the 20% XP boost attached to that weapon. 

The Battle Pass ...

New to the seasonal battle pass was the premium upgrade that is now known as Black Cell. For about $30 you get access to premium exclusive skins with special gold gilding and shadow effects. There's even guns with these visually animated upgrades. In this season's pass, in particular, they added a gun attachment along with all that, that featured an AI announcer who would commentate constantly on in-game action or lack thereof. They also added in a new Operator specific finisher with a black German Shepherd who is actually strapped to the back of the operator. This doggo named Merlin can be attached to other operators aside from it's owner Arthur by assigning the finishing move to them. Merlin isn't the only dog in MWII though. Shortly after the launch of the battle pass there released an operator bundle with a little white puppy strapped to the operator's shoulder. This creative twist, and addition of a doggo back bling added something that made the Black Cell pass, and newer bundles more worthwhile. It is being touted by the community as the best battle pass feature yet.

I remember way back at the start of MWII's life cycle when battle passes were so uninspired, and bland that they couldn't sell. Activision heeded the complaints of the vocal minority about a lack of realism, and in doing so killed the skins economy for a short while. Thankfully as time progressed they did back peddle, and started including more flashy weapon and operator bundles that pushed a more creative flair. Things like a Santa Clause skin, the Easter Bunny, Shredder from TMNT, and a Rat headed operator offered something different. The newest addition of which was Snoop Dogg was also recently added to the shop. I have a gut feeling they're not done yet either as it has been announced that the skins will carry over from MWII to MWIII. This in itself is great news for those who have spent actual money to obtain the skins. 

The Future ...

Moving forward as I continue the latest Black Cell grind I will watch for new updates, and features that might be added. My hope above all else is that they finally implement an anti-cheat in multiplayer that actually works. Not Warzone only. If not they may end up losing out in the long run due to the growing issue that is player cheating. Let us hope that they do.