Modern Warfare 2 players are still complaining about things Infinity Ward clearly doesn’t want to change

If you tend to follow what we can charitably call ” call-of-duty Every year, you’re probably exposed to the same complaints, the same arguments, and the same sickening advice. That’s obviously true for the annual Call of Duty releases, but the new Modern Warfare franchise has been a sore spot for the most loyal fans.

This Modern Warfare 2 The beta has just wrapped up its first weekend — available on a single platform — but we’ve seen high levels of engagement from players who have joined since the servers went live.

It’s not the number of posts on Reddit and social media that strikes me a little bit, it’s about Modern Warfare 2 Yes exactly the same What we heard during Modern Warfare 2019 beta and launch – usually the same people.

Modern Warfare 2019 is the most successful Call of Duty in history. It managed to bring back old players who had drifted away from the series over the years, and created a popular free-to-play phenomenon in Warzone. Infinity Ward’s technological advancements in visuals, animations and sound also make it appealing to regular shooter fans who are fascinated by its unparalleled performance.

For many casual folks, Modern Warfare 2019 is a monumental version. For die-hard gamers, however, this is one of the worst Call of Duty games in recent memory. Criticisms were directed at some of the design decisions made with the Infinity Ward reboot.

Now that we have a sequel in our hands, many are surprised that the studio has doubled down on much of what angered them three years ago. The developers have even gone a step further, messing up genre staple systems like perks in ways that many consider unnecessary; changing for it’s sake.

The chatter surrounding the game’s minimap still revolves around the fact that it doesn’t show enemies by default, requiring drones for what was once a basic, built-in functionality. The change was first introduced with the 2019 reboot, and while the behavior remains the same in Modern Warfare 2, it still angered some players again.

Even before discussing what the minimap should and shouldn’t do, you can tell that many players are still unhappy with Modern Warfare’s slower tactical gameplay. The 2019 version apparently did the same, but the map’s porous design exacerbated the game’s changing rhythm, which wasn’t the case this time around.

Infinity Ward – at least from the beta map – seems to have taken this feedback to heart, making map layouts more predictable, less cluttered, and less powerful in high ranks. Beyond that, however, the developers have pretty much stood their ground on other aspects of the design.

Dead Silence is another hot issue. What was once a passive perk, available to players 100% of the time, has now become a field upgrade – you have to wait for a recharge and can only be used for a limited time.

Again, this is Exactly How it works in Modern Warfare 2019, and gamers who like the charge and aggressive gameplay made the same exact observations at the time. Dead Silence greatly reduces the sound of footsteps, giving players who like to run around the map an advantage against campers.

But the emphasis on Dead Silence wouldn’t have been so apparent if it weren’t for the loud footsteps in Modern Warfare, which many believe is the main reason the game is considered savage in 2019. You won’t be surprised to learn that Infinity Ward isn’t really making any changes there, and loud footsteps are again a major feedback theme with the same argument.

Interestingly, the series’ more vocal players aren’t suggesting some changes will continue moving forward for reasons beyond game balance. Player retention is the number one goal of today’s game publishers.

One way Call of Duty does this is through engagement-based matchmaking, or skill-based matchmaking as it is commonly known. The system attempts to match and play players against others with similar skill levels, but these ratings are hidden.

The extent to which player connections are trade-offs in the matchmaking algorithm versus other performance-related factors is unclear. The truth is that more aggressive, highly skilled players find it more difficult to succeed at the same level where they enjoyed SBMM before, which is one major reason why this is especially painful for many.

A key part of this matchmaking’s success in three consecutive games (starting in Modern Warfare 2019) is scrambled players’ lobbies and reassessed their skills at the end of each match. Given its role in the algorithm and how long it’s been in the game, disbanding the lobby, as the community calls it, is unlikely to go away anytime soon.

However, even after three years, disbanding the lobby is still a constant complaint from the same group of players.

Time and again, Infinity Ward is unlikely to change its stance on these fundamental parts of modern design. Activision is even less likely to screw up systems like matchmaking because they have a clear relationship to player retention.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is coming to PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S on October 28.