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Infinity Ward is leading the development on this year’s Call of Duty game, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. After 2021’s Call of Duty: Vanguard failed to reach Activision’s sales targets, expectations are high for the sequel to the 2019 series reboot. The campaign is live now for those who preordered the game, and Activision aims for it to be a “new era” for the series. Here, we break down all the details, including any remaining leaks or rumors surrounding the game.
Modern Warfare 2 release date and platforms
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is scheduled to release on October 28 across PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. The game is also confirmed to return to Steam, which is set at a $70 price tag. The campaign released on October 20 for preorders.
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Now Playing: Modern Warfare 2 Preview – Bigger, Smaller, Less Controversial, And Moar Water!
A “new era” of Call of Duty
Some of Modern Warfare 2’s marketing describes the game as a “new era” of Call of Duty. Activision and Infinity Ward gave us an early preview of Modern Warfare 2 back in June, where it was explained that the game was designed for “state-of-the-art” connected gameplay built on one unified engine. This redesigned engine will be shared with Treyarch, Sledgehammer Games, and other co-studios for future Call of Duty titles. Check out our full preview of Modern Warfare 2 to learn more about this new unified engine, and what this change means for future Call of Duty titles.
Task Force 141 and story details
Much of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2019’s story revolved around Captain Price building up his iconic task force from the original series. So though it’s unsurprising, fans can rejoice that Captain Price has recruited their favorite Modern Warfare characters yet again for another story.
Modern Warfare 2 follows three years after the events of 2019’s rebooted Modern Warfare, with Captain Price’s iconic Task Force 141 now fully formed and operating around the world. Price is joined by the iconic characters of Simon “Ghost” Riley, Kyle “Gaz” Garrick, and John “Soap” MacTavish, but this newly assembled Task Force 141 also includes a new character known as Alejandro Vargas. Gaz and Ghost were also not in Task Force 141 at the same time during the original trilogy, with Gaz only appearing in the first game and Ghost appearing in the 2009 sequel (both were also voiced by the same person).
The newly formed Task Force 141 can be seen in action during Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’s full reveal trailer, which shows a montage of campaign set pieces paired with remix of Metallica’s “Wherever I May Roam.” An additional trailer was later released to show gameplay of Modern Warfare 2’s Dark Water nighttime mission, where Task Force 141 must intercept controls for an enemy’s missile launch.
Multiplayer introduces new mechanics and Ground War returns
Modern Warfare 2’s multiplayer reveal at Call of Duty Next confirmed staple modes like Team Deathmatch, Domination, and Search and Destroy. The popular large-scale Ground War mode from 2019’s Modern Warfare is also returning this year, plus there will be two new round-based objective modes called Prisoner Rescue and Knockout.
Prisoner Rescue and Knockout were made available in the first weekend of the multiplayer beta, and you can read our early Modern Warfare 2 beta impressions here. The beta also let players get hands-on with Modern Warfare 2’s upcoming third-person mode, which is a separate playlist of mixed game modes for those who want to play Call of Duty with a slightly different perspective.
Though 2019’s Modern Warfare went rather large with many of the core multiplayer maps at launch, Infinity Ward said it scaled back all the standard multiplayer maps for Modern Warfare 2 to cater to traditional 6v6 matches. Additionally, Ground War maps will no longer be larger pieces of traditional multiplayer locations, as the developer said these are separate “battle maps” built from day one specifically for large-scale modes.
Ground War also includes Modern Warfare 2’s newly announced Invasion mode. Invasion mode includes both AI teammates and enemies, offering “more troops than any previous Ground War experience.”
Make sure to check out our early preview of Modern Warfare 2 to learn about all the new mechanics and equipment coming to the game, which includes swimming, new mantling options, new Field Upgrades, and more.
Overhauled Gunsmith feature
Ahead of Call of Duty Next, Activision revealed the new Gunsmith for Modern Warfare 2. Infinity Ward’s overhauled Gunsmith features the new Platform system, which was designed to eliminate the weapon attachment grind from previous years. Players will no longer need to spend countless hours unlocking the same attachment over and over to use on different weapons, because when they unlock a gun in the same shared Platform, they also have the same attachments unlocked and ready for the new weapon. We have a more thorough explanation of Modern Warfare 2’s Gunsmith changes here.
Spec Ops mode confirmed
Infinity Ward confirmed Modern Warfare 2’s third mode Spec Ops will be available at launch. Special Ops or “Spec Ops” is the popular co-op mode originally from 2009’s Modern Warfare 2, which served as a series of two-player missions of varying objectives with increasing difficulty. Spec Ops returned 10 years later with the 2019 reboot of Modern Warfare, but the mode grew a little too ambitious.
For the rebooted Modern Warfare 2, there were few details revealed about Spec Ops during Call of Duty Next, but the mode was vaguely described as an “in-depth two-player cooperative experience,” and that players will venture to “large-scale hot zones” with their teammate to take part in “branching operations against [REDACTED].”
Destiny-style raids are coming
One of the most vague announcements from Call of Duty Next was that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 will feature raids, which will be a co-op puzzle-solving experience that Activision says will require “teamwork and strategic puzzle-solving” in between intense firefights. Raids won’t be available at launch, and more information will be provided at a later date.
Ricochet anti-cheat update
The franchise’s new era also needs updated anti-cheat to keep up with the ever-evolving cheat makers, so Activision announced Call of Duty’s Ricochet anti-cheat has been upgraded and improved with new features and mitigations to keep hackers at bay. Ricochet was rebuilt on a new unified security platform, allowing the anti-cheat team the ability to update the security more frequently. This newly updated anti-cheat will be active at launch globally for both Modern Warfare 2 on October 28 and the November 16 release of Warzone 2.0.
A map editor is rumored
In early June, RalphsValve also claimed that Infinity Ward has plans for a “community-led effort” to create maps for Modern Warfare 2. The leaker suggests this map editor mode will be incorporated as “an offline mode equipping players with the necessary tools for blocking out, mapping, and editing an already existing map.” Of course, this map editor was not mentioned at Call of Duty Next or confirmed by Activision, so rumors must be taken with a grain of salt. Many details were confirmed at Call of Duty Next, but it’s possible there are a few surprises still being held underwraps.
Activision also confirmed preorders of Modern Warfare 2 would include early access to the game’s campaign, and here are all the different preorder options available.
Make sure to check out all the major announcements revealed during Call of Duty Next, which include details about the recently announced Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile game. Additionally, here is everything we know about Warzone 2.0.
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