Pre-Review: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare – Beta Week 1

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare hits its first Beta trial as Playstation 4 users pile onto servers to see the new candy. New weapons, maps and killstreaks abound in the latest FPS from Activision.

First thing you notice when signing on is the ease and speed of servers. Yes, this is only the beta, but it bodes well that there were no large hiccups, though lag was felt a couple times during the weekend. Games moves quickly and new games were easy to find in many of the modes.

With that in mind, let’s get to the breakdowns.

Spawning:

Spawning locations have gotten slightly better in this new version. Not only does it put you farther from the action, but a flyover in-camera to this location can give you an idea of what to expect when you start. Of course there were still issues with spawn camping and being placed directly in harms way. More that once I took 2 steps, only to find myself in danger and soon dead. And while spawning has gotten safer, it also has a price as you’re usually placed farther away from the action. Which many online hate, but you can’t accomplish both without issues.

Maps:

Maps are a big deal in this new COD, not only in the size and paths, but in the opportunities the maps make. Namely they make numerous hiding spots for campers. Which wouldn’t be terrible on its own, but now the shadows are incredibly dark and almost black. Realism is fine in a game, but you have to weigh the playability as well. More than once I couldn’t see a player hiding in a doorway or stairwell, only to find out the only option to actually find and enemy there was to have my reticle over them for a enemy name to pop up. Or for them to start shooting me.

One thing is for certain, Modern Warfare is very “Camper” friendly. Not only because of the darkness and the many hiding spots, but because of the chokepoints the map makes by it trying NOT to be a usual map.

Audio:

Audio in this game is good and bad. Good in the volume and the opportunity to hear footsteps, which are very loud now. Bad because the location acoustics are not quite great. Not knowing if someone is behind or in front of me is kind of a big deal.

Playability:

This is a slower game and it works to slow you down. Not only in your movement speed and options, but also in your weapon handling. This was mentioned by the developers that want a more realistic fight for you. Of course, the realism goes out the door when 4 grenades and 5 flash grenades land at your feet constantly. Add that to the exteremely easy to get UAV’s and Personal Radars and someone could spend most of the game working to shoot things out of the sky.

The weapons themselves all seem to be usable, though lots of balancing still needs to happen. Also, the location of shots and the damage they do needs to be adjusted as well. I shot more than a couple people in the head when their head was only showing and still didn’t get kills. As another note, make sure to turn off controller vibration and adjust your kill show count when it comes to bullets. What used to be a kill with bullets and the amount that contacted the target in previous COD versions takes a little longer now.

Replayability:

This Beta was fun, but to be honest I put it down a lot more than I usually would. Yes, this is a new Call of Duty and it looks amazing, but what am I getting that’s new? That’s what I asked myself constantly, would I buy this and want to play it when given the opportunity or would I revert back to Blackout and Rainbow six first if I had an FPS craving? I’ll hold my final judgment until final release, but as an avid fan of COD, I was surprised how much free time I had during the first Beta weekend, and that says something.