Modern Warfare 2 Multiplayer Details Revealed by Infinity Ward
We were fortunate enough to be flown out to Infinity Ward studios in Los Angeles to get an early preview of Modern Warfare 2. During our time we learned of several details about the multiplayer experience and the thought process that goes into it.
It’s important to note that Infinity Ward stated that they wanted this game to embrace what they described as emergent gameplay and to support established player behaviors with every feature.
They internally divided players into three categories and attempted to create a game that catered to all three playstyles and allows them all to play in their own ways and enjoy their experience.
- Rushers AKA Sweats
- Sentinels AKA Campers
- Stalkers AKA flankers
From new gameplay mechanics and innovations to the thought process behind the maps, let’s dive in.
The Maps
There are primarily two types of maps in Modern Warfare 2, battle maps and core maps.
- Battle Maps – Large Exploratory focused maps such as what we’ve seen in ground war and Warzone before.
- Core Maps – Small refined experiences specifically made for 6v6 combat and game modes
Battle Maps
Battle maps were built from day one for “large scale combat.” The team stated that they learned a lot from making Verdansk and applied that to the battle maps in Modern Warfare 2.
Infinity Ward wants each POI to play ground war and coreish modes really well. They ensure this by incrementally validating their spaces by extensive stress testing of POI’s.
Obviously this talk leads us to believe that battle maps will be used for both Ground War and the upcoming Warzone 2 experience.
Two maps that we learned of are:
- Sa’id is an intense urban combat map and a marriage of core multiplayer and ground war. It contains lots of buildings.
- Sarrif Bay is a tourist fishing village with a water playground, hillside town, 2 large boat areas and more.
Core Maps – 6v6
Core maps were each built exclusively for traditional 6v6 combat. They contain the more “globe trotting” locales of the different multiplayer maps.
They are trending towards smaller and tighter play spaces with less verticality.
Three of the maps that we learned of were:
- Museum is set in Spain and takes heavy inspiration from the Getty Museum.
- Grand Prix is a racetrack set in Asia at night with a race still going on in the background.
- Farm 18 is an undisclosed training facility set in an old cement factory. It has a traditional “shoot house” in the middle of the map.
New Mechanics in Modern Warfare 2 Multiplayer
Swimming
We have to start this section by talking about swimming. There was a major emphasis on the amount of work that’s going into swimming in MW2 and how hard they’re working to get it right. Here are some of the quick notes I took on it from our presentation.
- Harder to see the deeper down you swim
- Ballistics are different in water
- Only pistols and melee weapons can be used but this could change
- Can ADS above water but it’s very shaky as you’re only holding the gun with one hand
- All equipment will work with water
- Cool note: Proximity mines will auto deploy floatation devices and act as a mine in the water.
- Water vehicles include a new Armored patrol boat, Wheelsons and APC’s are also being built to drive from land to water
Dolphin Diving
Now we can move onto a movement mechanic that I’m sure will be controversial for some, dolphin diving. It’s back.
Dolphin diving is meant as an escape tactic and traversal maneuver.
Sliding is still present to allow players to have their gun at the ready more quickly, but dolphin diving allows more traversal options such as a player diving through a raised window.
We didn’t learn much more about movement and we aren’t allowed to share our impressions from the multiplayer playtest we took part in, so further details will have to wait… for now.
Ledge Hanging
This mechanic will allow you to peak over a ledge you are attempting to climb or mantle. Modern Warfare 2019 and Warzone allow you to do something similar however that’s only possible on ladders.
Players will be able to mantle high things and peak them before fully scaling them.
Another mechanic mentioned is that players can even pull themselves up onto an enemy helicopter using the new ledge hang.
The best part to me though is that you’ll now be able to mantle and ledge hang out of a parachute. Remember all those times you barely missed getting your feet on a ledge in Warzone or Ground War and just had to fall to the ground? Not anymore.
Dynamic Vehicle Gameplay
I’m going to quickly list some of the new vehicle gameplay mechanics players will be able to use in Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone 2.
- Leaning out windows
- Climbing on Vehicle rooftops from within the vehicle
- Knocking off doors
- Shooting and blowing out tires
- Healing vehicles at gas stations
- New Helicopter Troop Carrier
- Has 2 side doors and a back door.
- Driver can hop out and stand within the platform of the helicopter as it auto hovers, allowing players to establish a new angle of attack from above like never before.
- New Amphibious Vehicles like the armored patrol boat
- All Vehicles can go into water. If they’re not amphibious they won’t immediately sink. They’ll float for a while before slowly sinking.
- Driving an ATV or other land vehicle into water obviously isn’t ideal, but it will function realistically to where the vehicle will continue to move until the wheels aren’t turning fast enough to move enough water for it’s weight.
All of these mechanics will also work in Warzone 2 and were shown to us in the Convoy campaign mission we were shown at Infinity Ward studios.
New Field Upgrades and Equipment in Modern Warfare 2
Tactical Camera Field Upgrade
First off we have the Tactical Camera field upgrade, which is very similar to how Valkyrie’s cameras work in Rainbow Six Siege.
Players can jump from their camera to any other cameras thrown down by their teammates so long as they’re alive.
I was able to ask and confirm that dead players can not spectate the cameras, so no ghosting.
If players move in front of your camera it will beep to you, letting you know players are in that area.
You can mark players within the camera view and the camera will be able to be heard from close proximities by your enemies, similar to trophy systems in Modern Warfare 2019.
DDOS Field Upgrade
Yes, it’s actually called the DDOS and that’s amazing enough by itself.
The DDOS basically functions as an EMP device that can be used to take out and stall enemy equipment and vehicles.
If you use the DDOS on an enemy vehicle the driver will be prompted that they have to “restart the engine” with a quicktime event.
Inflatable Decoy Field Upgrade
I’m sure you’ve all seen a viral clip of a player using a spray in Modern Warfare 2019 to bamboozle people into shooting a spray painting of a soldier on a wall. Well this is that on steroids.
There are two ways to deploy the inflatable Kevlar decoy. It can be manually triggered but can also function as a proximity mine.
When activated it will auto orient (point) to the closest enemy player and create an audio cue similar to that of a player standing up out of a prone position.
Infinity Ward said that this tricked tons of players in their playtesting because of the way it auto orients and “aims” at you.
If thrown in water it will actually strike a swimming pose. If thrown in a small area it will automatically “crouch” to fit in that area.
Drill Charge Lethal
Rainbow Six Siege players will be VERY familiar with this new lethal as it is nearly identical to the one used by Fuze.
Throw the Drill Charge on a wall. When it hits the wall it screws in and then shoots a grenade through the wall.
The team at Infinity Ward also let us know that it can be used on vehicles and help you in taking them over.
New Game Modes in Modern Warfare 2 Multiplayer
We learned of two new game modes called Knockout and Prisoner Rescue coming to Modern Warfare 2.
Knockout
- Knockout is what happens when gunfight meets core multiplayer. Players will only have one life, however they can be revived, and will be tasked to either eliminate the enemy team or be the team holding the package when the timers hits 0.
- Each round starts with a 60 second timer
- Once you’ve grabbed the package an icon will appear above your head for the entire server. Your objective is to be holding that bag when the clock hits 0.
Prisoner Rescue
- This mode aims to bring breaching and sieging gameplay to Modern Warfare.
- One team is set back defending a pair of prisoners, they have time to set up their defenses before attackers can arrive.
- Objective is to either eliminate the enemy team or to rescue the prisoners
- Teams earn more points for successfully rescuing the prisoners on offense than they would for eliminating the enemy team.
New Gunsmith coming to Modern Warfare 2
We didn’t learn much about the new gunsmith at our presentation, but we were able to see one slide of a menu within gunsmith as it was not turned on in our multiplayer play test.
The new gunsmith is grounded in real military technology.
Players will be able to fine tune individual attachments to make the gun fit their playstyle. The picture we saw showed a slider with 5 notches of a barrel, from light to heavy. Each tick up or down has it’s own pros and cons that are shown on the side bar.
One of the most interesting things was that instead of just a stat bar that nobody can truly understand they now include a percentage number next to each statistic, like damage, range, rate of fire, etc.
All of this has been done to give players a broader range of function.
The weapon progression, leveling and unlock system is also something I do not fully understand yet. Players will unlock platforms.
An example we saw was an M16, M4, .458 socom and LMF Fightlight being unlocked as a part of a tree that gave you a new “platform” for the weapon as you leveled it.
Honestly this is something I would truly like to cover in more detail but I still can’t wrap my head around exactly how it’s going to work in game.
I apologize for that and will try to update this article when I have more clarity on it.
RICOCHET Anti-Cheat in Modern Warfare 2
“RICOCHET Anti-Cheat will continue its multi-faceted approach to combat cheating in Modern Warfare II and to the new Warzone 2.0 experience. Team RICOCHET is bringing its consistently updated suite of server-side tools and detection systems to our title in an effort to fight unfair play.”
When this part was discussed it was said that RICOCHET would arrive on day 1 for Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone 2 on “their respective release dates.” This could indicate that they are launching separately similar to the original Warzone and Modern Warfare 2019, but it could just be PR talk. I wouldn’t read too far into it if I were you.
New AI System being used throughout Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone 2
Last but certainly not least is the new AI system that Infinity Ward has been working on for Modern Warfare 2, Warzone 2, and other game modes.
Here’s what we learned about the new AI in a short easy to follow list.
- AI will have the same quality in every game mode
- The AI is meant to command the players respect, not just be cannon fodder to shoot at.
- The AI will have more coordinated behavior than ever before.
- The AI will play as if it has a life outside of combat. It will be aware of it’s environment and actually care about their lives and protecting themselves.
- AI will be in Warzone 2
- Infinity Ward currently has the capability of having 300 AI and 100 live players active on the map at one time, which is honestly insane to think about.
- This has a lot of implications but we didn’t get further clarification on the subject that we could share.
That’s it. Everything you need to know about multiplayer in Modern Warfare 2 so far. There is much more to come in the future and this is only the beginning.
I hope you found this coverage helpful. Stay Frosty.