Call Of Duty Modern Warfare II has almost been with us for two solid months now and whilst I have absolutely loved playing it, it is significantly lacking in areas and desperately needs some glaring bug fixes. As someone who has poured in 200+ hours across all elements of the game, I would like to think I have seen everything there is to see. The game is mechanically solid and brings the quality last felt in Modern Warfare 2019, but in my opinion, the development teams alongside Activision have been rather slow at getting things sorted.
Laggy Matches, Dev Errors, Glitchy Menus
Whilst the lag on Warzone matches especially has somewhat eased, the first couple of weeks was a little hit or miss. One out of three games would be a lagfest with players rubberbanding all over the shop with shots being dodged by players reminiscent of Neo from The Matrix. Thankfully I haven’t seen much more of this in recent weeks but there are still some god-awful issues across the board. On the console, there still appears to be a cascade of dev errors, being thrown back to the main screen and not being able to access loadouts fluidly. I have personally encountered Warzone matches where the game has frozen towards the end game or I have been thrown out completely due to a dev error. Not being able to rejoin these games is a major frustration, especially if your mates stay connected and can continue the fight.
No Online Leaderboards
Something that is sadly still not present is online leaderboards for both multiplayer and Warzone. Whilst we do know that these are en route at some stage in the near future, nothing has been confirmed. There was a statement recently informing players that Warzone statistics would not be tracked until Season 1 reloaded. This update however has been and gone and we received a further update telling us that this has been delayed and is coming. Whilst I personally appreciate the transparency here, why is it taking so long when the original Warzone in 2020 had this feature from the beginning?
What frustrates me is that whilst Warzone is genuinely brilliant despite some issues that need rectifying, what is the point in investing all your time if you don’t have any stat tracking? For some, playing and having fun is all they need and that is fantastic if you have this mindset but for stats junkies like myself who pride themselves on improving and keeping an eye on progression, it sucks. The lack of leaderboard wins and more has slightly turned me off the game until the update finally arrives.
📢 Yesterday's #Warzone2 update reduced the number of Buy Stations across Al Mazrah.
A new update is now live that has doubled the average number of Buy Stations per match.
Also, the Loadout Drop public event will occur during the 2nd circle, one circle earlier than before.
— Raven Software (@RavenSoftware) December 16, 2022
Warzone & Mixed Opinions
The community across Warzone appears to be divided on their opinions when it comes to how the game plays in terms of pacing, gaining loadouts and the rest of the experience. Everyone is going to be mixed in their thoughts but I have enjoyed the grind element a little bit more and in that early game you have to fight with what you find. I thought the original Warzone was far too easy to get fully kitted up early on and almost everyone you encountered would be walking around freely with fully souped-up loadouts. Whilst Raven Software have drip fed and implemented some changes this week to Warzone, they don’t shift the gameplay stance which is great. That said, the number of buy stations has increased and the random loadout drops come in a little bit earlier than they did before.
I think most will agree that Al Mazrah is a far superior map to Verdansk but then we are almost three years down the line with development. The map brings a great variance of built-up areas, barren open zones, clifftops, caves and vast amounts of open water. People also want features such as plating whilst sprinting to be introduced, sad news though as this has been confirmed that it won’t be happening.
Third-Person Warzone & Bomb Drones Removed
I was actually really fond of the third-person Warzone playlist and actually dip into this different perspective on the multiplayer modes as well. It was pulled a few weeks ago to implement some changes and fix several bugs. Bomb drones were also pulled from Warzone due to issues, I am one of the ones who miss this as I used it quite often in the heat of battle, it will return soon.
Infinity Ward has updated their Trello board with issues they are investigating: camos not tracking & weapon tuning not saving in custom mods. pic.twitter.com/KKlFeWQR9x
— CharlieIntel (@charlieINTEL) December 16, 2022
Yay Shipment Is Out Now! Camos Are Broken Though…For Some
After playing Shoot House for a few weeks and secretly wishing we had the Shipment map first instead, the new iteration has finally arrived. Set on a cargo ship, it provides the perfect opportunity to grind those all-important weapons and try and unlock all the camos. Thousands though are reporting that some of the progression systems are bugged out and not working, leaving them unable to unlock what they are working towards.
Ranking Up Appears Too Quick
Understandably the ranking system these days is to cater to the more casual audience. The prestige system is drip fed each season rather than all at once and whilst it makes sense, it leaves the hardcore amongst the community with next to nothing to do. It took me approximately 8 days to max out the battle pass from the very beginning with no tier skips and achieve the maximum season rank of level 250.
With a season that is three months in length, it just seems extremely off the mark. I understand that some players won’t have countless hours to burn through it as quickly as I did, but I feel as if those who play all the time should have something still to work towards. Rather than having prestige ranks bit by bit, they should perhaps go down the old-fashioned route and have 20 prestige ranks from the start. Perhaps those who finish a battle pass could have some extra bits and pieces they could work towards even if they had to grind hard for it. I feel more could be done here to prevent players from dropping off and ditching the game after just a few weeks of a season.
Warzone Cup Mode Is Meh!
The development team for some reason has attempted to integrate some of the World Cup hype into Call Of Duty Modern Warfare II. We’ve had Neymar, Messi and Pogba cosmetic operators for sale in the store which are pricey to purchase. Alongside this, we have also had a cool voting system to vote on the outcome of World Cup results in return for some limited cosmetics. Coming a little late and just before the final of the World Cup, we have a new game mode that is clearly a rip-off from the world-famous game Rocket League. Two teams of three take each other on as they attempt to score goals whilst sitting on ATVs. Whilst this sounds fun on paper, it really isn’t.
Vehicles don’t have the same level of flexibility as Rocket League and trying to negotiate operating these whilst trying to knock a ball in a goal is genuinely awful. Whilst the rest of the game suffers in certain areas, the introduction of this time-limited mode has left a sour taste in the mouth of players. The community doesn’t understand why this has arrived when so much more needs fixing. Logistically though, this mode was more than likely built before the release of the game.
A Rough Few Weeks Ahead With Limited Support
With the majority of the team back to work after the Thanksgiving holidays, they pushed Season One out there and have implemented many bug fixes across the board. There is still a ton of work to be done though and most of the issues I have talked through with many more not mentioned need sorting as soon as possible. Unfortunately though, with the Christmas Holidays looming, I think there will be a two-week period where we will see minimal changes with some potentially minor playlist updates.
We have to understand though, development teams are only human and they all have lives outside of the workplace too. Yes, this franchise is potentially the biggest on the gaming scene with thousands of employees. But the logistical implementation of getting everything right must be a monumental task along with working on what they have in store for the next season in February. Fingers crossed they can get on top of the more annoying factors first.