It’s been an entire week since the official full release of Call Of Duty Modern Warfare II and it has already smashed several records across the board. It is a game achieving monumental success, grossing over $800 million in revenue over its opening weekend and obliterating concurrent player records on PC. After positive feedback for the Campaign portion of the game which early adopters managed to get hands-on with a week prior if they pre-ordered the game, it was really the online multiplayer that gamers wanted to get their hands on. Whilst I scored the multiplayer 95% in my review which you can read HERE, there are some issues. I’ll go through some of the notable ones and my personal thoughts, a lot of this will most likely be fixed in the Season 1 update on 16th November 2022.

Missing Content

Strangely, there is quite a bit missing currently, some of it is understandable and other areas are a little baffling. We know it’s all on the way, but players are scratching their heads. Why is some of this stuff missing and how come we have to wait almost three weeks when these bits and bobs have been in Call of Duty from day one? If you haven’t played Call Of Duty Modern Warfare II yet then you may be wondering what I am banging on about, so let’s take a little detailed dip.

No Hardcore Modes – Rumoured To Be Arriving 16th November 2022 

As someone who primarily plays on the hardcore modes for that instant TTK and a minimal HUD, unfortunately, you’re out of luck for these first few weeks sadly. These modes are absent for the time being with them being introduced with the Season One package. It remains to be seen whether the update for hardcore will cater for every playlist in the roster, but I’d imagine it will be for the 6v6 game modes and not ground war or invasion as much as I’d love to see this.

No Prestige System – Coming With Season One Update

If you’re like me and have smashed through to the max ranking of level 55 in the first week, then you will have hit a brick wall with the game already. You won’t be able to push your personal ranking any higher until the Season One update. Personally, I have never been a fan of the new staggered prestige system that was introduced back when Cold War arrived. Instead of being able to fly through the prestige ranks at your own pace, you are drip fed a chunk of them per season instead. Whilst we will get these very soon, it’s a bit frustrating to not be able to progress anymore for the time being. Time to level those guns up for the next 11 days I suppose!

No Emblems or Calling Cards – Coming With Season One Update

Another feature that is notably absent is the unlocking of calling cards and emblems. Whilst there appears to be a couple knocking about, it’s another area of the game that is annoyingly unavailable. Again, it isn’t the end of the world and it doesn’t really affect the gameplay loop but it would be nice to have it there.

No Barracks or Leaderboards – Coming With Season One Update

By far the most frustrating part for me is not being able to see my personal statistics. Being able to glance at your own performance across the board is a great way to keep a check on what is working for you best when it comes to the weaponry and the game modes you’re playing. Having leaderboards accessible is also a way to see how you stack up against your friends and the global community. I look forward to seeing how terrible my kill/death ratio is on 16th November 2022.

Why the development team left out all of these until the first season is baffling and I can only imagine it is for logistical reasons to integrate everything in line with the launch of Warzone 2.0 and DMZ. The team likely wants to introduce everything at once and it does make sense, but I can’t help that it leaves players who have paid £70 missing a feast of content for the best part of the first month.

Horrendous UI

The biggest complaint I have seen from the Call Of Duty community by far is the current state of the user interface and the menu system. Whilst I don’t particularly mind the layout, there are some glaring issues with several bugs. Quite often you’ll cut to your weapon load-outs and not be able to see your custom layouts and the only way to fix this is to back out all the way to the first main menu and go back into the game. Occasionally the Warzone 2.0 branding and game mode makes an appearance on these screens although attempting to access it freezes and locks up the game completely.  The good thing is that Infinity Ward has stated that redesigning the UI/UX is on their agenda although it remains to be seen when this will happen.

First Update Live

The first update went live yesterday with several problems pinpointed and fixed, you can also check out what is consistently being worked on from the official TRELLO BOARD. Below is the official list of fixes as taken from the Offical Website.

General Updates

• We’ve addressed a number of crashes affecting players across all platforms including the bug that caused certain players partied-up in game to crash when matchmaking. Last night’s update should provide additional stability in terms of crashing. We will continue to monitor live issue reports and provide resolutions as soon as we are able.

• We have made general game improvements including:
  • Fix for various camos not unlocking during progression.
  • Fixed framerate drop issues.
  • Addressed known freezing issues.
  • Overall performance improvements.
  • Added fixes for stuttering and lag issues.

PC

• A recent NVIDIA hotfix addressed some critical issues. Please make sure you are running the game on drivers 526.61.

• The PC benchmark map has been updated with a more accurate reading of the FPS display.

• Be sure to follow our friends at Beenox for additional updates for MW2 on PC.

Weapons

• We are actively collecting weapon performance/usage data and will provide detailed updates on weapon-balancing with the launch of Season 01.

• Last week we disabled the attachment tuning feature due to an issue affecting players with 4 or more tuned attachments equipped at once. We re-enabled attachment tuning in last night’s update so players should not encounter further issues equipping attachments on a weapon.

Multiplayer

• Enemy or live ping will remain disabled in multiplayer until a fix is implemented with the launch of Season 01. This is due to a bug where ping remained on some players after death. KBM players are currently still able to danger ping.

• The player icon on the minimap will no longer disappear after a player is revived in certain modes.

Maps/Playlists

• We have added Breenbergh Hotel into Third Person Moshpit

• There are no significant map changes, but we have patched various exploits and geometry bugs in the days since launch. We’ll continue to address small fixes through daily updates.

UI/UX

• We continue to refine our UI and will have more details in the Season 01 launch notes.

In addition to changes that we have already made, we are also actively tracking live issues. Some of the known issues at present include:

• We are aware of the following issues and fixes are in the works
  • Riot shield provides invincibility against chopper gunner and VTOL
  • DDOS Field upgrade availability bug
  • A bug affecting helicopter height, which allows them to leave the map in some instances

Final Thoughts

Despite these niggling issues, Call Of Duty Modern Warfare II is the most polished shooter I’ve played in years and certainly since MW2019. Whilst the game perhaps still needs some fine-tuning and weapon balancing, this normally comes as part of a first big update also. Expect to also see plenty of purchasable cosmetic packs, an all-new battle pass system and the promise of a Modern Warfare fan favourite map. All of this is alongside Warzone 2.0 and DMZ means that there should be a vast amount more content for hungry players to plough through.