Thoroughly Modern Ghillie

I’m just writing this for a bit of fun. Partly because it’s been so long since I wrote about games without getting paid for it, and partly because some people on Twitter indicated, via a poll, that there’s actually an audience for my writing. So, thank you. All three of you. This isn’t a preview, therefore. It’s just a… thing.

I’ve played every CoD since the original Modern Warfare, but the campaign gameplay reveal of Modern Warfare 2 (which is technically Modern Warfare 5, but anyway) immediately killed my interest. It was so by-the-numbers, it looked as though the series was parodying itself. I was almost expecting a sequence where everybody dived into the sea and, upon seeing a shoal of fish, your sergeant turned to you and said “Take them out or let them pass, your call”.  

But then a few days ago, I started seeing clips of people playing the multiplayer beta, and it looked kind of… good? So, when a videogame retailer I follow on Twitter (Monster Shop, if you’re interested) offered beta keys, I jumped on the opportunity with quite frankly pathetic enthusiasm. A few hours later I’d started playing, and soon decided that - for reasons I still don’t entirely understand - I wanted to write something about it.

My first thoughts surrounded the idea of weight. When not sprinting, your soldier can maintain a steady jog, all the while your own footsteps thundering in your ears in a slightly disturbing manner. They have the volume of a heavily-armed toddler throwing a tantrum on a wooden floor.

Then there’s the guns. They feel heavy in a way that should be impossible through a controller, each bullet that you take or send shuddering with a noticeable impact. Rifles in particular feel boomingly lethal in a way that justifies the fact that a successful shot usually results in a one-hit kill.

I was surprised to see the shakeup given to the perk system. Perks are now doled out in customisable perk packages of four. The first two are active from the beginning of the match, like normal, while the second two are slowly earned as you play. I was a little distressed to find that my two favourites - Cold Blooded and Ghost - can only be assigned to the earnable slots. Still, the ability to choose whether you want to earn streaks through kills or score is a nice touch.

Even though there are only two maps and a limited number of unlocks, I’m enjoying the beta. Some of the new additions are great, such as the drill explosive, the bomb drone, and the blow-up doll (sorry, “inflatable decoy”). Available environments and character models rely a little too much on beige, which occasionally makes spotting enemies or distinguishing between friend and foe harder than it needs to be. I’m sure the full release will quickly eradicate this problem though, primarily through the licensed skins when people start running round dressed as Scooby Doo or She Hulk or whatever.

The heart of the MW2 beta’s quality, I think, is that it’s been designed in such a way that it serves as a reminder that the best CoDs are exercises in moment-to-moment calculations of probability. If you notice teammates spawning in front of you, that means enemies are more likely to be spawning far behind you, and the immediate area is safe; if an enemy has taken up a sniping position, you can bet that they’ll return there later in the match, meaning you need to be more cautious when approaching it; a proximity mine at the bottom of a staircase means it’s likely that an enemy is hiding at the top; and so on. The maps and spawn system have clearly been designed hand-in-hand here.

Too much content is missing to make a definitive verdict, and that’s not what I’m trying to do here anyway. So far though, while it’s great fun, it’s failing to capture the magic of the first two Modern Warfare titles (or even the 2019 reboot). Something’s missing - but perhaps that something will be there at launch. I’m not sure I’ll be there on day one to find out, though; not at today’s prices.