Multiplayer impressions of Modern Warfare II: The basic gameplay is solid

I played Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II multiplayer I spent a few hours this weekend leveling up to level 15 in the first beta for the game on the PlayStation 5 console. Built for next-gen, it’s one of the best looking Call of Duty games to date.

I was impressed with the gameplay for the multiplayer, which will debut on October 28th alongside the Modern Warfare II single player campaign. The basic gameplay of the multiplayer mode, which pits six human players against six others in infantry combat, is solid.

You can see some of my multiplayer rounds in the videos embedded in this story. In the beginning I had real problems staying alive in the game and I thought that this year’s title is a bit different. But eventually, after leveling my weapon up a bit, I was able to even the score up a bit.

We haven’t seen some of the deeper gameplay improvements like underwater combat or vehicle pursuit combat, but the next-gen graphics on the PS5 were quite vivid and detailed. And once I figured out what was causing my initial network issues (the PS5 sometimes forgets it has wired internet), I haven’t seen a single instance where the beefed up graphics caused my computer to go into the computer The network front faltered. Instead it worked quite well. I only had occasional crashes, but overall I was pretty happy with the game’s network performance.

With the redesigned Gunsmith customization platform, there will be plenty of reasons for people to upgrade their guns for Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0’s debut on November 16th. The beauty of Gunsmith is that you can quickly edit it and change a loadout in the very short amount of time between games. One of the great things is that the lag between games is pretty short. So this Call of Duty does not waste time compared to previous titles.

I mainly played Domination and Team Deathmatch on three maps: Farm 18 in a secret location, Mercado Las Almas in Mexico and Breenbergh Hotel in an evacuated downtown Amsterdam. I’ve also played a few rounds of Hostage Rescue at the Valderas Museum in Spain and at Breenbergh and Knockout. In both modes you get a life. But teammates can revive each other.

For this entire beta test, gameplay revolved around the game’s central infantry combat with 6v6 combat.

I’ve been fooled a few times by the Decoy Soldier, which inflates quickly and attracts fire from other players, exposing their positions. When you hit the bait, the air will escape from it and you have to wonder where the real shooter is.

Luckily, with relatively weak weapons that haven’t been upgraded, I’ve never encountered the huge armored soldier you see in the trailers.

Everything in these levels revolved around infantry combat, so we didn’t see any of the more complicated scenarios where you see stealth, amphibious assaults, AI, and vehicular warfare. I was able to slide and do a dolphin dive after a tactical sprint, but I didn’t see any sheathing. I was able to hang from a ledge and peer over the edge before hopping over a wall. This is a useful mechanic.

On each map I was able to figure out the spots where to expect enemies and where to camp and shoot away with my light machine gun. I’ve played with both an LMG and an assault rifle. While the LMG was difficult to win in close-range fights, I eventually got used to it and like its power to eliminate enemies at long range. That’s how I play most of the time. I can’t wait to try out the sniper rifles that weren’t available in this beta.

The Mercado has a nice long lane down the middle that would be great for sniping or fully powered LMGs which I didn’t have. Farm 18 also has some long sightlines on the rooftops, while of course the hotel was more like a close range map.

Another beta test is coming on September 22nd with Xbox and PC players coming on board to test the game again. I hope to see some bigger battles that will determine if this Call of Duty game will go beyond the basics.

Later we will see large-scale ground war combat maps that will include 32v32. The graphics in this beta definitely looked better. Modern Warfare ll features a physics-based material system enabling state-of-the-art photogrammetry, a new hybrid tile-based streaming system, a new PBR water and underwater rendering system, global volumetric lighting, 4K HDR and more, and a new one GPU geometry pipeline. But let’s hope there’s more to the fun than just pretty pictures.