Gameitall 2019 entry for the Call of Duty franchise is back in the hands of Infinity Ward and with that we’re going back to what made the franchise popular – Modern Warfare. Confirmed as a “soft reboot” of the series, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is looking to bring the series back to something that is relevant and current. According to the studio, that means a “morally gray world.”
“By the time Modern Warfare 3 was over, nukes had gone off, the U.S. had been invaded by Russians, and there were no more relatable stakes,” said Taylor Kurosaki, studio narrative director at Infinity Ward. “So we put that storyline to bed, and instead reimagined those characters so they could work in the conflicts of today.
“The world we live in is more complex than the one 10 years ago. Enemies often do not wear uniforms … as a result, civilian collateral damage is a bigger part of the equation.”
From what we know of the upcoming campaign, we’ll see see the return of SAS operatives Captain John Price and John “Soap” McTavish, both re-imagined to fit with the game’s story, and also see how the war affects rebels and freedom fighters in their perspective. Specifically, we’ll see the life of one freedom fighter as she grows up around the conflict that surrounds her. “We were very strongly influenced by stories of normal people trying to live their lives in the context of war,” said Michal Drobot, principal rendering engineer at Infinity Ward.
“This is a military sim,” Infinity Ward studio co-head David Stohl said. Stating that his team is going for something more “authentic and gritty” over the “superhero caricature” which sort have plagued the series campaign modes in recent history.
“This is the most authentic and realistic game we have ever made,” Minkoff said. “All we want to do as storytellers is make players feel something.”
Aside from the very heavy push on the campaign for this years iteration, Infinity Ward is also doing something very promising for multiplayer by making Modern Warfare the first Call of Duty game to accept Cross Platform Play so that players on PS4, Xbox One and PC can all play together. While that is already very exciting, the next big step is something we’ve been hoping for from the franchise for a while now – the elimination of the Season Pass.
“With the launch of Modern Warfare, the team is taking steps to unite the community,” The studio said in a statement. “First, the team plans for Modern Warfare to be played together across PC and console through cross-play support.
“Also, the team is eliminating the traditional season pass, so that they can deliver more free maps and content as well as post-launch events to all players.”
This marks a big win for those supporting Cross Platform Play which has been gaining ground thanks to games like Rocket League, Fortnite and the more recently released Dauntless, however a franchise like Call of Duty addapting this feature could mean a major milestone for competitive gaming and could be a bigger sign for other companies to push for the feature to be in their games.
The Call of Duty Franchise has for a long time been using the season pass to sell additional maps and features to expand the game’s multiplayer aspect, usually costing around $50 on top of the price of the full game. The Season Pass and Map Packs have long been a divide for the community due to its price tag, what happens for players who choose not to get the content, or even the content being timed exclusive to specific consoles. The biggest criticism we had for the Season Pass was with last year’s Black Ops 4, which was a multiplayer only game being charged at full price with a $60 CAD Season Pass for more maps.
The new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare will be out on October 25 2019.
