The new CoD this year is going to be Modern Warfare 3, a direct sequel to 2022's game. We got a first look at prolonged multiplayer gameplay from MW3 during CoD Next 2023, and we have to admit, we're impressed. Here is everything we learned about Modern Warfare 3' multiplayer during CoD Next.
Modern Warfare 2 (last year's game) featured a number of very controversial changes to multiplayer. The game design philosophy seemed to be "let's eliminate the skill gap". So they heavily reduced movement while also giving us a low TTK. The result was predictable; lobbies full of players who would post up behind head glitches and hold their L Triggers, with no one brave enough to pick up a sub and chall.
The studio behind MW2, Infinity Ward, probably always knew that the "sweats" would hate the game, but they almost certainly hadn't bargained on the casual audience turning against them as well. That's just what happened though, with Warzone 2 and MW2 having historically poor player retention. And so papa Activision stepped in. Because as much as IW might be the "golden child" of the CoD studios, it was clearly time to let Sledgehammer clean up this mess.
Sledgehammer, the guys working on MW3, have basically been telling us all year: "Don't worry, we agree MW2 was bad, so we're going to undo all of those controversial changes to multiplayer". And they were finally able to show off some prolonged MW3 multiplayer during CoD Next. Here is what we saw during the showcase.
CoD Next 2023 Reveals Modern Warfare 3 Multiplayer
At CoD Next 2023 they opened the show by talking about multiplayer with the two lead designers while the content creators were playing matches against each other in the background. And it was immediately very telling from the way the designers were speaking about the game that they want to appeal to the competitive community with MW3.
They described how the movement was sped up and the TTK was raised, and without directly saying it they very much insinuated that a skill gap will be returning to CoD. Hell, they were talking about "movement kings" and "making rotations", which is in stark contrast to last year's message about "supporting all playstyles"...
Here are the specific, new facts we learned:
- Slide-cancel and reload-cancel is back, thank god.
- Classic minimap with red dots is back. It wasn't just hype.
- The new Perk system was explained (but all the Perks info was leaked earlier the same day, so that wasn't brand-new).
- Post-launch maps will NOT just be remasters, there will also be new maps. They also mentioned that we will get at least 12 6v6 maps over the course of a year, so two new maps per season.
- Control is back, and will presumably be the third-mode in the CDL (one of the few disappointments of the night).
- Tac Stance (activated by pressing down on the d-pad) is like half hip-fire. They suggested that if you have a slow weapon like an AR or a Marksman Rifle, and you know you're about to enter close-quarters combat, you should switch to Tac Stance.
- MW3 will have its own set of completionist camos (they didn't say how long the grind would take compared to MWII).
- 20 Operators and 30 weapons available at launch.
- Advanced stats are coming, and this will include damage breakdowns.
- Weekly Challenges have to be completed to earn "After Market Parts", which are basically receivers that can be swapped around to change the caliber or firing mode of a given weapon.
- New Lethal: Bleacher Drone. Basically a bomb drone that you can just throw and it will automatically move towards enemies.
- New Streak: Mosquito Drone. Sets up a defensive area and launches rockets at enemies who move into this zone.
- There's a new Field Upgrade that is basically a robot that captures Hardpoint and Domination objectives for you. Hmm, we aren't sure about this one.
If you want to go back and watch the multiplayer discussion, it started five minutes after the show began and lasted for 25 minutes.
Excited for MW3? You will be after seeing the perk selection!
Let's hope we get less of this nonsense in MW3: