Infinity Ward’s leaders unveiled Modern Warfare II and fieled a lot of questions about the campaign, multiplayer, and Warzone 2.
Activision’s Infinity Ward studio opened its doors last week to the gaming press for the first time since 2019’s debut of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. This time, it was to show off the sequel, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, which debuts on October 28. Over several hours, the team’s leaders described how and why they built the new game, which is a gritty combat game but leans more toward entertainment than the uncomfortable extreme violence that was a theme of the last game. After the presentations and first-time demos of numerous levels, the executives led by co-studio head Patrick Kelly answered questions from the attending press. We covered a lot of ground, getting answers to a variety of questions about Modern Warfare II’s campaign, multiplayer, and Warzone 2. While we tried, many of the questions were tabled until later revelations coming this year. Some of the answers we did get: We confirmed this installment will not have a Zombies mode, and Gunfight is coming back to multiplayer. The speakers included Patrick Kelly, co-studio head, creative director; Jeff Negus, narrative director; Brian Bloom, head writer; Jack O’Hara, game director; Mark Grigsby, studio animation director; Stephanie Snowden, director of communications; Geoffrey Smith, multiplayer design director; and Joe Cecot, co-design director of multiplayer. Here’s an edited transcript of the Q&A session. Question: For multiplayer and Warzone, are there some distinctions between the two that you’ll draw? It seems like your multiplayer maps are getting larger. How do you still distinguish between large multiplayer map gameplay and what will be in Warzone 2? Geoffrey Smith (multiplayer design director): For the battle maps, there are specifically what we call points of interest, POIs on the larger map. You’re kind of sequestered to that little town. You wouldn’t be playing across the full landscape. Patrick Kelly: I can tell you that on the gameplay side of things, when we talk about this and go back and forth on it–the larger the map, we typically tend to think about – and this will make sense – the more tactical gameplay the game will have, because it’s a wider-open space. For Geoff, who is honestly the best person with geo I’ve ever come across in this industry, he’s constantly with the team thinking about engagement ranges and geos supporting those. And then those POIs, like you mentioned
The battle maps, as we call them, which are these larger maps, but not quite as large as Warzone 2–they tend to be somewhat between that slightly more tactical experience, but let’s call it more MP engagements than you’d have to make in a larger map. Smith: I think that once you add in whether you respond or not, it really changes what you value. Those are pretty big distinctions. Question: With lowering water graphics, do players get an advantage with being able to see each other in the water? I know that’s a tactic that players have abused in the past to see people who are hiding in the shadows. Has that been factored into the water gameplay? Cecot: We strive to not have that. If your settings are low, we still want the same coverage, the same treatment of water. Smith: Even when we first approached water, it was from the perspective that this should be an escape mechanic, not an attacking mechanic. You should be able to jump in the water and swim away and players aren’t able to see you. It’s been something that’s gone back and forth. Should I be able to see someone who’s out of the water? What if you give me an assault rifle and I can just shoot that person, and now he’s angry? It’s been a fine balance between the cloudiness, being able to maybe see somebody’s bubbles, but not being able to see everything. Question: So it’s different from being able to just lower shadows and see someone who’s hiding. Jack O’Hara: Correct. When you’re sitting underwater and you look up, there’s a reflection that happens at the surface of the water. It means you can’t just sit there and wait and then see someone. It’s much harder to see through that. Kelly: One thing we also spent a lot of time messing around with, with respect to AI–AI is a major focus of ours, as I’m sure you’re gathering. But at what depth under the water can AI no longer see you? We’ve tried to think about those engagements and how they work, how water becomes viable cover, and how we can balance that appropriately. Smith: You were asking if you can mess with the settings to brighten it up, right? That’s a quality pass. We need to get the fun and balance in normal settings, and then we have to look at what people can use at other settings. O’Hara: It’s definitely at the top of our mind when we talk about using new technology. The example from a few games ago was grass. You could turn off certain graphics settings and there’s no more grass. You could just see somebody who’s prone and trying to hide. Kelly: We also have to support people playing together on a wide range of machines. We’ve gone to town with high-end PCs and the latest generation of consoles with respect to things like god rays and everything else in the water. But we have to dial that back, as you can imagine, for things like older consoles. Making sure you don’t feel advantaged or disadvantaged is a hot topic, for sure.
