So over the weekend there have been too many things that have stopped me from streaming. I have been treated to a visit to the comedy club, I have done the eldest’s gymnastics taxi service and today I am taxi for anther relative and their trip to day surgery. So when I have had an hour to spare, I have been joining the new free open beta of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare on Battle.net – also available on PS4 and XBox.
So, you know, I am not really that great at shooters and my stats on Apex Legends (Level 80+ on a KDR of 0.33) and Counter-Strike will hint that I am going to spend most of my CoD multiplayer on my back and full of bullet holes. That is not going to deter me though as I fight my around the multiple game modes and try to kill people.
Multiple Game Modes: Ground War
The first thing I think is great is that Activision appear to be managing a number of game modes over the Call of Duty beta weekend and actually, the big 32 v 32 Ground War is the one mode that I liked the least. There is nothing wrong with it though, you quickly level up through the earlier experiences and gain access to sniper rifles, bazookas and different types of munitions. I found the large wielding map that you have to have with 64 players to be something that needs time to learn all the nooks, crannies and shortcuts.
The concept is a Capture the Flag game where you need to accumulate points for your team by capturing and defending the 5 checkpoints across the map. First team to 250 points wins.
All the vehicular help is great and you can zip across the map on a quadbike ATV, and I had great fun running over snipers from the other side while they perched on the mountainside roads.
What bugged me though was the re-spawning. It did not matter where you chose to revive yourself, anywhere apart from HQ, you had a high chance that someone would be camping the spawn point. I was sniped more than enough times to realise that often trying to jump back in at one of the central would get you very quickly killed off again, although you can also re-spawn into an armoured vehicle which is rushing to battle.
Gunfight
Then you had a trial of a 2 v 2 format, where you had limited access to guns that you had to pick up, PUBG and Apex style, before battling it out to the death. You could, and occasionally I did to great effect, just simply go at it with fists and beat the soldiers into submission. I think a few of my opposition got caught out, but quickly learned to watch out for it.
What I liked about Gunfight was that the rounds were quick. It was a best of 11 rounds and the rounds themselves were only a minute or two long. You were taking a risk to get up high on a platform to get the best firepower, but at the same time you did not necessarily need it if you could lock on a few well timed punches.
It would be hard to focus on fist play for all of your rounds though. The occasional point to try and turn a corner with things is okay, but every single round would get you quickly scouted.
Realism
The last format I got to play over the weekend was Realism. This is 6 v 6 Team Deathmatch where you respawn far quicker than the other rounds and should ideally hunt as a pack. The good thing is that the matches are really quick and you will get shot time and time again if you are not quick enough to compose yourself.
I saw a number of maps, one based on a desert shanty town and another based on the backstreets of a British city industrial lot. You could almost imagine at one point you were chasing terrorists through a London factory.
What was good for me was that the automated re-spawn points – you can’t choose like in Ground War – seemed to place you away from any threats. This meant that you at least had half a chance to not be spawn sniped and you could quickly hunt for a gun and some cover.
Will I Buy Call of Duty: Modern Warfare?
The thing is. I had some enjoyment from this game. I can lose an hour or so, just running around, getting killed and getting back up again. I did not mind that I had a KDR worse than what I had for Apex Legends and in a perverse way I enjoyed the frustration of being stream sniped.
If there is a price tag for Call of Duty Modern Warfare though, £50 is far too much for me which is the Amazon pre-order for consoles and Battle.net for PC. I am far to old to have the reactions of some of the reactions that the other players have and I probably no longer have the eyesight to spot that small soldier jumping between the railway carriages.
From the beta gameplay I had though. I completely understand why people love the Call of Duty series and the latest Modern Warfare is sure to be a hit… just not for me. All I missed was the fact that in the beta, I could not see what my overall stats for the weekend were.