Though its launch was incredibly strong, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has waned in popularity quite a bit over the last few months, and according to many fans, that's due to the game's lack of significant content updates. By adopting a live-service approach right alongside Call of Duty: Warzone, player expectations for Modern Warfare 2's post-launch content increased quite dramatically, with many expecting to see new maps, modes, and weapons come to the game consistently in the months following launch. While things haven't gone quite as smoothly as fans had hoped, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 seems to be getting the memo now, with a fan-favorite mode finally making its long-awaited return in just a few weeks' time: Gunfight.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is set to receive its Season 3 update on April 12, and while it hasn't been officially 100% confirmed just yet, it's extremely likely that Gunfight will be arriving alongside it. A mode first introduced in 2019's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Gunfight pits teams of just 1-3 players against one another in an intense, smaller-scale duel. Highly competitive and highly addictive, Gunfight quickly became one of the best new Call of Duty modes in recent memory, and fans have been desperate for its return in Modern Warfare 2. But before they dive right in, there are a few things they might want to do to prepare.
How Call of Duty Fans Can Prepare For Modern Warfare 2's Gunfight Mode
The most obvious, and efficient, way to prepare for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2's Gunfight mode is to play its previous iterations. Both Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty Black Ops: Cold War contain the Gunfight game mode, and both should do an excellent job of preparing players for what's to come in Modern Warfare 2's own Gunfight mode, likely having very similar rules, map sizes, and general map layouts. The only issue fans run into here is if they don't already own Modern Warfare or Black Ops: Cold War.
If fans are looking for a cheaper alternative, and one that more closely resembles Modern Warfare 2's gameplay, then a good option is to set up a private match in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. With just a few tweaks in the options menu, players should be able to create a game mode that's fairly similar to Gunfight. All that's left is to invite a friend, and players have themselves the perfect 1v1 Gunfight training ground, with all the specific gunplay quirks they'll find in Modern Warfare 2's iteration of the mode.
An even easier alternative for fans, and a good one for those who prefer to play solo, is to download Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 and hop into a match. Unless they're somehow the greatest Warzone pro of all time, players are almost guaranteed to head to the Gulag during a Warzone match. Now that Warzone 2.0 has stripped back the Gulag experience, reducing it to just two players as opposed to four and making a few changes to victory parameters, it actually resembles Gunfight quite a bit as an intense 1v1 duel with set weapons.
Thankfully, even if Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 fans can't carve out the time to practice ahead of Gunfight's imminent return, they shouldn't be held back for too long. Gunfight has always been one of Call of Duty's most approachable modes, with objectives as plain and simple as Team Deathmatch's. Just about any player, regardless of skill level, can jump in on the ground floor and have a great time with it.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is out now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
