The upcoming release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is highly anticipated for fans of the franchise and the shooter genre as a whole. It's a game that follows 2019's Modern Warfare and will look to recapture the magic of it, which will be a challenge since it has some of the best gameplay in the series to date. In many ways, Call of Duty has improved massively since its 2003 beginnings, and while the implementation of online multiplayer all those years ago massively helped player retention, it's developed and refined the formula to be something visually, audibly, and mechanically better than ever.
Yet, there are so many players that reminisce about other titles on older platforms, and to entice them into playing the new release, it could be best to lean into the past. 2022's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 isn't the first game to be bestowed with that name, as 2009's entry in the long-standing series was also given that title. That game was seen by many at the time to be one of the best shooters of the generation, and while it and the upcoming game share similarities like characters and settings, there's so much more that Modern Warfare 2 can learn from Call of Duty's success during the PS3 and Xbox 360 generation.
Modern Warfare 2's Simplicity Was Key
While Halo offered a slow and methodical approach to gunplay and Battlefield was a closer depiction of real warfare, Call of Duty was loved by fans who enjoyed its fast-paced gameplay and liberal approach to action. Strategy was essential, and knowing the quirks of maps like the rainy grasslands of Underpass or the towering battleground of Highrise was critical if players wanted to acquire one of the game's many killstreaks. This philosophy carried over to numerous Call of Duty titles even to this day, but as the franchise has taken fans to the future and back with mixed results, it has to strike a balance to maintain as big an audience as possible.
So many people will have a different favorite Call of Duty title, as many will look at the series through rose-tinted spectacles, but 2007's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare was the first to adopt the format that the franchise would later come to rely on. Its simplicity was at the heart of its charm, and is one of the biggest reasons why it still holds up, especially in Call of Duty 4's 2016 remaster. When compared to the mainline release in the same year, Infinite Warfare, many opted to return to a game that came nine years before, and 2022's Modern Warfare 2 would do well to learn from how that year unfolded.
The Modern Warfare Name Brings Expectations
There's a clear reason why developer Infinity Ward brought back the Modern Warfare name, and it's largely to do with recapturing a long-neglected audience. 2019's Modern Warfare saw the return of Captain Price, a figure that has become synonymous with the brand, as well as Spec Ops, a side mode that allows solo or co-op play through a handful of missions and scenarios. This mimics the past, and so it's apparent that the game was an (albeit slight) return to form as well as a love letter to the series' late-2000s success.
Call of Duty gained huge traction over a decade ago, but it achieved this while releasing alongside some of the best shooters of all time. Halo, Battlefield, Borderlands, and Left 4 Dead were each competing for the hearts of fans, and Call of Duty still managed to hold strong sales and leave such a significant mark on the industry. Halo Infinite is facing a turbulent and frustrating post-launch and Battlefield 2042 faced tough criticism when it released, so Call of Duty has a big opportunity to flourish in today's AAA shooter landscape. It needs to take advantage of it, and reverting to some of the norms of the franchise's past games would be the best course of action to reach and satisfy players of all ages and preferences.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is available October 28 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
