When the team does get working on a proper sequel, hopefully after fixing this entry’s remaining technical hiccups and balancing issues, here are 10 things we desperately hope to see. Most of these are continuations of all the goodness Modern Warfare brought to the table, while a few are facets of the recent title they should leave by the wayside.
10 The Same Characters
Modern Warfare’s cast of characters are what really make the campaign shine. Not only do they go through their own individual arcs, but it is easy to sympathize with them and their plights. One feels Kyle Garrick’s internal conflict regarding the morally grey nature of modern battlefields just as well as they root for Farah defending her homeland and taking vengeance on Barkov.
With a direct continuation, we want to see where these characters are going and how the events of the first game changed their lives. Some may end up in a better place, but maybe some are worse off than before.
9 Different Spec Ops
For co-op lovers, Modern Warfare left much to be desired with its offerings. Spec Ops offers four large missions, but they feel bland and unfairly difficult. Should the mode return in the sequel, it needs some serious tinkering.
They’d be smart to take a cue from the old Spec Ops mode from the original trilogy. Instead of giant shooting galleries, many of those objectives tasked players with different tasks and even different game play mechanics, making for a unique asymmetric experience.
8 More Open-Ended Levels
Because of the game’s technological advancements, many of the levels were not as open as prior entries. The smaller scale still sees some of the missions fall below sixty frames per second on the base PS4 and Xbox One consoles. Even with these limitations, however, a few parts allow players to tackle a mission in a non-linear manner.
“Going Dark” is the best example of this, and its unique stealth game play makes it the campaign’s highlight. By the time a new Modern Warfare 2 comes out, the medium will be knee deep in PS5 and Project Scarlett, so the added horsepower of the next generation should allow Infinity Ward the freedom to craft more open levels.
7 New Locations
The majority of the game takes place in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, two tried and true settings for the series. Fortunately, a couple of early missions in London shake things up. The next game should really go out there and try to take players somewhere the series has never been before. The original Modern Warfare 2 brought the battle to the US, and they could try this again, but it would be more ideal to do it on a smaller scale.
This reboot goes for a more grounded approach. Not only would another World War 3 be ridiculous, but it would also retread the same ground as the original trilogy.
6 More Breaching Levels
Infinity Ward went all in on their new lighting and night vision mechanics. They add a new layer of tension to the breaches where players have to quickly distinguish threats among a civilian population, leading to some tough calls. A sequel can expand upon this concept, fixing some of problems these segments had in the recent title. For example, these sequences involve too much trial and error.
Killing certain civilians leads to a game over, instead of letting the player live with their mistake. Maybe one’s actions should always continue the story, but severely affect cinematics and the characters themselves, similar to Black Ops 2.
5 Expand Gunfight
Gunfight stands as shining star among Modern Warfare’s generous competitive offerings. These lightning fast two versus two rounds on tiny maps are an endlessly addictive counterpoint to the battle royales currently populating the market.
Multiplayer modes come and go with passing iterations, but the folks in charge of the series would be foolish not to make Gunfight a mainstay. The next Modern Warfare can use the established foundation to add more variants, spicing up the brilliantly simple mode.
4 Ground War
On the other end of the multiplayer offerings away from Gunfight is Ground War. These massive battles pit two large teams against each other for control over zones on a map. The large-scale conflicts have their fans, but many are turned off by how quick people die and the mundane objectives.
Infinity Ward’s future game needs to shake things up by adding more incentives for players to engage in Ground War, whether that be varying objectives or something different entirely.
3 Better PC Launch
PC had the rockiest launch of all the platforms this year. Multiplayer affected every method of play, but only the PC got the short end of the stick in the campaign. People reported numerous glitches, some of which froze the game altogether. PC used to be the best way to play FPS games, but now it seems like an afterthought.
A sequel needs to pay more attention to optimizing the PC version, to give an even first impression for every one. At least players on the platform can always take solace in the mouse and keyboard’s superiority over a controller when it comes to aiming and precision.
2 Better Balancing At Launch
At the time of this writing, the game it still going through frequent patches to balance the loadouts and fix exploits. This is par for the course in any multiplayer game, and is expected when the series is dealing with a new engine, but the sequel better learn from all their mistakes and come out a more solid package.
Their dedication to remedying problems post-launch is commendable, and the free maps and game modes coming down the pipeline make any current errors more forgivable, but feeling more complete and balanced on release day is always a plus.
1 Soap And Ghost
The game’s ending teases the formation of Task Force 141 who, along with Price, were the protagonists of the original trilogy. They better make good on their promise and bring fans updated versions of Soap and Ghost.
If the new Price is any indication, reimagined versions of other classic characters will only serve to make fans appreciate these heroes even more. We just hope they stay away from General Shepherd, for Ghost’s sake.
Next: Campaign Missions In Modern Warfare Ranked From Worst To Best
