As infuriating exercises in being the severalth thing in a series but having the same title as the original go, the Modern Warfare reboot wasn’t half bad. We spent a bunch of time in the multiplayer beta for MW2 ahead of the full release at the end of this month, and found a solid (if a little muddled) Call of Duty game in there. But we have to wonder: in a world far removed from the original Modern Warfare 2, which solidified CoD’s utter dominance of the 360 era back in 2009, what place does 2022’s MW2 multiplayer have in a crowded marketplace full of free-to-play competition? Not just from the Fortnites and APEX’s of this world, but from its own Battle Royale spin-off, Warzone, which is itself getting a sequel in Warfare 2.0, dropping next month as part of MW2’s first season. Traditional CoD multiplayer of course offers a different experience to the Battle Royale shooters it sits alongside, providing a selection of classic modes and a wealth of maps to get stuck into. And frankly, not everyone likes the Free-to-Play model: there is still a place for the premium shooter, and in a world where Battlefield is floundering, and Halo is struggling to reassert itself, Modern Warfare 2 is frankly the best premium shooter there is. Modern Warfare 2 will release on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S on October 28th.
