A professional Call of Duty player earned the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare tactical nuke Killstreak in his first game of the beta yesterday, revealing what the upcoming game's version of the classic Call of Duty Killstreak looks like in less than two hours after the beta became available. The Call of Duty: Modern Warfare beta launched yesterday on PS4 for those who pre-ordered the game or received a code.
The PS4 beta is part of Modern Warfare's final stretch up to its October 25 release date, with another beta weekend, a campaign reveal and the premiere of the Spec Ops mode still to come. Modern Warfare is one of 2019's forecasted holiday best sellers, which isn't too surprising. The Call of Duty series has always had a big pull in the industry, but Modern Warfare has the advantage of being a reboot of one of the most beloved games in the franchise and looks like it could have the series' best gameplay in years.
Damon "Karma" Barlow, a professional Call of Duty player for OpTic Gaming, became the first known player to earn the nuke Killstreak while streaming his first beta game on his Twitch channel. The achievement requires earning 30 kills without dying, using only Modern Warfare's guns and not other Killstreak rewards. Once Karma detonated the nuke, the match instantly ended, earning the win for his team. As expected, the nuke lit up the entire map with bright light, but since Karma was in a tunnel at the time, the clip doesn't show the nuke falling from the sky or any other pre-detonation animation.
As MP1ST points out, the fact that Karma was communicating with a team of other players who could look out for him most likely helped him stay alive so long, especially since the game mode he was in has no mini-map. According to MP1ST, Karma's nuke was earned less than two hours after the beta became available to those with codes, so his achievement was still remarkably quick.
Call of Duty's nuke Killstreaks haven't ever been a big source of controversy despite their inherent violent nature, perhaps because of the Killstreak's quick, flash-and-it's-over animation. Another Modern Warfare Killstreak, however, has stirred up some debate. The inclusion of a Modern Warfare White Phosphorus Killstreak, based on the controversial chemical weapon of the same name, brought criticism to the game, particularly given Modern Warfare's gritty story. Since the game's campaign promises to be on the level of "No Russian," the infamous terrorism scene from Modern Warfare 2, some felt the nonchalant use of chemical weapons in its multiplayer felt out of place. A Modern Warfare dev response, however, said multiplayer is more of a "playground to play on" than a commentary on a "good guy or bad guy."