The Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 beta became available to all players on September 24, and it’s already stirring controversy among fans. The game serves as the sequel to 2019’s Modern Warfare, which served as a revitalization of the Call of Duty series rather than as a remake of the classic 2007 game, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - the first title to divest from CoD's traditional WW2 setting. But despite successfully reinvigorating the series, it appears Modern Warfare 2 is already beginning to spell trouble for Call of Duty.

Thus far, the beta has shown that Modern Warfare 2 is continuing to implement what made Modern Warfare a special release when it came out three years ago. Both titles implement a more realistic gameplay style than other recent releases by Infinity Ward, hearkening back to the roots of the Call of Duty series that were lost in the move to futuristic settings and movement options with Advanced Warfare and Black Ops 2. When this shift towards realism was felt in the 2019 game, reviews for Modern Warfare heralded it as a good but not great release that had the potential to become better.

Related: Modern Warfare 2's Most Divisive Feature Should Stay

Unfortunately, Modern Warfare 2’s beta is showing that Infinity Ward has not unlocked this potential. This should come as a surprise to players, as most of Modern Warfare 2’s issues are precisely what the community expressed were also issues in Modern Warfare. It seems as if not all of this feedback has been taken on board, sadly, with Infinity Ward leaning further into the sins of Modern Warfare in Modern Warfare 2, making an arguably worse sequel when the follow-up should've been another Call of Duty crowdpleaser.

After Modern Warfare's Success, MW2 Should've Been CoD's Homerun

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 Image

Arguably the biggest controversy to emerge from the Modern Warfare 2 beta is the minimap change. In previous Call of Duty games, enemies firing a weapon without a suppressor on would light up on the player's minimap. However, this has been changed for MW2, with unsuppressed weapons no longer giving a player's position away except for the obvious sound cues. Despite this being greeted with opposition by a vocal selection of fans, Infinity Ward has publicly declared its intention to retain this feature in the full release of Modern Warfare 2. This is after fans continually voiced frustration with the same choice in Modern Warfare. YouTuber PrestigelsKey even pointed out Black Ops: Cold War used minimap markings for marketing in light of opposition to MW, so the developer continuing to implement this change to the minimap has come as a bit of a shock to the game's hardcore fans.

Perhaps even more surprising is that “Dead Silence” is remaining a Field Upgrade to use in CoD rather than a Perk. Because the Call of Duty series places such an emphasis on sound, the lack of a “Dead Silence” Perk has also been met with opposition. The absence of this perk produces a meta in which players simply camp to listen to opponents’ footsteps, which in turn slows down gameplay. With so many other fast-paced, FPS games like Apex Legends in the market, Infinity Ward’s decision to make this Field Upgrade rather than a perk is detrimental to MW2, especially because the beta has revealed just how loud footsteps will be in the game. Tweaks are inevitable, and it remains to be seen if Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2's different gameplay will resonate beyond its regular audience, but for now, it's causing a backlash that's casting a cloud over its release.

Sources: PrestigelsKey/YouTube

A lawsuit has been filed against Activision Blizzard by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing, which alleges the company has engaged in abuse, discrimination, and retaliation against its female employees. Activision Blizzard has denied the allegations. The full details of the Activision Blizzard lawsuit (content warning: rape, suicide, abuse, harassment) are being updated as new information becomes available.