A preview of information and expectations for the next year of Call of Duty.

With Gamescom all but wrapped in Cologne, Germany, now we have a host of new information regarding what the next installment will offer. So lets take a look at the cards on the table and try to figure out if we have a good hand or not.

Maps

Now I must admit, even though Advanced Warfare, Sledgehammer’s last foray into this storied franchise, was a revolutionary title that saw the first introduction of advanced movement amongst a host of different and new ideas, I was not much of a fan. I did play the game a lot but not nearly as much as say Black Ops 2 or in fact even Black Ops 3 (I sense a pattern here). And this was the first time map and level design saw a real switch after Ghosts, which went for a larger design of maps overall. A lot of vertical elements were introduced and the overall dynamic seemed to shift. But what we have seen of the maps that we can expect in the upcoming Beta, I think we should expect a return to normalcy, a three lane structured system albeit with some elements of verticality thrown in there for good measure. Ardennes Forest seemed to adhere to this the most, the snowy battlefield boasting an astute sense of both visual and structural fidelity. Pointe Du Hoc seems to move away from that a little, making trench combat a focus, with high paced action occurring in pockets of the map. Gibraltar and Flak, the two most recent maps released seem to hit a subtle balance between the two, with the three lane system seamlessly integrating vertical aspects especially in the middle of the map. Now to say all is good would be foolish, as with anything related to this franchise, final verdict can only be given after playing the maps and understanding their individual flows. However, the early signs have been encouraging and I look forward to seeing what Sledgehammer decide as the map rotation for competitive.

Weapons

With the clock hands turning back almost 70 years to the era of World War 2, some classic weapons make a triumphant return from past Call of Duty’s. The STG-44, PPsH, and the MP-40 are some of the examples that come to mind. Since I started playing Call of Duty as it had already transitioned into modern warfare, I did not particularly get to enjoy these weapons of the games past, but I can definitely say I am excited. However, one thing I am not a fan, especially in Competitive is the shortening of the pool of viable guns. In Infinite Warfare, God bless that game, we only ever saw the KBar, ERAD and the NV4. I do understand that some guns will statistically be better than the rest and that is fair, but I would love to see a varied pool of guns the players can choose from as it would add nice variety to the game. Another concern of mine, is to do with the STG-44. Now I do realise that I have not played the game and my recent exploration into Rainbow Six Seige (A game that I highly recommend) has distorted my sensibilities when it comes to recoil, but still, all the gameplay I have seen with the weapon and to some extent the others as well, displayed a distinct lack of recoil. I am assuming there might be heavier hitting assault rifles that may have more recoil but the combination of potency at medium range and marginal recoil might make it a weapon of choice for a lot of players. But I am optimistic, so I have my fingers crossed.

Divisions

One of the most talked about changes being brought to the game was the essential removal of create-a-class and the introduction of Divisions. Now if somehow you missed this, there are five Divisions to choose from, namely Infantry, Mountain, Expeditionary, Airborne and Armored. Each division grants you a special ability for a specific type of weapon, for example the Airborne division lets you dictate when you want a suppressor on your sub machine gun and the Infantry division that grants you a bayonet charge on your assault rifles. Recently, we have learned that their are specific perks fixed to certain divisions and a player can choose to run a type of weapon different than to what the division recommends, at the cost of the ability granted by that division. The only qualm I have with this is that Divisions that have perks that are analogous to Flak Jacket and Tac Mask will be picked more frequently than the other but I guess that was something that was bound to happen. It is an exciting change that effects the potency of your character and I am looking forward to what the meta becomes.

Incendiary Shells

The Beta actually dropped earlier than expected as I was writing this piece and a host of new problems surfaced and one of the more annoying ones was the Incendiary Shells available in the Expeditionary Division. These shells, prevalent during the actual time period the game is based on, have an added lethal element of a damage over time burning effect that, if some people are to be believed, is extremely infuriating to deal with. During E3 when the game was showcased, these shells had to be manually put into the weapon when you spawned but in the Beta, this has been changed and the shells are already loaded into the weapon. This gives you an extra damage boost off of spawn and are problematic as the damage carries on you even after you take the base hit from the slug. Many people have complained on their preferred social media about how on maps designed to favour short range engagements, they would get spammed with these obnoxious things over and over again. So the feedback is there and we wait and see what Sledgehammer do to deal with it.

Competitive

The show match that took place in Germany was the competitive multiplayer reveal. Two teams of professionals and one Jack ‘Courage’ Dunlop battled it out in a five map series where we got to see some new things. First and the big one, was the return of Capture the Flag. Personally, I have never been a huge fan if the game mode. It is extremely tactical and good map positioning is a prerequisite for victory, but the stalemates and the overall slower pace than the Hardpoints does not entice me. I really enjoyed watching Uplink in the Jetpack era and will thoroughly miss it. That being said, a lot of older players and lovers of CTF rejoiced as the pros played the mode on the new map, Flak. This was the first reveal of the map and in my opinion, was very similar to Gibraltar in its vertical elements and focus on middle map control. The map boasts a three lane system like many of the others and is the smallest out of the bunch that have been shown off. It will not be available in the Beta at the release but there is a huge possibility that it might be added later on with more levels. And last but not the least was the subtly named HammerCam. The HammerCam is a new camera angle or Point of View available in the CoD Caster that swoops the camera to the sky and gives us a birds eye view of the map and the entire action on it. This feature will definitely be of extreme use as many clutch plays cannot truly be captured from a players perspective, especially the ones that are the result of smart team work.

I realize that other issues have also surfaced like the extra long time it takes to switch from the after game menu back the in game menu so you can switch classes or customize your soldier and the party system of inviting and playing with your friends being labyrinthine to say the least. Some of these issues were addressed in a post by Michael Condrey on Reddit that you can go to by clicking here. This is the first rendition of the game open to public so issues were bound to occur. This is prime time however, to voice whatever you think is wrong and let SHG know. I will include a link to the feedback form that goes directly to SHG and I would love it if you could voice your (genuine preferably) concerns and thoughts on the game. I unfortunately have not had access to the Beta yet and would update this if I find any other glaring issues. Thanks for reading and have a good one!

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