Shard’s Short Thoughts: Modern Warfare 2019 — two years later.

Two years later, an updated favourite still holds up.

When I first picked up Call of Duty: Modern Warfare’s 2019 reboot, I didn’t expect much of it. Granted, just like most FPS fans, I picked up the new Call of Duty every time one was released (so, every year), and I expected to jump in to the run and gun mayhem, unrealistic grenade explosions, sleight of hand animations that were just sped up versions of the normal animations, and whatever else COD was notorious for.

Now don’t get me wrong- these elements are what made COD the fast-paced, action-packed franchise that it is and always will be known for, and they certainly didn’t disappoint even the pickiest of gamers. But when MW 2019 was released, I considered it to be just another run-and-gun COD.

Boy was I wrong.

After the extremely long installation and update time of my Xbox One OG (I think it was 5 hours from purchase to playable), and the normal routine of setting up multiple classes for multiplayer matches, I dove headfirst into a Team Deathmatch; a classic mode.

The first sounds I heard; the radio chatter between chopper coverage and foot operatives put me right into the boots of my operator. The opening cutscene of the helicopter landing, sliding down the rope and switching the safety of the bulky assault rifle ready for battle excited me more than any other shooter I had recently played.

Then the countdown began. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. Match Begins.

Within the first 5 seconds mayhem exploded around me. Grenades flew, bullets whizzed past and operators screamed into the radios; “reloading!” “enemy at the east dock”, “got ya you bastard!”.

And I loved every moment of it. When the match ended (on a win), I immediately clicked on another. What really enthused me was the updated engine with its realistic motion blur, running animations and of course, reload animations. They actually felt like you were holding a weapon, even with controller vibration off.

Fast-forward to 2021, and the release of the updated Xbox Series X. With the new M.2 SSD configuration installation took about 45 mins, compared to 2 hours on the old mechanical drive-run Xbox One. I then installed the optional high-resolution texture packs available; gotta take advantage of that graphical power, and jumped back into play.

On the updated console the game looked even more beautiful than before. The gameplay was the same, sure, but the graphical quality astounded me. Ray-tracing reflections and realistic environmental damage immediately concreted my decision to vote MW2019 as the best shooter of the year.

So, all in all, is MW2019 worth the money. Absolutely. If you enjoy first person shooter games, fast-paced warfare or are a veteran of the COD series, your wallet will thank you for spending the ca$h on this game. You won’t regret it at all.

Infinity Ward, from a gamer to a studio, thankyou.