CoD: Modern Warfare 4 Aims For Fast And Fluid Movement, But A Classic Mode Isn’t Off The Table

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4's first beta session arrives this weekend, and GameSpot was able to speak with Infinity Ward's studio multiplayer creative director Geoff Smith and technical designer Jack Hoppus. The developers provided insight on the advancements to movement and what to expect from the beta, and also discussed the possibility of a classic-style mode for multiplayer.

Modern Warfare 4 is Infinity Ward's first Call of Duty game since 2022's Modern Warfare 2 reboot, as Modern Warfare 3 was developed by Sledgehammer Games. The studio has spent the last few years creating a new multiplayer experience with a mix of standard 6v6 maps, large-scale Ground War, and smaller map slices for 2v2 Gunfight.

The playerbase can often be split on how a Call of Duty game should look and feel, especially when it comes to thematically appropriate cosmetics, player movement, and how the guns should feel. When speaking to the style and identity of Modern Warfare 4's multiplayer, Smith said it's tough to balance all the feedback, but the studio always takes a deep look at the previous game to see what worked and what didn't.

"We've been making Modern Warfare games for a long time," Smith said. "So, we tend to try to be more realistic and grounded in everything we present but with a little bit of a cinematic flair."

Infinity Ward acknowledged the criticism of the movement for 2022's Modern Warfare 2, which was often labeled as slow and clunky. For Modern Warfare 4, the studio focused on making the movement not only faster but also as fluid as possible. One of the biggest changes players will likely notice is the game's overhauled mantling mechanic.

"We completely rewrote the mantle system to be really fluid," Hoppus explained. "So, that we have mantle into the slide now, we have mantle into ADS, and you can cancel out of your mantle."

The studio didn't feel like Treyarch's omnimovement from the last two Call of Duty games fit its more grounded approach, but the developer did keep some of the animations like Treyarch's supine positioning.

"We wanted to make it feel really authentic to Modern Warfare but also without any friction," Hoppus said. "We want you to feel cool. We want you to feel like a badass. We don't want you to feel like you're stuck in an animation when you want to be doing something else."

Of course, the success of the recent Black Ops ports and Black Ops 7's classic mode also reveals part of the Call of Duty playerbase is ready to go back to simpler times, which includes less complex movement for slower and more tactical gameplay.

When asked if a classic mode is something the studio has considered for Modern Warfare 4's multiplayer, Smith said the studio hasn't planned on a classic-style playlist, as it has been focused on their initial plan and the release of Modern Warfare 4, but that doesn't mean it would be impossible to add to the game.

"We can always turn things on," Smith said. "It's not outside the realm of possibility. We just have to see how things go and make assessments as we go."

This means players looking for old-school Call of Duty movement can still hold on to some hope that a playlist could arrive with post-launch content. As for Modern Warfare 4's new fluid movement system, players can test out the multiplayer for themselves soon, with the early-access beta beginning on August 21.

There's a lot of content packed into the Modern Warfare 4 beta, with a campaign mission and a brand-new Warzone map also included this year. For multiplayer, one of the highlights is the new Inflation multiplayer mode. The developer described Inflation as being a "high-stakes Team Deathmatch-style mode."

"Think of it like a Kill Confirmed dog tag," Hoppus said, explaining that each player has a bounty on them and drops cash when they die. Any player can collect this fallen cash, and the team holding the most money at the end of the game wins. So, players who accumulate large sums of money can cause a momentum swing in the match if they die and drop a portion of it.

"It's really fun because it could be completely spiky," Hoppus said. "And the last 30 seconds of a match can be a complete scramble."

When asked about a change or feature in multiplayer that they were excited for, Hoppus mentioned Modern Warfare 4’s ambitious new Kill Block map, where modular battlegrounds reconfigure to create hundreds of potential map combinations. For Gunfight, the map will dynamically change between rounds and try to keep players on their toes.

"Gunfight is one of the modes where it really shines," Hoppus said. "Because every two rounds when your guns change, the map is also going to change, and we chose that because it allows you to see a bunch of different configurations and also provide just kind of a completely new experience."

Additionally, Smith said he was excited for Combat Outposts, which is Modern Warfare 4's new variant of Call of Duty's large-scale Ground War mode. Combat Outposts is played on large map chunks from Modern Warfare 4's Hajin map for DMZ. This is still a Domination-style capture mode, but instead of the normal five capture points, the maps will only have three points of capture. All three capture zones are also inside buildings this time around, which the developer says changes the dynamics of the mode. There are still vehicles and killstreaks being used on the map, but Smith says the interior capture points force players into a more chaotic setting.

"It turns into a little multiplayer map inside there," Smith explained. "And it's just chaos from such intense gunfights with so many people in these interiors."

Combat Outpost will be available in the second beta weekend, allowing players to go hands-on with two Combat Outpost maps: Imjin Farmland & Wolves Stadium. This open-beta weekend also brings in Switch 2 as a supported platform.

Infinity Ward is using these two beta weekends to collect data before launch. While Smith says the studio will be monitoring all areas of the game, some of the focus will be on online connection and stability, discussions around movement, and even player reaction around the game's new Gunny feature for the Gunsmith.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 releases on October 23 for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Switch 2. This marks the game as the first Call of Duty on a Nintendo platform since 2013's Call of Duty: Ghosts. Modern Warfare 4 will launch with a full campaign, multiplayer, and the DMZ extraction mode.