In general, while they still sold well by video game standards, Black Ops Cold War and Vanguard aren’t especially beloved by CoD fans. Even though Cold War didn’t come with a bunch of baked-in core design issues and quickly beefed up its content offerings and Vanguard walked back many of the bad choices of Modern Warfare (2019) while keeping the same engine fans loved, neither game managed to be as successful as Modern Warfare (2019). Sure, both games have their issues, especially Vanguard, but balance problems, technical issues, and content coming not as fast as you’d like are pretty familiar problems for Call of Duty at this point. Really, the problem comes down to innovation. Modern Warfare (2019) pushed the franchise forward in big ways, offering up a brand-new engine, tons of new modes, and, of course, the introduction of Call of Duty: Warzone. Even today many fans are extremely critical of Modern Warfare (2019)’s map design and the way the game balanced the minimap, perks, and field upgrades, but Modern Warfare (2019) managed to thread the needle between bringing tons of innovation without turning the game into something that didn’t look or feel like CoD. As we’ve seen in the past, CoD fans don’t want Call of Duty to become a hero shooter, have the crazy movement of Titanfall, or even really go too far into the future, all of which sales numbers reflect, but they do want boots-on-the-ground games somewhere between the relatively recent past and relatively near future, which sales also reflect. However, CoD fans don’t want the same game over and over. Even though things change between Modern Warfare (2019), Black Ops Cold War, and Vanguard, they aren’t all that different from each other, big picture. Since Modern Warfare (2019) pushed the franchise forward in a massive way, and since the marketing behind Modern Warfare 2 (2022) is saying big changes are coming, many are excited for a similar leap forward for the franchise that there wasn’t a reason to believe was coming with either Cold War or Vanguard. Warzone has been hugely successful, but it’s also showing its age and has quite a few problems. After all, it was never designed to be a huge phenomenon, it was envisioned as a fun side mode to Modern Warfare (2019). For starters, there are way too many guns, and it’s confusing how you ought to kit different guns depending on which CoD they were initially featured in. Then, while at first Verdansk and Rebirth were liked but thought to have problems, new maps added haven’t addressed these issues much, and there are still a lot fewer maps in Warzone than other BRs. Then, Warzone feels a bit basic compared to other BRs. Competitors have NPCs to fight, lots of different maps and modes, and loot systems with more depth, to name a few. All of these issues mentioned are hoped to be addressed in Warzone 2 that will also hopefully leapfrog the game forward in terms of its graphics, too. Outside of Warzone 2, Modern Warfare 2 (2022) will also be bringing a totally new mode, DMZ, into the picture. At a Warzone scale, DMZ has been in development for years and is expected to be CoD’s take on a loot-and-extract style game like Escape from Tarkov. DMZ is expected to have its own maps, progression, and live service support planned out. Though, official details now are hard to come by. The idea is that Modern Warfare 2 (2022) will bring an all-new campaign, a huge new multiplayer package, a reimagining of Warzone, and then also a separate new mode to spend lots of time in, DMZ. Couple that with two full years of live service support planned hopefully with big content additions, Modern Warfare 2 (2022) is shaping up to be a big departure from recent games.
