When the Name of Obligation: Fashionable Warfare 2 launch date rolls round this fall, developer Infinity Ward hopes it marks greater than the launch date of the most recent within the long-running collection of multiplayer FPS video games. Fashionable Warfare II has huge ambitions, and Infinity Ward says this chapter marks a “broad web page flip” within the franchise with some new expertise and new concepts to convey to bear. Internally, the studio has been calling it “CoD 2.0,” the beginning of a brand new period for the franchise.
Fashionable Warfare II is about three years after the occasions of 2019’s Fashionable Warfare, with Captain John Worth and CIA handler Kate Laswell having assembled their deadly Process Drive 141 counter-terrorism unit. That elite crew consists of Sergeant Kyle ‘Gaz’ Garrick and the skull-masked Simon ‘Ghost’ Riley, a key character in 2009’s Fashionable Warfare 2, who’s joined by Sergeant John ‘Cleaning soap’ McTavish, the squad’s junior member.
The occasions of the marketing campaign kick off when a US airstrike kills a hostile international common, which units in movement a lethal revenge plot that Process Drive 141 is shipped to sabotage. As they hop across the globe in pursuit of terrorists, Process Drive 141 enlists the assistance of some new characters: Commander Philip Graves, who leads a non-public army contractor referred to as Shadow Firm, and Colonel Alejandro Vargas, who leads a squad of Mexican particular forces generally known as Los Vaqueros.
Infinity Ward shared some insights into the important thing pillars of Fashionable Warfare II’s design throughout a non-public briefing for press and influencers. The place 2019’s Fashionable Warfare pushed itself to be provocative and uncomfortable, studio head Pat Kelly says that Fashionable Warfare II’s focus is on heroism.
“Now we have troopers in army situations which are doing heroic and badass issues,” he says. “However additionally they are all the time human. They’re not superheroes, they’re susceptible. They’re human beings.”
Right here’s the brand new trailer:
In a single mission, Nightwar, Process Drive 141 phases a helicopter insertion within the fictional nation of Al Mazra to seize or kill a key determine within the Al-Qatala terrorist organisation. It’s traditional Fashionable Warfare: the squad flips down night-vision goggles because the helicopter dusts off, and the troopers stalk towards a small cluster of buildings set in some ruins in a distant space. As they close to their goal, the crew watches as their helicopter is shot down, turning their operation into an advert hoc rescue mission. The squad stealthily clears buildings to take the warmth off the crash website, with defenders popping up from behind furnishings and gunsmoke curling and dissipating because the mud settles after every split-second engagement.
When the crew reaches the downed helicopter, the mission turns into a siege defence as waves of hostile forces method by way of the encircling fields, which have been set ablaze by the explosion from the missile strike that introduced the plane down.
The place Fashionable Warfare 2019 had environments meant to really feel actual, Kelly says the aim for Fashionable Warfare II is to make them really feel alive as properly: “Think about giant, giant play areas with large numbers of… I’m simply saying, possibly? What if there was tons and tons of AI on the planet, tons of gamers? That will doubtlessly be actually cool, proper?”
New expertise was a key a part of Infinity Ward’s presentation too. The studio has created a fancy water simulation that helps boats and amphibious autos, in addition to new swimming mechanics. You’ll be capable of dive underwater to flee and evade enemies, and the water will sluggish projectiles that go by way of it, making bullets do much less injury when fired into the water or from beneath the floor. The devs have even recreated an optical impact referred to as Snell’s window, which limits what you may see above the floor whereas submerged to a cone of about 96 levels.
NPC AI ought to come throughout as extra plausible too, with new behaviours added to offer enemy troopers a way of goal and consciousness of the world round them. Fashionable Warfare II can assist much more of them, too. “We’re pushing increased AI counts than we’ve ever had earlier than,” says recreation director Jack O’Hara. “We’re presently sitting at round 300 AI with 100 dwell gamers, and we actually need the standard of the AI to be the identical throughout all recreation modes.”
Stephanie Snowden, Infinity Ward’s communications director, says Fashionable Warfare II is a part of “essentially the most formidable, franchise-wide plan we’ve ever had,” one thing Infinity Ward has internally referring to as “CoD 2.0.” A part of that entails getting this 12 months’s Name of Obligation title and Warzone working on the identical new engine, however there’s a lot about it that the studio isn’t prepared to debate.
“So, all of Name of Obligation on one engine: the Fashionable Warfare II expertise and Warzone will exist in the identical universe and be based mostly on the identical tech,” she says. “We’re actually excited for this to be a broad page-turn for the franchise and what now we have to supply.”
Most fascinating, maybe, was Kelly’s dialogue of getting gamers of a number of talent ranges enjoying collectively on one map, every one having a enjoyable expertise that doesn’t detract from anybody else’s.
“We’re attempting to create environments, create gameplay, the place all people may be collectively and so they can have the expertise that they need,” he instructed the group of Name of Obligation streamers and influencers in a pre-reveal briefing this week. “If I’m any person who doesn’t wish to consistently get shot within the face by you guys, I can play in the identical surroundings with you, I may even play in the identical modes with you, however I can have my expertise, and you may have yours. I do know that’s a bit obscure, however that’s what we’re going after.”
The brand new Name of Obligation: Fashionable Warfare II launches October 28, and Infinity Ward has confirmed that it’ll be coming to Steam this 12 months on PC.
