Thinking About Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II Season 01 (Premium)

Like so many software releases these days, the initial launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II was woefully incomplete. But unlike would-be competitors like Halo Infinite, COD:MWII will right those wrongs quickly, with its first major update—a so-called Season 01 release—coming next week.

I have a few thoughts.

First, the name of this game is not Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, it’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II. I can’t tell you how often I see it misnamed, even by reputable game bloggers and journalists. In fact, it’s misnamed more often than it’s correctly identified. I don’t get that: there’s already a game called Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 that came out in 2009. This is a different game. Name it correctly.

Second, I was delighted to discover that MWII fixed the issues that prevented me from playing its three predecessors and sticking with the years-old Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 instead. The multiplayer experiences in both Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (which, likewise, does not share a name with the original Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare) and Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War had massive lag and latency issues that made them unplayable. And last year’s Call of Duty: Vanguard had terrible, previous-gen graphics, uninspiring maps, and uninteresting World War II-era weapons.

But MWII is a different story. The graphics and performance are top-notch, even on my supposedly lowly Xbox Series S. There are no lag or latency issues at all. The maps, almost to a one, are superb, and not far too large for Team Deathmatch-like games as were too many maps in the previous three levels. The weapon loadouts, killstreaks, perks, and so forth are mostly great. Even the ability to start the game up and get right into a match has been dramatically streamlined and is so much better than any COD game for years.

It’s not perfect, of course. The loadout customization stuff is needlessly complex and, because of the incredibly short duration between matches, impossible to work on between games. I don’t like the new “perk package” system, which is likewise too complex. It’s weird to me that you don’t move forward through matches with the same people; instead, each match is a new set of gamers. (This could have been true of the previous few games, but I don’t recall as I didn’t play them enough.) You can’t turn off cross-play (between Xbox, PS5, and PC), at least on the platform I use. And worst of all, the game type I always play, Hardcore Team Deathmatch, is unavailable (for now) because the game launched without any Hardcore playlists.

This is a problem because in playing “normal” Team Deathmatch, I’m constantly confronted with situations in which I riddle some enemy with armor-piercing ammunition only to be quickly snuffed out by someone who has even better weapons. In Hardcore, I’d get a lot more kills, and my K/D (kill/death) ratio would be a lot higher. Speaking of which, this game has absolutely no way to view your overall K/D ratio because the Barracks interface, where you view such things, was also missing at launch. Add that one to the list too.

But here’s the thing: Activision Blizzard—soon, hopefully to be Microsoft—is working quickly to right these wrongs. And while not all of the issues I noted above will be fixed next week with the release of Season 01, some will. And I suspect the other issues will likewise be rectified over time.

But you have to start somewhere. And Season 01 looks pretty strong. Among the promised updates are:

Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0. I don’t play this (free to play) Battle Royale mode, but the new Warzone will come with a new map, Al Mazrah, that’s predictably comprised of some of the multiplayer maps I have played, like Al Bagra Fortress, Embassy, Zarqwa Hydroelectric, Taraq, Sariff Bay, and Sa’id. That’s a neat idea, and I always liked the idea of Warzone being a single location made up of familiar places. But there are some changes, too: Warzone 2.0 will include a new looting system and a new DMZ mode that should prove controversial among the fans, plus an updated Gulag. We’ll see.

New multiplayer maps. Season 01 is bringing two new traditional multiplayer maps, and by new I mean two classic maps “reimagined” for 2022: Shoot House, a long-time favorite of mine, and (in mid-season) Shipment, a classic from the original MW2. The more classic maps, the better, as far as I’m concerned.

Hardcore playlist. The Hardcore playlist I want so badly is coming in Season 01 too, though Hardcore has been renamed to Tier 1 for some reason. “Tier 1 Playlist … offers a more challenging experience compared to traditional Multiplayer. Operators have less health and limited HUD elements, and friendly fire is on. These elements are consistent in all game modes that support the Tier 1 variant.” I cannot wait.

Prestige. I’ve already hit level 55, which normally allows you to “prestige” and start your progression over some number of times. With Season 01, you will be able to move to Prestige 1 once you hit the new level 56. There are normally 15-ish prestige levels, but it’s not clear how many will be made available in MWII: it looks like 5 to start.

More, more, more. There’s more, of course, but those are the biggest changes (to me). One new Special Ops mission, plus the first episode of Raid, which continues the MWII story. A new Battle Pass for unlocking items. Four new weapons. And two new operators.

Here’s what you need to know on timing: Season 01 launches on November 16, but you can preload the assets on your console or PC on November 14 starting at 1:00 pm ET. Knowing how the world works these days, that won’t prevent you from still having a massive extra download on November 16, but I’m still going to at least try.

See you in the game.