Activision has revealed during Call of Duty NEXT that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is bringing back third-person view.
Call of Duty was primarily known as a first-person shooter since the franchise started in 2003. Alongside Halo, the Call of Duty series was the most high-profile franchise in the genre that standardized and normalized what we now take for granted as the control and movement conventions in first-person shooters. The original Call of Duty itself was only a keyboard and mouse affair, only playable in Windows to this day. However, for Call of Duty 2 in 2005, Infinity Ward followed Microsoft’s lead in making FPSes playable on a console, the Xbox 360, using the Xbox 360 controller. Details like a left analog stick for movement and right analog stick for aiming–things that we take for granted today–were refined by Infinity Ward, in such a way that it simply was no longer possible to go back to having just a d-pad for movement and using triggers to strafe. Infinity Ward did not invent the modern control scheme on its own, but its implementation, and Call of Duty 2‘s success as a franchise, went a long way to normalizing this standard such that we simply take it for granted today.
One convention Call of Duty abandoned, even though other games after it reexplored it, was third person perspective. This was originally a matter of game design. If, for example, Uncharted made it a point to remind you that you aren’t playing yourself, but playing out the adventures of one Nathan Drake. Similarly, the Resident Evil games, new and old, were clear that you were Chris Redfield, or alternately his sister Claire, or any other franchise character, and that those characters were clearly identifiable. Call of Duty, following the lead of other games like Medal of Honor, was a strictly first-person view affair. The reason for this was the military shooters of that era endeavored to simulate the experience of being in a war, and this was a real selling point for those games at the time. That would extend to the franchise’s multiplayer modes, following the lead of games like Unreal Tournament.
However, there was a classic Call of Duty game that had a third-person view, albeit in a limited manner. The original Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, from 2009 had a third-person tactical mode. At the time it was mostly considered a novelty instead of a serious game design decision, as the gameplay had not been adjusted around it. Now, if we jump to 2022, TiMi Studio Group’s Call of Duty Mobile implemented a third-person view, with no regard for the franchise’s conventions. For TiMi, this choice made sense, because the larger number of Call of Duty Mobile players would be casual gamers, and the third-person view was an accessibility option that would allow more people to play, and subsequently make it more competitive in that space.
Now, Infinity Ward says, “We’ve always wanted to do third person.” Implicit in that statement is that Infinity Ward would have implemented third person all those years ago if their player base would have approved. However, this mode can be an issue primarily for competitive and esports players, as the mode does make it easier to navigate around the game map and see enemies approaching you.
For now, this option will only be available in Hardpoint in Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2‘s beta, in such a way that everyone playing in a single session is in third-person mode. If it makes it to the final release, Infinity Ward will have found a way to keep its hardcore player base happy while enticing more casual gamers to give it a try.
You can see a small preview of this third-person move below.
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 will be released on October 28, 2022 for Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X and S consoles. Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 will be the first Call of Duty game since 2017 that will be published on Steam. You can read more of our coverage below.
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Source: CharlieIntel
