Although Activision has already promised serious changes in the Call of Duty series, the first leaks about Modern Warfare 4 suggest otherwise.
The next installment in the franchise, developed by Infinity Ward and known under the working title Modern Warfare 4, may turn out to be almost a complete copy of Modern Warfare II (2022). This was reported by the well-known insider TheGhostOfHope, who has repeatedly confirmed the reliability of his information about the series.
According to him, the current version of MW4 "completely repeats MWII", except for the absence of the perk "charging" system and slightly weakened penalties when aiming and sliding. Otherwise, even the visual recoil of the weapon remains the same.
Modern Warfare II received good reviews from critics, but became one of the lowest-rated installments in the series among players: the user rating on Metacritic is 5.3 points. Players criticized the slow movement, weak strafing, excessive visual noise, and gameplay that encouraged the "jumping" meta instead of pure skill.
TheGhostOfHope himself also drew attention to this in one of his messages with information on MW4:
"I understand that Call of Duty can change from year to year, and I'm perfectly fine if every few years the game gets a different pace - a higher TTK and a slower (but still smooth) movement. But simply copying MWII is not the same. There was a reason why \"jumpshots\" were the meta [in MWII], even despite the penalty to aiming when jumping: strafing there was terrible and the slowest in the entire series. If the game had focused on strafing, as in the old Call of Duty games, players would have stayed \"on the ground\", and the difference in skill would depend not only on movement, but also on the ability to shoot."
These statements have caused concern in the Call of Duty community. Some players suggest that Activision abandon the new release altogether and focus on supporting Black Ops 7, giving Infinity Ward more time to rethink its approach. Others are already calling MW4 potentially the "worst Call of Duty of all time" if the leaks are confirmed.
It is especially alarming against the background that Black Ops 7 already has a record low user rating in the series - 1.6 points on Metacritic. Some are sure that the next release may be an even bigger disappointment.
At the same time, according to the same TheGhostOfHope, after Modern Warfare 4, Activision plans to release a game from Sledgehammer Games, which will be the beginning of a new sub-series. This project is supposedly focused on mobility and martial arts elements. In his latest message about leaks on Modern Warfare, the insider noted an ironic tradition:
"After another unsuccessful game from Infinity Ward, a new sub-series from Sledgehammer Games is released. I've seen this somewhere before", — hinting at the situation with the release of Call of Duty: Ghosts (2013) and Advanced Warfare (2014).
However, all this is just rumors so far. Activision has acknowledged the problems with Black Ops 7 and announced its intention to revise its approach to the development of the franchise, so it is possible that major changes - including a possible postponement of the next installment - are still ahead.
