It’s been about two weeks since Call of Duty: Modern Warfare slapped a C4 on our PlayStations, Xboxes, and PCs and lit the world on fire. Some have hailed it as the best Call of Duty ever. Others have gone in the opposite direction because of its less than stellar map design. The reality is that Modern Warfare, for now, lies somewhere in the middle. It’s great in some areas, and rough in others. Tomorrow, though, is where Modern Warfare’s future gets its earnest start.
On Friday, November 8, Modern Warfare will be getting its first free maps. It’s part of Infinity Ward’s new structure where all bonus maps introduced will be free for all players across all platforms, instead of gating content behind a season pass that you buy.
The new maps coming to multiplayer tomorrow are Shoot House, which looks to be a standard 6v6 map, and Krovnik Farmland, a new Ground War map. The latter is a particularly exciting addition, given that there are only three Ground War-compatible maps (Aniyah Palace, Karst River Quarry, and my personal favorite, Tavorsk District) available currently. Ground War itself is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare’s most ambitious mode, a 32v32 battle on large-scale maps where two big teams fight to capture objectives and hold them. It’s like something out of Battlefield, only way, way more chaotic.
The update isn’t only bringing in two maps: it’s also reintroducing the mode Hardpoint. Hardpoint has been absent from Call of Duty multiplayer since 2016’s Infinite Warfare. In the mode, teams capture a “hardpoint” on the map, and defend it. To get points, they must remain on the point. It’s similar to Headquarters, a mode already in Modern Warfare, only with Hardpoint, respawns are always enabled, and don’t disable when a team is holding a point. It’s unknown as of now if Hardpoint will only be a mode playable on the normal 6v6 maps, or if it will appear on some of the bigger maps as well.
This is the first significant content update for Modern Warfare so far, which is the fastest selling Call of Duty ever. With the free content promise for the next year, who knows if these smaller map and mode additions will be how Modern Warfare delivers its free content—slow, but steady, that is. Still, a battle pass-like microtransaction model is expected to come to Modern Warfare soon, though that doesn’t appear to be in tomorrow’s update. For more on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, be sure to check out our tier guide of the best weapons to equip.
