Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Won’t Feature Destruction in Multiplayer

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is promising to make some notable improvements in all areas, and that includes its multiplayer component as well, with things such as new multiplayer modes and the returning and improved Gunsmith system already having been detailed. One thing that the shooter’s multiplayer isn’t emphasizing, however, is destruction.

In a recent roundtable Q&A (via GamesBeat), the game’s developers confirmed that though Modern Warfare 2 will feature proper destruction mechanics in its single player campaign (“Single-player has some great destruction. We went crazy on that,” says multiplayer design director Geoffrey Smith), in the game’s multiplayer modes, that won’t be the case. While there will be some damage thrown into the mix, full destruction isn’t something you should expect going in.

“We’re not doing destruction,” said Smith. “We can’t really afford it on a large scale across the map. I’m the worst person to kill everybody’s fun, but I can’t lie to you. We have special effects artists that really love Jersey barriers, which are these little concrete barriers, and you can chip and dish into them. But if I can shoot that concrete, I should be able to shoot into the foundation of a house and everything else. We’re doing as much as we can–it’s better to phrase it as damage. Showing damage, showing wear, showing what’s happened without actually popping out structural pieces.”

“We at one point entertained and looked at destruction,” added co-studio head Patrick Kelly. “The challenges you run into, once you incorporate full destruction, it’s very difficult to create a play space where you would call it an appropriate combat space. If you can punch through walls, everything like that. At the other end of the spectrum, if you have more of a purely–I don’t want to call it just cosmetic, but where you can’t shoot holes through the walls, things like that, you also end up with the challenge of visibility. Now you have variable backdrops. You have to do other things in terms of room lighting and fill and all these other things where you’re artificially representing things and characters in the environment.”

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is out on October 28 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, and PC, and it will cost $70 on all platforms. On PC, it will also be available via Steam.

Activision has confirmed that Modern Warfare 2 and the upcoming Warzone 2.0 will begin the process of unifying the series on a single engine. Recently, we also got extended gameplay footage of one of the game’s single player campaign missions. A full multiplayer reveal is rumoured to be scheduled for August- read more on that through here.