Modern Warfare II’ Season 2 Multiplayer Maps Are A Huge Disappointment

There are some exciting things coming to Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare II and Warzone 2 next season. Season 2’s new content includes:

New Multiplayer Content

• Five new weapons including the Crossbow, Dual Kodachis melee weapon and three new guns.
• Hardcore Mode and Ranked Play.
• Six modes including Infected and Gun Game.
• A new Battle Pass with the Ronin Operator.
• A new episode in the co-op Raid.
• 2 “core” 6v6 maps and 2 Ground War Battle Maps.
• Various balancing updates and fixes.

New Warzone Content

• The return of Resurgence mode including the new Ashika Island map.
• The return of 1v1 Gulag.
• Redeploy Drones.
• Personal Watercraft Vehicle (Jet Ski).
• Path of the Ronin challenges.
• Data Heist Public Event.
• Search & Seizure Contract.
• Restore Honor mechanic.

New DMZ Content

• Ashika Island as a new DMZ area.
• A new boss—The Bombmaker—to take down.
• New weapons case.
• Crown Faction

Some of this content drops on February 15th when Season 2 starts, some will launch mid-season. Hopefully this season doesn’t drag out forever like Season 1 (which followed an extended pre-season period). One of the problems with such a long season is that both Modern Warfare II and Warzone 2 have started to feel extremely stale.

The only new maps we’ve gotten so far in Modern Warfare II are Shipment and Shoot House, two maps that are not in any way new, and that played almost 24/7 in Modern Warfare 2019. Now, Season 2 is barely offering multiplayer fans anything new at all.

Dome is a classic Modern Warfare 3 map that we just got in Vanguard. Valderas Museum is a new map for this game, but it was already playable in the beta, so it’s not a new map that nobody has played yet, it’s just a launch map that hasn’t released until now. Where are the new maps? I don’t mind recreations of older maps by any means, but Infinity Ward made it pretty clear that we could expect many new maps for this game and so far we have zero other than the new maps at launch.

Meanwhile, both Battle Maps are just sections of the Warzone 2 Al Mazrah map (and the Dome 6v6 map is just a section of one of those). I’m not a huge Ground War fan, but I still don’t think we need two new Ground War maps if that means we only get two new 6v6 maps. I’d much rather get 3 6v6 and 1 new Ground War. And if we’re going to get Battle Maps, how about more set in Mexico (that aren’t found in Al Mazrah) like the wonderfully colorful Guijarro? Even Santa Seña (the big version) is more interesting than just another piece of Al Mazrah.

That being said, I remain baffled by two things when it comes to these big maps:

• First, you could take Guijarro—which includes the smaller map Mercado Las Almas—and carve out three or four more 6v6 maps from it easily. Why not throw the player-base a bone by adding a few more Mexico maps to core multiplayer this way? You could do the same with pretty much all the Battle Maps!
• Second, as excited as I am by the return of Resurgence and a brand new Japanese-themed map, why not use these Battle Maps as Resurgence maps also? Most of them would make for great Resurgence mode matches!

Final observation about the Battle Maps: They have better graphics than Warzone 2 or 6v6 multiplayer in Modern Warfare II. If you load into a match in Guijarro, head to the section that’s just like the Mercado Las Almas map and look closely. The graphics are just leaps and bounds better. The lighting is more realistic, the colors are more saturated, there are more details in the murals on the walls. It’s crazy how much better it looks. Same goes for the Battle Maps taken from Warzone 2. The colors are richer and more vibrant. The lighting is better. It’s very strange!

In any case, after such a long Season 1 we really should be getting two new core maps at launch and two more at mid-season. I’d also like to see map voting return, which would make it less painful when Taraq or Border Crossing pop up in the rotation.

Hopefully the quality of life updates are also good. The menu system remains completely terrible, though you get used to it I suppose. I really do enjoy both Modern Warfare II and Warzone 2 a great deal but there are simply so many things they could be doing better. The lack of Gunfight mode is also troubling. Hopefully it returns in Season 3.