- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4The movement of is considerably faster and smoother than Modern Warfare 2
- It also features new parkour mechanics
- The developers say the goal is to “be able to move however you want.”
Multiplayer matches in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 are supported by a revised motion system that facilitates smoother slides that carry your momentum, a new ledge grab mechanic, and much more.
The result is the smoothest feeling Modern warfare game again, offering a new level of freedom unlike the relatively clunky game Modern Warfare 2.
“We wanted to make sure that this time around, the ability to move the way you want and play the way you want was also supported,” the game’s lead designer, Jackie Reynolds, told me at a preview event in Los Angeles.
“We looked at all of those systems that would have made the game slow and clunky before, and rebuilt them from the ground up to support smoother gameplay. We want you to still feel like a badass, but we also want you to feel like you can move with parkour, sort of like a callback to the Jason Bourne movies.”
Adding extra speed to movement will almost certainly raise the game’s skill ceiling and widen the gap between newcomers and more experienced players. Still, developer Infinity Ward’s team tells me they’re confident everything is balanced.
“I think the elegance of our movements is that we generally prioritize your forward movement,” says Joe Cecot, creative director of the multiplayer studio.
“We don’t move as quickly horizontally as in other games, and so you still feel very fluid. You can move quickly, but these players should be a little easier to follow, grab, and that sort of thing.
“For us, it’s still that balance. We want to make sure that it actually feels good to move, but it also feels good to the person who wants to shoot you, and that’s the challenge that we kind of set ourselves at the beginning of the project.”
According to Cecot, those who prefer to play more slowly will still have plenty of options to do so.
“We have some equipment in the game that, if you’re more of a tactical player and you want to hold a location, allows you to set up,” he adds.
“Razor wire is a great example, where you can pop it like it’s a trap that’s going to catch people. It’s not very deadly, but it stops them a little bit and gives you a moment to react. Then we have other equipment that helps you search and find moving people, so the search drone, you launch it and travel around the world, it finds people and you can follow it.”
This approach is the result of extensive fan feedback, with many players recently finding Modern warfare games a little too slow.
“We could have discussed during our previous match, Modern Warfare 2we tried to overemphasize tactics to the detriment of responsiveness,” explains Cecot.
“We’re not trying to point fingers; we want to be better. We want to provide a better game for these players.”
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 launch on October 23, 2026, for PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Series S and Nintendo Switch 2.
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