Modern Warfare 2 eliminating respawning enemies

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Home Call of Duty

6:00 PM on 05.19.2009, Jim Sterling

44 comments | 27051 views

Modern Warfare 2 eliminating respawning enemies photo

#Activision #Call of Duty #First Person Shooter #Infinity Ward #PC #PS3 #Xbox 360

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is one of my favorite shooters, but its single-player campaign did have a few issues, most notable among them being the respawning enemies that would only cease after players crossed an invisible line. I've never understood why this has ever been considered a good design choice, but it seems that, fortunately, Infinity Ward has finally got the message.

"We are aware of it and we're actively trying to eliminate it," states Infinity Ward president and CCO Jason West. "I think we agree that it's not very good."

West's confession comes courtesy of the latest Game Informer, where Modern Warfare 2 had a big intel blowout. Other tidbits of info include the fact that players will be taking orders from Captain "Soap" MacTavish, the silent player character from the original Modern Warfare, while tracking down a Russian madman known as Makarov.

Infinity Ward is still keeping a lid on multiplayer details, although we do know that a co-op mode, Special Forces, will be available, and that the developer is looking at ways to make notable online players "famous" for their in-game accomplishments. Sounds interesting, but right now we have no idea what they mean.

Still, great news on that respawning stuff. Now, if only we can just stop the AI from grenade-spamming all the time.

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43 comments | showing # 1 to 43

DaedHead8

God damnit. I've sworn of the CoD series mostly because of the respawning enemies. Looks like I might have to give MW2 a shot.

pascuz46

Good!! I cannot stand endless respawning enemies, Im liking what I hear about MW2. I cant wait to get my hands on it :D

craigbezzle

Modern Warfare was one of the most rewarding action-oriented FPSes to come out in quite a while. Let's hope the sequel keeps Infinity Ward on top.

DocHaus

Thank you, IW. Those respawning enemies were really freaking annoying in CoD4.

Slique

Soap survived, then? Interesting...

And it was always my understanding that the infinitely respawning enemies were there to add to the feeling of chaoness and desperation in the warzone. Definitely made sense when the series was in its WWII roots, when there were thousands of soldiers all caught up in battle, but now... not so much. Good to hear they're trying to evolve it.

Holyetheline

I beat all CoD games on Veteran and I hate endless enemies but not nearly as much as I hate their infinite grenades that seem to constantly hatch underneath my character like a mother hen.

So yeah, I totally agree with you on the "No infinite grenades" remark. This is a wonderful step forward for the series if they can at least get rid of the endless waves of baddies.

Solgrim

How about more no respawn multiplayer modes... the place where it really needs no respawns.

Jackel2072

you know i think im going to be alone here on this one. but i kind of like the design choice. it forced you to take ground instead of taking advantage of an AI's stupidity. granted i do agree with a above poster that the whole infinite grande thing was a hair pulling experience. yet my over all point is, when you beat a call of duty game on Veteran you feel like you really just did the impossible. it was a feeling i relished in with COD4 (mile high club). I dont want the COD franchise to loose that edge.

Jackel2072

@ John Solgrim

oh lets not turn the game into Counter-Strike...

Phantom Spaceman

The bad news: the enemies are now robots, and there are robot factories in each mission.

Professor Pew

So now it's just gonna be like every other FPS where you are not forced to move forward and get tension that way? Granted, the spawning could be a bit annoying on Veteran but otherwise it only helped the game feel better for me. Hopefully they will still kick your ass forward through some other mechanic ;)

vexed alex

Thank goodness/

t3chn1k4l

@john solgrim
that's why they have search and destroy

Zippyduda

Can anyone suggest how they are going to get around this issue?

As I can't understand how it's possible. Surely you could just sit there if you're really struggling to advance and wait for ages until you've killed the finite amount of enemies.

Also I did bring this up in my blog of leaked pictures but they got taken down from Giant Bomb/N4G, it said it on the Game Informer images.

vexed alex

ProfPew: The respawning enemies didn't push you forward. They did the opposite. They held you back.

Waves enemies coming out of one small shack was always annoying. You didn't know when you were supposed to sit back and kill everything or push forward.

It was a horrible design choice.

vexed alex

Waves of enemies*

-_-

loquax

Recently downloaded my first ever CoD game due to Steam's weekend deal on World at War, and since the last game I played featuring respawning enemies was Megaman 2, I was pretty confused. Here was my mental process:

"Hey Mr Panzershrek, I see you up there, take a bullet!"
"Oh, someone has come to take your place! Take that!"
"Another buddy, eh? Well have another bullet."
"Another one? Hang on. OH, wait, yes you're respawning, this isn't real, I'm playing a fucking video game, my suspended disbelief is thoroughly smashed into the ground. I guess I'll just dodge the missiles and run head first into the Germans to the next checkpoint, just like in real life."

On a side note, the official military guidelines on "what to do when you hear a grenade fall nearby" is to search for it and throw it back.

Chronic Logic

I loved the endless respawning enemies. Sure, it was hectic and hard, but you can kill as much as them as you want and they still kept on coming! Sort of like the Nazi Survival Mode in World at War.

tobz1000

Whoa. Does this mean Soap's getting a voice/face? I'm not sure if that's good or bad, but now I really want to see it.

Reien

I really hope they don't follow through with this.

I think the "invisible line" is a great design choice as it applies a type of pressure for player to push forward.

I'm not saying it needs to be in every level but completely removing this "line" will simplify the game to camping or out-waiting the spawns (which I realize is a perfectly valid option in some situations). But for the other situations like charging an enemy base or rushing to protect a downed vehicle; the game will suffer when that feeling of being overwhelmed is gone due to limited enemy spawns.

AKK

I'm so glad. I HATE infinitely respawning enemies. It's fucking stupid. It was understandable back with Goldeneye (I remember turning on invincibility and going through that gas chamber room thing for a half hour trying to see if they would ever end), but nowadays it's just plain terrible design.

Corak

This is very good news. The issue of the clown car house was one of the things I hated about the game. I disagree with reien to a point. I think the devs should be able to make a game feel intense without having 200 soliders pile out of a house the size of a shed. Yes charging a base there should be a lot of soliders in there, but not some damn outpost.

BlaspheMerius

You know, I'm kinda happy about this news, if only because I won't have to spend an hour hearing my husband yell at the tv. COD4 really won me over to the genre though, so a few simple changes of this nature might get me to do more than play versus.
I'm not saying there should never be a large wave of enemies that ceases when you cross an invisible line, simply that I believe the never-ending part was a bit weird and too much of a video game gimmick. If they want to make it realistic then there has to be a limit somewhere. Make it 200 guys, but not a million+ 'til I die or cross the line.

The Incredible Edible Egg

The only time I had a problem with this was when you had to search those four houses on veterain. Took me a year to unrage and finish the campaign.

Swizzler121

hmm, I never noticed this problem in COD4 (and I beat [most of] it on veteran) I really Really REALLY noticed it in COD5 though, where EVERY SINGLE EFFIN ENEMY IN THE GAME was infinite respawn.

Dexter345

I didn't think respawning enemies was a terrible design choice. It required the player to push forward, rather than just turtle and pick enemies off one at a time. And, since it wasn't at every part, it gave the campaign some variety.

lubczyk

Thank goodness. I'll take a couple smart or aggressive enemies over dozens and dozens of stupid ones.

GeekVarietydotcom

Too bad that they will most likely still include all the "super powers" in the multiplayer so that the game is complete bullshit for another go round.

oh joy juggernaut and poop grenades! wow i can hardly fucking wait.

John B

Jus as long as they keep the respawn in multiplayer mode with the [u]option[/u] of turning it off!!!

I despise people who say game companies should remove a function entirely just because they don't like it when it could easily be set as an option to be turned on or off for those people who -- horrors! -- actually do like respawning multiplayer!

tigerfangred91

Modern Warfare was a fucking spectacular game(from a gameplay perspective). Hopefully MW2 lives up to the hype that it will most definitely acquire. So far, I like what I'm seeing/hearing.

Los255

Veteran mode just got a bit more tolerable.

B-Radicate

Thank god. I always said playing these games on Veteran was more of a puzzle/platforming game as you simply tried to survive until you navigated past the invisible line and your AI partners did the killing. It totally sucked the fun and skill out of the experience. Glad to see they caught on.

Who bets Treyarch doesn't get the memo and has infinite spawns in their next CoD title? Any takers?

Static Jak

Now I might be able to play through Veteran mode without throwing a controller out/through a window.

Kyousuke Nanbu

@ John

Uhh what? What the hell are you talking about?

And thank fucking god, I hated the CoD series because of that bullshit, I'll give 2 a try now.

Samit Sarkar

THANK FUCK.

Gyrael

To be honest, I don't think I even noticed it on CoD4. I was ridiculously inmersed. But HELL YEAH I guess.

Woverine

yeah about the grenades thing.. I never really had a problem with that in COD4 Veteran but COD5 there were 3-5 grenades on screen at all times. so frustrating!! screw cod5 veteran!

NSNick

Thank God, that was the single biggest reason that I didn't play through the single-player campaign.

YONKE

fix granade rain please.........

Cartman

Thank fucking fuck. I still have one mission left to do on modern warfare 1," No fighting in the war room". I hate that level. I HATE IT.

Naim Master

They seen to be going for less , more inteligent enemies on this one ... Interesting ...

Demtor

That is great news as that was easily the worst thing about CoD4. Whats even shittier was that they never told you thats how it would be, so unless you heard from someone you had to find out the hard way. That was not a fun process, fuck.

Zeroslav

I suppose this is indeed a step in the right direction.. however, I am slightly worried about the repercussions.. surely if this were to happen, it would slightly devalue the credence of completing what is the the current Veteran ability mode, sure it would be more realistic but I can't help but imagine there must be something up Infinity Ward's sleeve to combat this detraction in gaming difficulty and make it THAT much harder to complete Veteran.

Otherwise, I'm all for it and I'm sure a slight increase in difficulty is probably negligible when you consider the enemy will soon be depleted.

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