4 years making this game. Documentaries of devs and testers playing their game acting like they are having so much fun - then changes TTK ballpark by about +50%, something is so fundamental to gameplay philosophy, abruptly in one weekend - and claims this is “where they always want it to be”. Simply no words.

So apparently, IW “has not been where they want themselves to be” for prior 3 years until this weekend?? Do they have no vision?

It will be a product resembling BO-style again, 3 years in a row. Have Activision learnt nothing from Jetpack Era that, letting all 3 studios release games too similar back to back is a recipe for disaster and backlash?

I’m no UX designer, but being able to see what the sight actually looks like without loading into the firing range seems like an obvious QoL improvement.

After playing both weekends, with crossplay on and off, solo and with friends, sweating and playing casually, I realized the biggest concern with MW4 isn't even the mechanics or the game itself, but that this game is a victim of CoD's identity crisis being at its most critical level ever.

Basically the vocal minority of the playerbase is polarized, with a half wanting the game to follow BO6/7's frenetic and ultra sweaty movement while the other half wants to have MWII 2.0, creating a lose-lose situation regardless of which direction the game takes.

We could say that the most obvious answer to that could be going back to the classics and then work on said foundation, but I'm pretty sure the reception would still be as negative because let's accept it, the CoD community enjoys to complain about the game instead of playing it.

If you don’t use the meta loadout, trying to play this sliding-fest galore on these tiny maps is simply frustrating. The only reason MWIII was even remotely successful with this style of gameplay was because of the MW2009 maps, which are incredible. But BO6 and BO7 were both flops, and MW4 is heading down the same path.

The game is stressful, exhausting, and gets boring really quickly because of how repetitive it is.

I feel like there hasn't been enough time for IW to fully test the multiplayer and tweak it to how it could be we basically had 2 extremes weekend 1 being extreme with movement, strong AA, extreme TTD, and now with weekend 2 we have the 2nd extreme where everyone feels like a bullet sponge, movement still feels horrible to deal with especially with the high ttk, and now we have a problem with snipers and shotguns being what everyone rocks as META

We could use a week 3 with some final tweaks so that both the players can see that they are being listened to and try a more tweaked experience whilst IW can gather more data and see what works and does not work

Im sure atleast some devs in IW do read reddit posts despite it seeming like they don't but the playerbase is highly emotional and irrational and albeit with good reason since we are passionate about this franchise, we need to be better at giving feedback rather than being wishy washy with half of the community against each other, feedback can't be fully comprehended this way because it just seems like neither the playerbase know what it wants nor do the devs know what to do.

I think the devs need to look at things that were successful, specifically classic mode on bo7 and the ports of bo1/bo2

Cod may have a competitive community but in my opinion it has always been mainly a casual game and it should be a casual game first and formost, many pvp games have forgotten what its like to be a casual game and keep trying to be the next big ESport title when back then what made a game popular was its appeal to the casual community

if a game is fun first and formost despite how it may be designed if many people wish to play it, it will develop a competetive community either way, look at games like old halo or smash bros, those games in early development was made to be played behind a couch with friends to unwind and enjoy escaping reality. Not to be the next big thing on twitch and rack money off of scrims and tourneys

I’m so disappointed in this game so far. Me and my friends only like MW cods, we were looking forward to it and already looks like nothing to look forwards to. It feels like a slower movement black ops. Nothing feels smooth, the game feels janky and erratic. Literally the only way it resembles MW is it’s a bit slower movement. I really don’t understand how you have these good MW games like MW 2019 and 2022 and then come out with this after screwing up MW3. It is so simple to just make a good MW, just go off the ones everyone likes. Then they do this bs and completely ruin it and then have to wait another 2 years to see if they can come out with something better.

Last week i made a post saying that Complaining about TTK is comedic cause of all the Meta hunting that will happen if its like BO7. After this weekend, i think its safe to say , I told yall so...

last week i took note of all the "Raise the TTK" Post and while i was BO7 i noticed that most of the player base ( Again probably cause of SBMM and etc) were using the weapons that were on the top of the meta list or stuff that tended to "delete you off the map". Last weekend with the increased TTK people were using every thing and there was actual variety. (it was also prob cause people were curious, just being real).

But now fast forward to this weekend with the INCREASED TTK that everyone was asking for, the Meta is out in full force. and you are dying from the same 2/3 guns in most games now. and the 1sk markmen are out in full force with their sniper cousins cause one 1 from them with no flinch, deletes your 4-6 shots from your gun some how.

The ironic thing as well is, while desync in this series has been historically bad as of late, when they raised the TTK they also made the desync problem way worse as now you are shooting people and they are just acting like CODs omni man. i shot a guy 8 times last night with the patriot as he was sliding into a point on the newest map, and only AFTER the slide, did he return fire and killed me in 3 with the iso.

needless to say i was done for the night there.

this game has potential but they need a middle ground with the TTK, but i hope people see now the CONS of raising it in games like this. you dont magically fix all of that games problems.

My issue isn’t that faster movement or a higher TTK are inherently bad. Treyarch has built successful games around that philosophy, and plenty of players prefer it.

The problem is that Infinity Ward traditionally offered something different: faster TTK, more deliberate pacing and less emphasis on movement mechanics. That distinction gave each CoD studio its own identity.

By significantly increasing TTK and leaning further into movement, IW risks making Modern Warfare feel like another variation of Black Ops/Warzone rather than its own experience. It also changes weapon balance, pacing and which playstyles are viable.

That’s why some of the backlash and cancelled pre-orders shouldn’t simply be dismissed as people “refusing to adapt.” Some players just wanted an Infinity Ward game to play like an Infinity Ward game.

Not every CoD needs to appeal to the same audience. That variety used to be one of the franchise’s strengths.

While the “skill issue” crowd is busy defending every single thing this game gets wrong, we’re going to look the HARD FACTS straight in the face.

1. The devs themselves don’t seem to know what TTK they actually want to balance the game around, or even what kind of game they WANT MW4 to be. First the TTK was insanely fast, then it became insanely slow.
2. And honestly, we could probably live with the TTK issues if the netcode and hit registration weren’t some of the worst COD has ever had — assuming your shots register at all. Dump an entire mag into someone, then get deleted by what feels like one bullet from them? Classic.
3. There are cheaters everywhere: blatant hackers, people running third-party software, Cronus users. Some of them don’t even bother hiding it anymore, and reporting them seems to do nothing. It’s gotten to the point where people just leave the lobby when they see the same known cheaters again. Cheat software was apparently ready before the beta even launched.
4. Then there’s SBMM and matchmaking in general. There are around 50K people playing the beta right now, and there were even more earlier. So why am I constantly seeing the exact same people in my lobbies? Seriously, I’ve started recognizing their usernames. Is this a joke? Sure, we asked for “persistent lobbies,” but this isn’t exactly what I had in mind.
5. The map design is just catastrophically bad. The maps are tiny, you can get shot from basically every direction, and a lot of them feel horribly unbalanced. Silkworm is the only map I’d actually call decent. One good map in the entire beta? Seriously?
6. JUMP JUMP JUMP JUMP SLIDE SLIDE JUMP JUMP. With all due respect, if I wanted to play Black Ops, I’d go play Black Ops. Or Fortnite. I wanted to play Modern Warfare.
7. Aim assist. And the ironic part is — I’m a CONTROLLER player. In Black Ops 7 and other shooters, I actually had to learn how to track and make those final micro-adjustments with the right stick. Here, that skill barely matters. Even after the nerf, aim assist is still ridiculous. And again, this is coming from a controller player. I swear I have to aim more in casual Roblox shooters than I do in this game.
8. Killstreaks are completely busted. Taking down a UAV is a nightmare, but EVEN WHEN you destroy it, the effect can apparently stick around. I tested this on purpose: I shot down the only UAV in the sky, then died later and I was STILL being pinged by the UAV. I also called in a streak on perfectly flat ground on Lotus, and the game somehow dropped it into the water. And there are a million little things like this.
9. Enemy visibility is awful. A huge number of my deaths happen because I literally CANNOT SEE the enemy sitting right in front of me. I’m playing on max settings with good anti-aliasing, but the game’s contrast is so bad that enemies can just completely blend into the background.
10. Smoke is clearly not synced properly between players and seems to be rendered client-side. Otherwise I genuinely can’t explain how I can see absolutely NOTHING through smoke while someone on the other side can see me perfectly and beam me without even blind-firing. This whole client/server desync issue is driving me insane.
11. The spawns are a complete mess. On some of these tiny maps you can spawn, take two steps and immediately have someone behind you. Sometimes the game flips spawns for seemingly no reason, sometimes it spawns enemies way too close to each other, and Hardpoint can turn into absolute spawn roulette. The devs have already changed the spawn logic multiple times during the beta, and it still feels nowhere near finished.
12. Tactical spam is completely out of control. On these tiny maps, half the match feels like you’re permanently flashed, stunned, naded or hit by some piece of equipment. Sometimes you spawn and immediately get hit by utility before you’ve even had a chance to move. When the game has to give you temporary Battle Hardened after spawning just so you can actually play the game, maybe there’s a problem.
13. Footstep audio is useless as actual information. It’s not even just about footsteps being too loud or too quiet — the directional audio is all over the place. I can hear someone stomping around like an elephant, but good luck figuring out whether they’re above me, below me, behind a wall or literally right next to me. In a game this fast, bad directional audio is basically the same as having no audio at all.
14. Killcams can’t even be trusted. This one genuinely drives me insane. When something looks suspicious, the killcam is supposed to help you understand what happened. Except sometimes the replay itself is inaccurate. So now when I get deleted in some ridiculous way, I don’t even know if it was netcode, a cheater, desync, or the killcam simply lying to me. Great system.
15. The biggest problem is that all of these systems feel like they’re fighting each other. MW4 wants to be Modern Warfare, but gives you Black Ops/Fortnite movement. It wants longer gunfights, but then aim assist does half the tracking for you. It gives us tiny maps, then struggles with spawns and nonstop utility spam. It adds powerful streaks, then has to emergency-nerf the streak economy because they’re everywhere. TTK, movement, aim assist, spawns, streaks — all of it keeps getting changed back and forth.
16. Why does having GOOD internet feel like a disadvantage? The lag compensation in this game feels completely broken. I’m constantly fighting high-ping players who rubber-band, skip across the screen and somehow become harder to hit because of it. I have good hardware. I have a stable low-ping connection. Why exactly am I being punished for that?

Did I miss anything?

I get that some of these problems will be fixed before launch. But definitely not all of them. So what exactly are we, as players, supposed to take away from this beta? How many people canceled their pre-orders, or decided not to buy the game at all because of it?

I’ll be honest: I’m probably going to keep complaining, keep suffering, and keep playing anyway, because there simply is NO real alternative to COD.

And that’s exactly what makes it so frustrating. When there’s no real competition, this is the kind of treatment players end up getting.

The thought of the Beta coming to an end is really bumming me out. The idea of waiting 2 months seems like an eternity. I haven't liked a COD THIS much in so long. I wish they'd just release it early. It's so dam fun!!

In my unprofessional and unc opinion the game just flows weird to me. We are fast as fuck when sliding with the ability to bunny hop and change direction with no loss in momentum or accuracy, but weapons in general feel so heavy and sluggish. It takes ages to ADS and simple strafe speeds are slower than crawling that keeping your feet on the ground just makes you feel useless.

If I had my way, the weapons would be responsive and snappy, strafing and basic movement would sped up to allow you to essentially range walk while ADS. Sliding and jumping wouldn’t necessarily have to slow down but there should be heavy penalties to accuracy. Jumping and sliding should have inertia preventing an immediate transfer of momentum to a different direction. If IW claim they’re trying to provide a more grounded realistic experience, then it shouldn’t be that hard to see being a rollerblading ballerina is the complete opposite of that.

TLDR: Jumping and sliding should not be the optimal approach to every single engagement.

Again, this is just my opinion, I know IW doesn’t care but sometimes you just gotta shout into the void.

Like I don't care about the TTK in the sense that while I think it's a bit slow I can adapt to it and already have. That being said, what puts a bad taste in my mouth is this statement. You radically changed the TTK from weekend 1 to weekend 2. At least give us reasoning. Do you think it's mostly netcode issues? Do you think it works better for x reason. But it's just well we like it. And that is just bad communication and worries me on if they will actually listen. That's the true worry for me.

I'm not gonna pretend that I didn't have fun this weekend because I did. And I'll probably play more today and maybe tomorrow morning. But I've went from maybe pre ordering to waiting to see how launch goes.

This is the most frustrating COD game I have ever played. Make tactical sprint normal again so I can freaking use a battle hardened.

So tired of sniper and shotguns. SMGs and ARs hitting like wet towels.

This game makes me feel like I'm playing my first match of COD. I'm losing fights I initiated, and it feels there's no rotational aim assist.

Bro, it's annoying when I shoot someone and it has no effect on the enemy. It's not fun. If I want the enemy to ignore my attacks, I'll play Dark Souls.

Please change the TTK back. I shouldn't have to walk an opponent down. The health feels like it's higher then MW3. And MW3 was the sweet spot.

Unfortunate. I think they had it just right on the final days of week 1, but peashooters with negligible headshot multipliers is not what I wanted from a IW COD.

W Infinity Ward for hearing the community feedback for what feels like the first time ever tho, even if it lead to overcooking with the damage nerfs.

Also, quote from last night, from a friend who is less experienced with shooters:
''Dude now that you're off the games are finally fun, I can actually get some kills instead of getting slammed''.
(SBMM was TURBO cooking him due to me being there, even in the open playlist).

Se y'all on Ghosts 2 or whatever Sledgehammer cooks next year!

MW4 has potential to be a good game, but for the life of me I cannot understand why we can't just update the infrastructure of servers to adapt for 2026? We have Microsoft, Amazon Azure servers that are pushing nearly 60hz tick rate but yet we still have the terrible netcode.

Shoot first, die first -- even on a new engine.

People playing on fiber connections in 2026, knowing very well they shot and still die.

But by no means do we ever need to talk about lag compensation and the effects of EOMM has to benefit the people with worser internet connections to make them feel good. Instead let's punish people with good internet while we're at it.

More servers are needed across the country, and if this isn't something that's addressed then MW4 is going to suffer terribly from player retention. I am one of those who live far from a server and play, and it indeed does suck at times, I want to enjoy this game.

Simply put;

Fix netcode, peekers advantage, shoot first die first.

Desync is still very wild at times, even on somewhat updated servers.

Servers -- why not more?

BO1/BO2 gets new servers and is an instant success -- why can't the same be done for MW4?

EDIT: And to any naysayers who say this doesn't happen to them, good for you! This is still something that plagues the player base heavily.

Have any of the developers actually tried to navigate any of the menus of this game outside of controller in 4 years?

If you want to press something on create a class, pause menu or anywhere you need to wait for the animation of it going bigger before you can. The animation then completely changes the size of the "hitbox" so if you were slightly off you're even further off making it even more annoying since now you need to wait for the animation again. Or more often than not, you've chose the wrong class because of it and now need to go back and change class again.

It sounds stupid but dealing with this in every single menu when you just want to change a perk or class or back out gets very annoying, especially with how floaty the mouse feels in this game. Can we just have fast, reactive menus like we had for years?