Remastered Maps in Modern Warfare 2
Remastered maps in CoD is not a new thing. In fact, it’s a pretty old development. Pretty regularly, CoD looks back to fan-favorite maps, gives them a modern coat of paint, and drops them into newer games. This was the case with Modern Warfare (2019), too, so it’s only to be expected that we’ll see these in Modern Warfare 2. In fact, it’s been reported that, at launch, Modern Warfare 2 will come with at least some remastered maps, like Favela. It’s also inevitable that we’ll see Shipment return in Modern Warfare 2, as Shipment was, by far, the most popular map in Modern Warfare (2019). However, recent leaks suggest that all, or almost all, of Modern Warfare 2’s original maps will be remastered for Modern Warfare 2. This comes after a long series of rumors, though, that make this leak seem all the more possible. See, it’s been reported that after the remaster of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Activision planned to release a similar remaster of Modern Warfare 2. However, when this finally dropped, it came in the form of just the campaign being remastered. The speculation there is that Activision didn’t want to release a full-fledged remaster of the game including multiplayer because Modern Warfare (2019) had just come out a few months prior. Though the leaks continue and went on to suggest that the actual work on the multiplayer remaster was basically done, leaving Activision with remastered versions of the original game’s maps they didn’t have anything to do with. So, it’s speculated, that’s why maps like Scrapyard and Rust made it into Modern Warfare (2019). Thus, the rest of the Modern Warfare 2 maps have been simply collecting dust somewhere on an Activision-owned hard drive, and it would make sense that in the spiritual successor to the game these remastered maps come from we’d see these remastered maps.
Almost All Maps? And When Are They Coming?
The latest rumors suggest that almost all of Modern Warfare 2’s maps will come to the reboot, but that leaves the nagging question of if your favorite map will make it in. Of course, we don’t have official details yet, but there’s a good reason why we wouldn’t likely see all of the base game’s maps. For example, Scrapyard was already in Modern Warfare (2019) as not just a map but also as a part of Ground War and Warzone’s Verdansk. So, while a popular map, it doesn’t seem very likely we’ll see this map again so soon after we saw it multiple times in Modern Warfare (2019). The same can be said of Rust in Modern Warfare (2019), but Rust is the most iconic Modern Warfare 2 map and one of the three most iconic Call of Duty maps ever (the other two being Shipment and Nuketown), so it would seem pretty strange not to bring back this huge fan-favorite map to the reboot of the game that first introduced it. Then, there’s the fact that all of Modern Warfare 2’s original maps weren’t equally popular. By now, there’s a rosy tint to the nostalgia we all look at these maps with, softening some rough edges, but still, there are clearly Modern Warfare 2 maps that were nowhere near as popular as hits like Terminal. For example, maps like Sub Base or Derail often played fairly slow, due to their size and complexity, while the landscapes of these maps in particular were fairly consistently gray and white, since they’re snow maps, which made for less interesting environments to explore and play in. While a map like Rundown could feel like lesser versions of maps like Favela, Karachi, Invasion, or Skidrow. So, there’s a possibility that outside of skipping a repeat like Scrapyard some less popular maps may not make a comeback. And when can we expect these to come back? As mentioned above, some will undoubtedly be in the game at launch, but since Modern Warfare 2 is being supported for two years, it’s a pretty safe bet that we’ll see a remaster or two a season throughout the course of its lifespan. In general, while CoD fans are in favor of remastered maps, fans can quickly get tired of them if it feels like Activision doesn’t want to put the resources into making good, new maps and instead rehashing old ones, which people can burn out of more quickly than they might a new map.
