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Don’t Hate, Infinite Warfare’s Multiplayer Is Great!

Don’t Hate, Infinite Warfare’s Multiplayer Is Great!

The Call of Duty community is nervous, wringing their hands because a few people hated the Infinite Warfare beta. A prominent streamer by the name of “Drift0r” even posted a video for his millions of subscribers, explaining why he doesn’t like the game at all. Infinite Warfare is doomed, right? Not quite. Drift0r had two primary concerns, both of which I feel will be non-issues for different reasons. I’ll address them anyway.

His first concern was that certain Combat Rig traits and payloads, which are basically class-specific perks or specials, are too powerful or annoying to deal with. He lingered on two specifically. The first is a trait you can equip for the “Merc” Combat Rig which increases the rate at which you recover health. In Drift0r’s opinion, that makes it impossible for anyone to guess who is injured and who isn’t.

In other words, say you and your friend get a few shots off on a Merc before he kills your buddy and ducks into a room. Usually you’d just charge into the room after him guns blazing because you know he’s a moment from death. Except now with that trait, a couple of seconds is all he needs to fully recover his health, and charging into that room will almost certainly get you killed if he’s waiting to trade shots with you.

There’s a payload for the Synaptic Combat Rig that basically turns you into a maniacal death dog. Your android gets down on all fours, runs at high speeds, and for a limited time has fast-activating insta-kill melee attack. Think the “ripper” from Black Ops 3 attached to an attack dog that you can control. This thing lets you run along walls and low across the ground at high speeds, stabbing anyone who gets in your way, and Drift0r (among others) thinks that’s a little too much.

What do I think? I think that maybe it is a little too much, and that’s exactly why it’s so damn fun. This game is similar to Black Ops 3 in many ways, but it’s the diversity of the Combat Rigs that really sets it apart. Yeah, so I can’t tell which enemy has which trait; I can’t know for sure who will remain injured and vulnerable or who has that fast-recovery trait equipped; I might not see that high-speed killing machine galloping toward me until it’s too late. That’s all totally fine, because it’s different . Different, but not broken. Everything still has a counter. The fast recovery doesn’t prolong your life or make you harder to kill in a firefight, it just lets you jump back into the fray sooner. That melee payload does make you move really fast and low to the ground, but any decent shooter can still take you down just as easily as when you’re standing upright if they have their wits about them.

Don’t Hate, Infinite Warfare’s Multiplayer Is Great!

The other main complaint is about gun perks. Either by grinding and leveling up or by getting lucky with Supply Crates, you can unlock high-end versions of every gun that have their own special perks. Some perks refill your magazine automatically when you get a double kill. Other perks might trigger a game-ending nuke if you get a 25 kill-streak. One special weapon might greatly increase the range at which you deal decent damage. People are arguing that the guns themselves are overpowered, and that it will encourage “pay to win” tactics,” with people dumping money on Supply Crates to unlock fully unlocked weapons as soon as possible.

I hate to break it to you guys, but this is still Call of Duty . It’s still a skill-based competitive shooter, and none of these gun perks are going to enhance your reflexes or give you better aim. A great player using a base-level weapon with no perks or attachment going up against a noob with a decked out, epic assault rifle is still going to win every time. Additionally, after about a month or two of playtime, matchmaking will take care of everything.

A time will come, after everyone has leveled up and spread out, that only players with upgraded weapons will be fighting each other, and lower level players with more basic weapons will be fighting each other. No one will ever have distinct advantages, because matches aren’t going to pit high level groups of players against low level groups. If you play this game extensively enough to level up, you will absolutely have at least a few upgraded weapons to choose from.

I’ve had a blast with Infinite Warfare ‘s multiplayer, and I can’t wait to play more. All of the complaints right now are about things that will resolve themselves in about a week for the majority. For skilled players who don’t mind that this isn’t a Black Ops 3 clone, there’s no problem. Wait and see. This is going to have staying power.

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