Modern Warfare 2’s Campaign Promises Big Unlocks

Modern Warfare 2 promises a huge variety of multiplayer unlocks for those that finish the campaign of the game.

By Jason Collins | Published

After offering us the first glimpses of gameplay and cutscenes in their latest trailer for Modern Warfare 2, Activision is now incentivizing gamers to jump into the game’s campaign mode by including significant multiplayer rewards by playing through the single-player campaign. This includes operators, experience-point boosts, unique calling cards, and weapon blueprints. The newly added feature is likely to displease some gamers, but true Call of Duty fans will most certainly love the campaign unlocks.

According to IGN, the newly added feature actually incentivized gamers to play through Modern Warfare 2′s campaign mode by offering 17 different unlocks. Those who preorder the game would receive one-week early access (though Activision failed to specify when it actually starts), which means that those who had preordered the game would have a week’s advantage to complete the game. This also implies that they’ll have the perks ready for when the multiplayer goes live, granting them a slight advantage over their Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer colleagues.

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The awards from Modern Warfare 2 will be earned piecemeal as the players progress through the mainline narrative. Of course, finishing the campaign grants the largest reward of them all; the famed Captain Price’s signature weapon, the Union Guard. It’s as if Activision is trying to push players into completing the Modern Warfare 2 campaign — but why is that? Well, the entire Call of Duty franchise is known for delivering world-spectacle narratives, which is something the first-person genre isn’t actually known for.

However, the campaigns are actually the last reason why many gamers actually even get the game — as massive as its multiplayer is. And no, Call of Duty multiplayer components aren’t recognized as MMOs, despite being played by millions. Unfortunately, this also denotes Call of Duty as a mere Counter-Strike-like FPS that used to be the king of the genre, as it dominated dorm room LAN parties and gaming-oriented internet cafes. By skipping the campaign, the gamers are devaluating the work of those who spent months creating content that’s now being openly neglected.

By following the same train of thought, one would be purchasing the upcoming Modern Warfare 2 for nothing else but improved graphics and physics, which do very little to enhance the gaming experience. With everything said, nobody actually knows whether said unlocks will be available through campaign playthrough exclusively or if they will somehow make their way to the microtransactions store. The latter would defeat the entire point of making said unlock available through campaigns.

But, as we previously established, gaming companies only care about profit, so the appearance of the same boosts and unlocks in the transaction store wouldn’t be surprising. Modern Warfare 2 is scheduled to release on October 28, but the players are already cautious about the game’s release due to the DDoS attacks that plagued Overwatch 2 and the rising concerns about balance and footstep audio. Admittedly, Infinity Ward promised to deal with these before the official launch.

On a slightly related note, Activision Blizzard King has its plate full, as the company recently launched Overwatch 2 a few days ago and is currently preparing to launch Modern Warfare 2 in two weeks and Dragonflight expansion in one month following Modern Warfare 2‘s release.