In an interview during the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare multiplayer preview event, Multiplayer Map Design Director Jeffrey Smith and Animation Director Rigsby admitted that a combat mechanic known as the Buddy Boost was cut from the game after being active for an entire year. The move essentially required two people to cooperate, with one person kneeling down to push a second player up a higher wall. At that point, the boosted player would reach back down and pull the first player up the wall.
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While the team thought it worked great, it was ultimately very challenging to get a random person to cooperate in order to pull it off. After pushing the second player up the wall, the first player was stuck in a squatting position until the second player reached back down. In a fast-paced multiplayer environment, being stuck in a squatting position for any length of time means the player is far too vulnerable, which was a big reason why the feature was axed.
However, removing the feature led to a positive change in philosophy. The team still loved the idea of the Buddy Boost and how it enabled players to reach new places, so developers went back into each of the maps and tweaked them a bit to make them more interactive. Ultimately, removing one feature may have helped to improve the experience for players overall.
One aspect of the upcoming shooter that hasn’t been fully detailed yet is the Battle Royale mode. Rumors have continued to circulate over map locations taken from previous games in the franchise similar to what Treyarch pulled off with Blackout in Call of Duty: Black Ops 4. However, multiplayer design director Joe Cecot hinted that the team won’t be adding a Battle Royale mode as this year’s game is tonally different and focused more on being authentic and gritty with realistic weapons.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare releases October 25, 2019 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
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Source: Prima Games
