Modern Warfare 4 multiplayer ditches CoD’s omnimovement for a more ‘realistic’ feel, but it’s smoother than before

It’s been four years since Infinity Ward ran point on a Call of Duty game, and that time has been spent creating the latest installment in one of gaming’s most popular sub-franchises.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 launches later this year, but I got invited to Infinity Ward’s studio last week to see the game in action, talk to developers, and most importantly, play some multiplayer matches for myself.

Infinity Ward’s last game, 2022’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, is one of the more controversial and frowned-upon entries in the franchise in recent memory, largely due to its multiplayer offering. The game reviewed decently, landing with a 75 on Metacritic, but most CoD fans I talk to don’t think very highly of it in retrospect, and most of the complaints have to do with how slow it felt.

Over the past several years, CoD has shifted away from a realistic approach and more towards movement-based combat techniques with things like Black Ops 6 and 7’s Omnimovement system, featuring wall-jumps and omnidirectional dives and sliding. MW4 is bringing it back to the ground in a big way, with what the studio is calling a gameplay feel that’s “slick and sophisticated, but gritty and grounded.”

It’s been a few years since I played the studios’ most recent game, but if I had to describe MW4’s movement, it’s reminiscent of MWII’s but way smoother. The Tactical Sprint mechanic is back (unfortunately), but Infinity Ward has made it a point to try and make sure that realistic doesn’t mean clunky, like so many remember MWII to be.

“It’s been top of our mind,” Geoff Smith, multiplayer creative director, said to me. “What does that transition look like, moving quick to maybe not as much? It’s forced us to look at our movements, ‘is there things in our movement that are messed up’? And we actually went frame by frame, and we found these little hitches in the transitions from one animation to another.”

In a little under two hours of my own personal gameplay, the changes were apparent mostly when doing things like mantling, climbing, or ledge-hanging. Sliding feels quick and smooth, and you can slide-cancel like before. There’s also a new Supine Slide technique, where you can slide on your back and finish in the prone position. But for those looking for BO7’s omnimovement where it at times feels like you’re sliding around the map, there’s going to be a big adjustment period to MW4’s slower, more methodical pacing.

Smith said that “adding weight” and “making you feel like you’re moving through it” have helped even out those animations to make the game feel smoother than MWII had in the past, but MW4 will maintain that realism. As Smith said, Infinity Ward’s “DNA” has “always been kind of grounded in reality,” starting from basing early games’ missions off of actual WWII events.

“Sometimes we can get ahead of ourselves and make something that’s a little too grounded and not as much fun,” Smith said. “We use this as a moment to look at some of these elements and make sure that we’re doing it for the right reason, and not making it so you’re some documentary soldier bumping into things, and you’re more of a well-trained actor that has choreographed moves.”

I also spoke with Infinity Ward’s Jack Hoppus, multiplayer technical designer, who said that MW4’s movement specifically has been tuned and iterated on over the past four years so that “every single player can have a really viable way to play.”

“I think we landed in a really good spot now, where if you want to be this player that’s fast, break sightlines, and really rush enemies, there’s definitely that play style for you,” Hoppus said. “There’s definitely the play style for tactical gunplay, there’s play styles for taking objectives and stuff like that. So, we didn’t want there to be one dominant way to play the game.”

CoD’s shift to “cracked out” movement has been a hit with many players, but has maybe scared away some others who are looking for that more grounded feel. Instead, the idea with MW4 is to bring flexibility to how the game feels so that each engagement has its own kind of approach.

Smith told me that the team has “gotten the game pretty holistic” within the past year, bringing in different players from different areas like Call of Duty League pros, Warzone players, and everything in between to try and strike the right balance. But with things like the beta test and post-launch support, “we’ll keep working on that,” according to Smith.

To test out the current movement, MW4 will ship with a Mobility Course where players can use the different movement mechanics to set their best times while shooting at targets along the way, similar to previous Spec Ops entries in the franchise. But for its actual dedicated third mode beyond multiplayer and campaign, MW4 will mark the return of the extraction mode DMZ. More on that is coming soon.

MW4 launches on Oct. 23, but an open beta will arrive on PC and consoles in the months leading up to release.

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