Spec Ops Returns to Call of Duty Modern Warfare, New Information Revealed

As promised, Activision has released new information about the upcoming reboot of Call of Duty Modern Warfare.

At a short E3 panel, members of the Infinity Ward team revealed that the series’ Spec Ops multiplayer mode would make a return in the upcoming FPS. They also shared new screens of the game’s multiplayer mode, as well as insight into the game’s narrative and design. 

Speaking with Geoff Keighley at the E3 Colesium, the panel first unveiled new images of Capt. Price, played by Barry Sloan, two player characters, Sergeant Kyle Garrick and CIA operative “Alex,” and Commander Farah Kareem. 

Taylor Kurosaki, narrative director at Infinity Ward, said Modern Warfare is a  “reimagining” of the first game. Asked what the game means, he said: 

We’ve been working on this game for two and a half years now. When we started out, we asked ourselves a really simple question: we said the words “modern” and “warfare,” what does that mean to us today? Kind of devoid of the games that preceded them. 

He said that the relevancy of the game hasn’t diminished over the years, and many of its narrative beats still echo in the world today. He also said that the soft reboot would be inspired by the original and the games that followed, but wouldn’t be “beholden” to them.

That means that Modern Warfare 2019 will be both nostalgic and, well, modern. However, it won’t be as “bombastic” as some of its later titles, such as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. 

The conversation then moved to the multiplayer aspects of the game. While the developers couldn’t share specific information, they provided a few new screenshots of the game’s competitive element, one of which can be seen in the header image at the top of this article. 

Kurosaki expressed that while Spec Ops mode and the Juggernaut suit would make a return in Modern Warfare, multiplayer would be somewhat different this time around:

The important thing for MP is that this is a unified experience. These are not modes; this is not a modal game. When you’re playing Modern Warfare, you’re playing Modern Warfare. Whether you’re playing SP or MP or Co-Op, you’re playing in this same world.

Much more about the characters, narrative, and technology can be seen in the 24-minute video above. 

Special Ops mode was not in the original Modern Warfare. It first appeared in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, then again in Modern Warfare 3. 

Modern Warfare was announced in May. It will be coming to the PC, PS4, and Xbox One on October 25. While Spec Ops will be returning to the title, the series’ Zombies Mode will not.