In one of the more puzzling Call of Duty developer decisions in recent memory, Infinity Ward decided it would not include a minimap in the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Beta.
The developer said it wanted to make Modern Warfare a more ‘tactical’ game where your strategic choices would be more important than in previous titles. But the absence of the minimap is just a bad idea.
Infinity Ward tried to replace the minimap, which is typically in the top-left corner, with a rectangular compass-looking thing. When opposing players fire their weapon, red diamonds appear in the direction of the player. The compass isn’t the worst idea, but it’s certainly not better than a minimap. And if the compass has a similar purpose to that of the minimap, why make the change in the first place?
Call of Duty needs to be more tactical than Black Ops 4, we agree. Too many times in Black Ops 4 would players slide around a corner and kill a player with a better position. Yeah, sometimes players with the better movement or aim will get the better of players with good positioning, but it happened way, way too much in Treyarch’s latest creation.
Related: The Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Beta is now live on PS4
But it seems Infinity Ward basically targeted the minimap for the sake of being ‘tactical.’ Call of Duty has struggled with balancing the ‘run and gun’ playstyle and slow pacing for a while now, but other than Fog of War, no one thought the minimap was a problem in Black Ops 4.
The Modern Warfare developer responded to public outcry regarding the minimap, saying it will be “experimenting internally with a few different options,” although IW didn’t reveal exactly what those options are. So we can only hope that one of the developers suggested just bringing back the minimap that players have become accustomed to.
Disgruntled players in favor of the minimap’s return are using the #TeamMiniMap hashtag on social media, and you should too. Minimaps are a crucial part of Call of Duty and we would all be better off with a nice round miniature map in the top-left corner of Modern Warfare.
