For the new Modern Warfare, Infinity Ward removed the series’ traditional minimap in favor of a horizontal compass, as seen in other games. However, during this weekend’s open beta, many fans voiced their displeasure at the change. As such, Infinity Ward re-enabled the Modern Warfare minimap on day three of the beta.
The minimap has been a feature of every Call of Duty game since the original Call of Duty: 4 Modern Warfare from 2007. As such, series fans expect the feature to be in every new release. However, Infinity Ward decided to remove the minimap in the new Modern Warfare to supposedly add more “realism” to the game. In it’s place, the game now featured a horizontal compass at the top of the screen similar to games like PUBG and Fortnite. Like in those games, enemy gunfire would now be marked in the compass, where older CoD titles would show this in the minimap.
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This weekend, players got their chance to try out Modern Warfare sans minimap as part of the game’s open beta. Suffice to say, most Call of Duty veterans were not happy with the change. The most common complaint from players seems to be that removing the minimap takes away from their situational awareness. This in turn lead players approaching firefights in the beta in a slower, much more cautious manner.
In a video post (warning: NSFW language) on Twitter, pro Call of Duty player Matthew “Skrapz” Marshall ranted about the change. “What is this? 98% of my gameplay is the fucking minimap! I can’t even play pubs! CoD needs it bro. Bad idea.” Meanwhile, in a less heated post, FaZe Clan’s Austin “Pamaj” Pamajewon summarized the state of the beta, saying that “No Minimap in Call Of Duty = Everyone on the map playing turtle.” He concluded that “We need Minimap. Ain’t the same.”
To add to this, Call of Duty YouTuber Trevor “TmarTn” held a poll regarding the minimap on Twitter. Among the respondents, a whopping 76% stated that they wanted the minimap back.
For its part, Infinity War responded quite quickly to the backlash. On Thursday, a short time after the start of the beta, Infinity Ward Senior Communications Manager Ashton Williams actually made a post about the minimap on Reddit. “Let’s talk about minimap. We hear you loud and clear,” stated Williams. “Along with your feedback and the data we’re continuously collecting, we’ll be experimenting internally with a few different options and will keep you updated if we make any changes that you might see during the Beta.”
True to its word, by Saturday, the beta’s third day, Infinity Ward brought the minimap back. However, the studio still made a few tweaks to how the minimap worked. Unlike in previous CoD games, the minimap that was added to the beta did not show where an enemy was when they fire a non-silenced weapon. “We’re still looking at different ways to work with the minimap, team outlines, and the compass,” tweeted Williams the day before the minimap launched. “Let’s see how tomorrow goes and rest of the beta for weekend two.”
“Today we turned on a version of the minimap that doesn’t display enemy fire. We’ve been reading through your comments not only about the map itself, but also the compass and other UI elements on screen,” stated Williams on a follow up post on Reddit. “Reading your feedback has brought up some very insightful conversations here at the studio, so again, thank you.”
After this, on Monday, the final day of the beta, Infinity Ward made one more change to the UI. This time, the developers disabled the outlines that showed players exactly where their teammates were in the world and what they were doing.
While the minimap change may have left a sour taste in veteran player’s mouths, the manner in which Infinity Ward responded has been praised. In one such tweet, FaZe Clan player Trei “Zer0” Morris commended the studio for “doing what they should do for a beta,” while stating that he loved that it was making quick changes based on feedback during the test.
The new Modern Warfare still has another beta test starting this coming Thursday September 20. With the feedback to the minimap changes in mind, Infinity Ward will likely be doing more experimentation with it during this next round of testing. Hopefully, the studio finds the right balance between old and new that satisfies series veterans before the game launches on PS4, Xbox One, and PC on October 25.
