Nearly half of the beta’s Steam players were gone within 24 hours. Two weeks before Modern Warfare 4 launches on October 23 on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC and Nintendo Switch 2, Infinity Ward has seven weeks of feedback to work through, and we can already measure what was fixed, what is still open and what the Switch 2 version is worth.
Modern Warfare 4: a two-stage beta, with a first for the series
Early access ran from August 21 to 25 for pre-orders on PS5, Xbox and PC, followed by the open beta from August 28 to September 1, Switch 2 included. The dates were set in July, as Stefan L wrote for TheSixthAxis on July 21. Another novelty: a campaign mission, « Entrenched », was playable during the beta, which Digital Citizen described as a first for the series.
What went wrong: spawns, kills that come too fast, footsteps that are too loud
On Steam, GamingHQ reported on August 26 about 36% positive reviews out of nearly 7,000, which earns the « Mostly Negative » rating. Complaints center on the respawn system, map design, weapon lethality and footstep noise. Zack Kotzer, writing in Kotaku on August 23, sees a studio that wanted to strip out the spectacle and may have overcorrected: matches that end quickly and favor campers.
The studio reacted quickly. According to Camille Laurent for Player.One, three patches landed on August 22, 23 and 24. The first reduces footstep volume and range and lowers lethality, with this admission about time to kill: « isn’t quite right yet ». The second admits that spawns « need to improve ».
Tuning time to kill is a matter of moving a slider, and three passes in three days show it. Spawns and map layout call for something else, and nothing says two months is enough. Losing half the players in a single day is no small thing in a fall where Marathon lost 96% of its players.
Entrenched: a first look at the Korea campaign
The game is set in Korea, with an invasion from the North, young South Korean soldiers on a collapsing front and a Captain Price waging his war alone. In the playable mission, detailed by Inven Global, you advance through trenches with South Korean marines to hold a nuclear plant, backed by infantry and armor. Combat is close-quarters, with shotguns and cramped positions.
It is a deliberate choice of tone: trench warfare, far from the gadgets of multiplayer. A single level says nothing about how the three announced storylines will be staged, but it at least gives a reason not to judge the game on its maps alone.
Switch 2: 60 frames per second, but less sharpness
Nintendo Life’s roundup paints a consistent picture. Multiplayer targets 60 frames per second and holds it most of the time, from a very low base resolution brought back up by DLSS (Nvidia’s upscaling technique, which rebuilds a sharper image). The campaign stays at 30 frames per second, and draw distance is reduced. The port is handled by Digital Legends Entertainment.
The creators cited largely agree. BoTalksGames calls it a « pretty impressive port », and Nintendo World Report says « the resolution is kind of my only complaint ». Switch Force is blunter: the game runs very well but looks ugly. The Joy-Con 2 mouse mode works for aiming, and load times are considered reasonable.
For a player who wants a portable Call of Duty, the trade-off holds up, since smoothness matters more than textures in a competitive shooter. For the campaign, 30 frames per second on this console is a real drawback. News about the console is also worth following through the Nintendo Direct of September 9.
DMZ, price and PC requirements before October 23
The DMZ mode in Modern Warfare 4 returns as a closed extraction mode on a new map, Hajin, with dynamic weather and an exclusion zone mixing forests and abandoned civilian buildings, according to Gameranx. It was not in the beta, so there is nothing to judge it on.
On price, Insider Gaming lists the standard edition at $69.99 and the Vault edition at $99.99 on PS5, Xbox and PC. No euro price had been found at this stage. On PC, Activision’s support page asks for at least a Ryzen 5 1600 or Core i5-8400, 12 GB of memory, a GTX 970 or RX 470 and 70 GB on an SSD. For 60 frames per second, it recommends a Ryzen 5 3600, 16 GB and an RTX 3060. TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot are required, which is no surprise when Activision puts its cease-and-desist against cheaters on camera.
The game lands in an already crowded month, after Gears of War E-Day and before GTA 6. The Modern Warfare 4 beta patches proved Infinity Ward can react quickly. They have not yet proved that the maps and spawns hold up through a month of real play.
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