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Rest assured, Call of Duty fans, you’re getting your yearly helping of the blockbuster first-person shooter series. But the franchise is leaving behind Cold War espionage and World War II heroism for a return to its gritty take on the present day. With developer Infinity Ward back at the helm for the 2022 installment, it should come as no surprise that we’re getting Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, the sequel to the reboot that arguably put the franchise back on the right track in 2019.
For this installment, players will step into the boots of Task Force 141, an elite unit that features a few familiar faces as well as some new operators. Among the lineup of characters are 141 leader Captain John Price, Sergeant Kyle “Gaz” Garrick, Sergeant “Soap” MacTavish, fan-favorite lone-wolf Simon “Ghost” Riley, and Mexican special forces operative Colonel Alejandro Vargas, and we’ll undoubtedly meet a few more heroes and villains throughout the game’s story campaign.
On top of a campaign, the game will undoubtedly feature a multiplayer component with all of the staple match types, although Activision has not fleshed out its plans for this part of the experience. Fans should also expect Modern Warfare 2 to usher in a new version of Warzone that sends the hit battle royale game back to the present — the last two installments have taken Warzone away from the Modern Warfare aesthetic that first made it one of the most popular entries in the battle royale genre. The latest game, Call of Duty: Vanguard, abandoned the classic Verdansk map altogether for a new WWII-themed setting in the Pacific called Caldera.
We’ll learn more details about the PvP portion of the game in the coming months. For now, Activision is set to lift the curtain on what it has planned for the Modern Warfare 2 story mode, beginning with the official trailer reveal taking place on Wednesday, June 8 at 1 pm ET / 10 am PT.
You’ll be able to watch the reveal below:
Following the trailer reveal, fans should tune into the Summer Game Fest showcase on Thursday, June 9 at 2 pm ET / 11 am PT for the very first look at one of the levels in the game.
Expectations are very high for Call of Duty‘s return to the Modern Warfare series. In fact, the original Modern Warfare 2 from 2009 represents the very peak of the franchise for some longtime fans. Will the reboot honor or even surpass that legacy?
Infinity Ward art director Joel Emslie described Modern Warfare 2 as the most “ambitious, beautiful, bombastic, melt your face off game Infinity Ward has ever created” in a blog post, declaring it “this studio’s magnum opus and it’s the type of game I’ve been waiting to be a part of my entire career.”
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 arrives on Oct. 28.