I don't know if I'm good at Call of Duty multiplayer (and other thoughts)

Like many players, I took part in the crossplay multiplayer beta for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. I hadn't played anything since the beta for Black Ops 4. 

As you can probably tell by that statement, I don't play the series a whole lot. I appreciate its fast pace, but I can't say that the beta for their latest entry is the most enjoyable I've ever experienced. 

For the time I had with the beta, I chose to play Ground War and Domination. The former is a 32v32 multiplayer match, the same amount of players that Battlefield supports for their larger game modes. The latter packs less players, with a focus on tighter maps. 

In Ground War, my team fought on Karst River Quarry, one of the biggest maps created for the series, according to the website. Players were tasked with capturing and holding a number of objective bases. Players took control of ATVs, APCs, and tanks. Getting used to the new style of gameplay was fairly tough, tougher than I expected, as Call of Duty is usually very approachable.

Maybe it was the people I was playing with, maybe it was the fact that I hadn't played in a while, but I did have an interesting time.

The first time I loaded into a lobby, it was packed with guys saying, as if in refrain: "I'm going to shit on you". 

I'm naturally not the sort of person to engage in any sort of aggressive speech, in games or in real life. I've always heard that Call of Duty lobbies are full of relatively immature folks who just wanna pump that K/D, so I chided them, asking: "Why are you guys talking about shitting on each other? That's just nasty."

I didn't get any response. 

The game started, and I proceeded to get crapped on. The game's multiplayer is still fast-paced, but being a Battlefield player, I wanted to play the game a little more slowly: taking scope of the map, not rushing around too fast, and taking into account just where I was. It didn't work out. 

I didn't work out any hard, well-detailed scientific experiments, but it's safe to say that time-to-kill is fairly short. From assault rifles and shotguns (sensibly) if you're not careful in this game, you'll die; it's just that simple. I don't really have any complaints, except for the fact that whenever the killcam pops up onscreen, it sometimes seems as if the bullets aren't really hitting fully on-target. This is something that I've always had an issue with in Call of Duty games: the final killing blow sometimes hits slightly away from the body of the player character, and I just don't really trust that. 

There was also the pinpoint accuracy of some of the heavy tanks. I didn't know that a shell can hit a player like a sniper bullet. Maybe I'm too used to the method that DICE employs with Battlefield V, taking time with how long a tank's turret lines up with the target, and whether a shot will actually have area of effect damage to the players around it. I think I ended up having 20 deaths vs 10 kills. Not terrible, but not bueno either. 

Luckily, I did have better luck with Domination. I played on Grazna Raid and Azhir Cave (Day). This game is more appropriately fast-paced, with the three bases changing team possession in as many minutes. I had a much better time on Grazna Raid than Azhir Cave. On Grazna, there are always spots where players end up having small firefights, whether it be in certain areas near the bases themselves, or in the streets in between. For Azhir, I feel like the distances were too long (one part takes place in a village, the other in a cave system) that it's not well-made enough for this type of game mode. Maybe an additional experience might change my mind, but Grazna was a much more readily appropriate map for the game mode.

The thing I appreciated the most about this beta was its map design. It's clear that a lot of time went into making the maps feel like real places, rather than levels. With Azhir, there is the clear differentiation between village and cave. Both have straight lines going through them, sure, but it at least felt like two distinct places in one map. With Grazna, it felt like a real town, with multiple roads and alleys that you would expect in that sort of setting. Karst felt fantastic, even if there were too many places to get shot. 

All in all, I don't think that I'm a poop repository in Call of Duty multiplayer, but maybe I am for this latest iteration of it. There's always room for improvement, though.