KitGuru Games: Shootout – Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II VS Overwatch 2

While some years see multiple major FPS games launching in the holiday season, this year we only have two and funnily enough, both have come from Activision. In October, Overwatch 2 finally launched and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II arrived, delivering the largest opening weekend in COD history. Many of us only have a limited amount of time to sink into a game, so which one should you pick this holiday season? 

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II is the sequel to Infinity Ward's 2019 soft reboot of the Modern Warfare series. Modern Warfare (2019) was my favourite Call of Duty game in many years, but Activision's strict annual release schedule meant that the game was swiftly replaced by more Black Ops, and later, that was replaced by Vanguard. Now, after what I would consider to be two ‘down' years for Call of Duty, Infinity Ward has returned to put the franchise back on top.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (2022) is a worthy sequel. In my mind, Modern Warfare has always been the best line of Call of Duty games and Infinity Ward has delivered once again. The campaign is high-octane action with memorable levels throughout. Within the first couple of hours, you are going to be reintroduced to plenty of returning characters, and the campaign hits all the classic gameplay moments you would expect, from raiding buildings, to air combat support, to the classic sniper level.

I've not finished the whole campaign yet but I've already seen a healthy mix of high-octane action gameplay and stealth-oriented gameplay with a more tactical focus. Call of Duty's sniper levels almost always rise quickly to the top of my rankings, but this year's campaign also has one hell of a car chase level, which involves hijacking vehicles to move up a convoy, ducking out of your car to shoot enemies to continue advancing, and then quickly getting back into your vehicle to steer out of the way of landmines. It was a ton of fun and avoiding timing everything right isn't a particularly easy task. I imagine this will be one of the trickier levels if you max out the difficulty but in the interest of saving time, I am playing on normal difficulty for the time being.

I've not even mentioned visuals yet, and this is an area where Call of Duty continues to shine. On a technical level, it is one of the best-looking shooters I've ever played, and the game runs very well even on Ultra settings. Using an RTX 3070 Ti and a Core i7-8700K, I consistently pull over 100 frames per second in the campaign and in multiplayer, I'm able to rise above 120FPS, making for a very smooth experience.

The campaign has me hooked, but the multiplayer isn't grabbing me as much as I'd hoped. I've played most of the available modes and I have a few standout favourites – Team Deathmatch, Hardpoint and Prison Break. All three of these modes are team-focused, but unfortunately, as this is Call of Duty, you will often be matched up with players who prefer solo play and don't necessarily focus on the objective or pay attention to what's going on with the rest of the team in other parts of the map. This has been an issue with Call of Duty for years, as the fast TTK rewards fast movement and allows solo players to really stand out and shine. It is easier to take over a match as a single player, so there is less of a focus or reliance on team-oriented gameplay, even in the objective-based modes.

This is something I enjoyed a lot more in my younger years, but now as I near 30, I have grown a fondness for team-based gameplay. Fortunately, there is another shooter that came out recently that delivers in this exact area – Overwatch 2.

I did not expect to enjoy Overwatch 2 at all after playing the beta earlier this year. You may remember a previous KitGuru Games in which I bashed the sequel and lamented its changes. Now months later, Overwatch 2 has launched and I have spent the last few weeks fully hooked.

Overwatch was always fun, and it can be argued that Blizzard gave up on the original game too soon in order to focus efforts on an unnecessary sequel. This is still true and as it stands, Overwatch 2 doesn't feel like a full sequel. What often gets lost in this argument though is that at its core, Overwatch is still a great game.

Overwatch has such a fun mix of unique heroes and the change to 5v5 gameplay means that choosing the right hero for a given situation is all the more important. We have tanks that specialise in shields, and others that specialise in charging into enemy lines to break up formations and draw focus away. Maps have multiple flanking routes, so a decent Reaper can sneak through and cause additional chaos. Healers are the backline, responsible for keeping your tank and DPS players alive long enough to get some kills so the team can push ahead.

This team-based focus is a gift and a curse. When you have the right group together, everything will click in a near-seamless manner and you'll be able to make some great pushes towards the objective. The downside is that if you are playing solo, you may run into situations where nobody really wants to play their role, or play as a team. I've come across a lot of offensive-focused Moira players who barely heal, and I've run into DPS players and tanks that like to charge ahead at full squads without any backup. If a Mercy and a tank charge into a fight alone, the Mercy is going to be picked off immediately and then the tank isn't going to last much longer either. If you hang back and wait for additional DPS heroes to arrive, you'll have a better opportunity to scatter the defence and pick players off.

Role Queue does solve this issue for the most part, but with challenges that often reward players for queuing for all roles instead of just selecting what they are good at, the matchmaking pool can be jumbled at times. This is an issue that will lessen over time. Overwatch 2 had a huge launch with over 25 million players logging in within the first couple of weeks, and 35 million players in the first month, many being first-time players who need to learn the ropes. With that in mind, as the wider player base becomes more skilled and knowledgeable, the likelihood of being matched with capable players should grow.

It is also worth noting that if you don't like the role restrictions in place for normal ranked and unranked play, then you can choose one of the other modes. There are arcade modes that remove restrictions, so you can have an all-tank squad, or three tanks and two healers, or a bunch of DPS players etc. These modes are fun, but often playing with two or three tanks on a squad does feel too powerful, as you can bully your way through modes like Push. Still, it is a fun mode and I have put a lot of time into Arcade over the traditional modes.

Blizzard also gave us a brief look at the future of Overwatch 2 this month with its Halloween mode. For the event, Blizzard put a new PvE mode in place with new hero dialogue and boss fights. It almost plays out a bit like Overwatch meets Destiny, and by limiting which heroes you can choose to tackle this mission, Blizzard can ensure a certain level of challenge. It was a lot of fun and has given me high hopes for Overwatch 2's PvE campaign, which is due to arrive in 2023. We can only hope that Blizzard continues to add PvE content in the future too, as it would be a shame to put together a really fun mode only to abandon it in favour of focusing all efforts on multiplayer.

If you have to choose which game to sink your time into this holiday season, I would go with Overwatch 2 if you have a couple of friends you can convince to join you. If you are primarily a solo player, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II might be the way to go, but I would wait on a sale closer to Christmas, as even with the great campaign, £60 is a big ask, especially if there is going to be premium expansion coming next year. Overwatch 2 on the other hand is free to play, so you can download it and start playing without having to shell out any cash.

If you are interested in skins and cosmetics, you will find some issues here though. Blizzard has removed free-to-earn loot boxes and replaced them with a cash shop for skins, and a battle pass system with very few free rewards included on the track. This is an area that Blizzard really needs to lighten up on, either by making skins in the shop cheaper or by adding more free tier rewards into the battle pass. As far as progression goes, you will be able to finish the season pass without issue, as Blizzard does give you a lot of XP for finishing very easy challenges each day.

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KitGuru Says: Will you be playing one of this holiday season's two major shooters? Will you be diving into Overwatch 2 or picking up Call of Duty? 

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