Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Open Beta – First Impressions

With the latest addition to the Call of Duty franchise, Modern Warfare 4, dropping this October, Activision gave players the opportunity to test it this weekend during the open beta. No pre-orders needed, just download the beta, and run it.

Of course, as someone who’s been playing Call of Duty since the first Modern Warfare came out back in 2007, I had to try it out. And so far, I like what I’ve seen with the changes the developers have made to this game.

For reference, I only played multiplayer on this game, and was able to get to the maximum level cap at the time which was 30. Not to mention, since this is the beta version, there might be some more changes down the road.

New (or old) movement

The first thing I noticed about this game is the change in movement.

Compared to the last Call of Duty game I played, Modern Warfare 3, the movement style in MW4 feels a bit more relaxed. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still fast-paced, but at least the developers toned it down from the fast slide cancelling and all from MW3, or even the movement in Black Ops 7.

It feels a bit more similar to the movement I experienced in the reboot of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2019. There are fewer people sliding around all over the map, and instead players have to take into account their positioning and movement, which I think is a plus.

But aside from slowing things down, mantling and climbing feels faster this time around too. In addition, you can even aim and shimmy across ledges to take care of nasty campers.

For those who are used to the faster movement in previous Call of Duty installments, it might feel like a downgrade. But slide canceling and all other movement skills you’ve honed could still work after getting used to the updated mechanics. However, for those who prefer the older movement style similar to MW 2019 like me, this is no doubt a welcome change.

Also, tactical sprint is now a perk instead of something permanent. During the closed beta, it was permanent, but it seems Infinity Ward updated it into a perk to balance things out.

Better gunplay and fights

If there’s one thing that’s very important in MW4, it’s aiming and recoil control during gun fights. That’s the main reason I was able to drop an average of 20 to 30 kills per game (depending on the map). If you’re good at tracking, then you definitely have the upper hand in fights. Got bad aim or whiffed? Well, tough luck.

Best of all, there’s no more bloom, so no more “why did that not hit?” moments. The bullets go where you’re aiming. With that in mind, you do need to set up your weapons and loadout to suit your playstyle best, which we’ll get to in a bit.

But overall, gunfights now feel a lot more fair, with aiming playing a very big factor this time around.

Weapons, loadouts and Gunny

One thing that can be a bit overwhelming with Call of Duty games is building a loadout and selecting weapon attachments.

For the loadout, it’s the same as before; players choose between three different perks, a field upgrade, a tactical grenade, a lethal grenade, and the primary and secondary weapons.

For weapon attachments, players can choose five to use. Don’t know which one to use? There’s the new Gunny system that can choose attachments for you based on what’s already unlocked.

Personally, I’m not too fond of the attachments it chose for me. But for those who don’t want to tinker around and test in the firing range, that’s one way to get things done fast.

From my experience playing the beta, the most overpowered weapon is no doubt the shotgun. No matter which map you’re playing on, there’s going to be someone running around with it.

I feel like it definitely needs a nerf, because depending on the attachments, it can even one-shot people at a good distance. But let’s see how it fares when the final game drops.

There’s also an Apex attachment once players have maxed out the gun, and it completely changes how the gun works. On the ISO Nightshade SMG, I didn’t like the Apex attachment that much since it made the gun feel more like an AR, but I’m sure some will have a different opinion.

Not to mention, players can now copy loadouts used by their enemies or the best play killcam. Just remember that what might work for someone might not for you.

Aside from the shotgun, overall, the other weapons feel balanced, and I like how much all the attachments affect the recoil, aim-down speed, and more.

Conclusion

With everything I experienced during the MW4 Open Beta, I liked how Call of Duty is slightly going back to the gameplay we all loved from MW 2019.

No more wall-running movement or grappling hooks from what I saw in Black Ops 7. This is Call of Duty at the end of the day, and if I wanted to play a shooter with crazy movement, there’s Apex and Fortnite for that.

Some guns definitely need some balancing, like the shotgun or the Oris 8.6, which is like the modern Kar98k, but there are still a few more months before the full game drops on October 23, 2026. While there are complaints online about the skill-based matchmaking, all I can say is, get good.

Hopefully, we’ll see refinements that make the game even more enjoyable. They also need to deal with hackers and work on the Ricochet Anti-Cheat system. There was one game where we encountered hackers in the lobby, even though this game is in beta.

The MW4 Beta ends on September 2, 2026, and there’s no word whether there will be more Beta access in the future. If you were able to play the MW4 Beta, let us know what you think of the game so far.

For reference, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is available on Steam for PHP 3,499 or PHP 5,299 for the Vault Edition, which comes with additional skins such as Captain Price, Ghost, Valeria, exclusive weapon blueprints, and battle pass access.

We’ve also included a compilation of my gameplay in the video below.