Even prior to the full release of Infinity Ward’sCall of Duty:Modern Warfare 2in October 2022, fans have been vocal about their dissatisfaction with the game’s UI. Its Hulu-style layout is confusing and cumbersome, leading to many frustrations within the community and an outcry for a total UI overhaul. However, withCall of Duty:Modern Warfare 2’s Season 2 bringing only a few minor fixes, it serves as further evidence that fans shouldn’t expect any major changes to the game’s UI, at least for a long time.
Modern entries in long-standing franchises likeCall of DutyandHaloare often criticized for releasing with less content, butModern Warfare 2is widely considered to be one of the most feature-richCall of Dutygames in recent years. With such a strong foundation, the UI issues are a glaring oversight that many fans are displeased with. Each new season brings hope for more UI fixes, and since Season 2 was delayed two weeks, many thought this would give more time for the developers to fix additional problems.
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Minor Updates Aren’t Enough to Fix MW2’s Poor UI
Season 2 brought with it the expected handful ofnew maps, modes, bug fixes, and balance changes toMW2, but many players were curious to see the changes to the UI. While the update made camo and social tab navigation easier and added a preview of reticles before attaching them, these are a small Band-Aid on a much larger wound. Fans have expressed their desire for a complete overhaul of the UI, with some members of the community even coming up with rough designs of their own. However, with Infinity Ward making minor changes like these, it’s unlikely it will invest in a total redesign.
The UI issues inMW2certainly aren’t the only problems players have with the game, and for many, they aren’t even the most significant. Still, the UI is something that every single player interacts with, while not every player playsspecific modes like Warzone 2, DMZ, or Invasion.MW2’sHulu-style main menu has a blocky layout that makes it difficult to navigate and menus are layered, so players will often move back and forth between menus to search for the specific mode they want. This is where a majority of the game’s UI complaints lie.
MW2’s UI looking nearly identical to Hulu’scame as no surprise after the news came out that the UI/UX Director for Infinity Ward previously worked as the UI Director at Hulu. This layout works well for movies and television since it displays a thumbnail that can grab the user’s attention and pique their interest. In a video game, though, most players already know what they want to play, and they aren’t loading up the game to be surprised. Video game menus should offer quick navigation that makes it easy to get to where players want to go.
In addition to the main menu problems,players have reported countless bugs and minor issues withMW2’s UIsuch as overlapping elements and awkward controls. For PC players, for example, scrolling through the main menu will sometimes have the menu auto-scroll back to where it was because the mouse cursor is hovering over another block. While the Season 2 update sees plenty of bug fixes and minor tweaks to the UI, there is still a long way to go, and many issues have not been addressed.
Minor issues like PC auto-scrolling aren’t necessarily deal-breakers, but they combine to negatively impact the user experience overall, such as loadout previews showing incorrect weapon images and attachments. The UI changes made inMW2’s Season 2 updateare welcome, but they also demonstrate that there’s still much more to be done than a few simple tweaks. It’s unknown for sure whether players will eventually get a UI redesign or not, but at least Infinity Ward is addressing some complaints in the meantime.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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