'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare' Gameplay Make a Big Change to Reloading

One of the biggest first-person shooter video games is making a radical change to the genre. In a blog post for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Infinity Ward’s Mark Grisby revealed the 2019 game is adding reloads while in ADS, or “aiming down sights.” This seemingly small tweak could change how gamers play, and even compete, in a big way when the next Call of Duty arrives.

On July 2, Mark Grisby, Infinity Ward Animation Director, revealed that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (out on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on October 25) will have a new feature simply called “ADS reload.”

In short, ADS reload will allow all players, using all weapons, to reload while holding down the trigger buttons that lets them to focus on a target.

“In the past, if you’re ADS, and you’re shooting and you reload, the weapon would go off to the side, and you’d have to retrain to get to your target,” Grisby said. “This time if you reload, it stays on the target, so you can stay in the battle.”

Indeed: In Call of Duty games of yesteryear, as well as the vast majority of FPS games today, players must exit ADS (often activated by holding the left trigger button) before they can reload.

Knowing when to reload between ADS is a key strategy in competitive gaming. Many games, such as Destiny 2, gauge an individual weapon’s reload speed and magazine capacity, which is necessary for players to know when deciding their loadout. A high capacity gun with a fast reload speed is the split second difference between victory and defeat.

Modern Warfare, however, is changing things up in a big way. As Grisby says, the feature will allow players to maintain sights on a target while they reload, which can up people’s game.

“The devil’s in the details,” Grigsby says on the game’s new features in addition to ADS reload. “The reload to me is the pinnacle of the weapon; it makes you feel – after you’ve taken down five different dudes in a room – and you reload, you go ‘shit yeah, you’re done!’ We wanted to bring that that flair but taken to a new level where it’s just like one animation.”

This isn’t the first time that ADS reloads are a thing, not even in Call of Duty. The feature was previously a weapon-specific perk in Call of Duty: Black Ops 4. But now ADS reloads are available to all players at the start of the game.

Depending on how players receive the new mechanic, it could change how FPS games of tomorrow are played. Besides being dependably entertaining, the Call of Duty series innovated and/or popularized many modern concepts in FPS gaming, most especially the ADS.

2003’s Call of Duty, the first game in the franchise, was among the first games ever to feature ADS, alongside 2002’s America’s Army and 2003’s Vietcong. 2007’s Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, alongside Halo 3, introduced unlockable perks and accessories for online multiplayer, which can be found in today’s biggest games like Fortnite.

The whole blog post is a fascinating read that provides more insight into the sophistication of triple-A shooter games.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare will be released on October 25 for PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4.