- CoD: MWII’s gun game finally has the old red dots on the minimap
- Infinity Ward reintroduced the feature to MWII but only for Gun Game
- Devs still don’t want to bring back this feature for other modes
One of the most missed features of old MW2 is the red dots showing enemies on the minimap, but Gun Game reintroduced it recently.
Gun Game Brings Back Red Dots on Minimaps
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II has been a huge hit largely due to its adherence to the features and feel of the original game. Despite that, not everything has been rosy and the game’s devs have decided on some controversial changes for the revamped title. One of these is the removal of the red dots on the minimap representing enemy players.
The original MW2 game had red dots light up on the map if an enemy shoots. However, in the revamped game, developer Infinity Ward decided to remove this feature entirely. Enemies now don’t show on the minimap unless you have an active UAV. This decision spawned a lot of backlash with fans wanting the feature brought back.
However, it seems that Infinity Ward has reintroduced the much-coveted feature in the game, albeit only for just one specific mode – Gun Game.
Why Bring Back the Old Minimap Only in Gun Game?
To understand this, we have to see what Infinity Ward’s reasoning to remove the red dots from the minimap was in the first place. In the old MW2, as well as other CoD games, enemy players were shown on the minimap when they fired their guns. The devs’ reasoning for removing this feature is that they did not want to punish players for using their guns. “The design reason for this is that we do not want to punish players for firing their weapons,” Infinity Ward said. “We also want players to actively search out the origin of a gunshot versus just traveling directly to where the dot is on the minimap.”
However, Gun Game works differently from a regular 6v6 match of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which may be the reason for it having the classic mini-map. Players aim to kill enemies with a series of guns in order, with the goal of becoming the fastest player to cycle through all available weapons. Perhaps the devs want to make an already dynamic game mode even faster as now players would be able to find enemies a lot sooner. However, restricting the minimap’s red dots only to Gun Game shows that Infinity Ward is not yet ready to commit to a full reintroduction of the feature.
In any case, the return of the old minimap, albeit for just one specific game mode, has been received well by the community. Perhaps this will spur it on to ask MWII’s devs to re-implement the feature in other game modes as well.