Since launching in October last year, Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare has consistently driven fans around the bend with one feature in particular: Footsteps. In the popular FPS and its free-to-play battle royale spinoff Warzone, you're supposed to be able to hear approaching enemies by the sound of their footsteps - provided they aren't making an effort to be sneaky.
The problem, according to a good chunk of the community, is the footsteps were way too loud and gave an advantage to camping players who would be immediately alerted to enemies near their location. So developer Infinity Ward nerfed them a few times. Predictably, the community then complained that footsteps were too quiet. It's been going on like this for some time now, with the developer clearly struggling to find a middle ground that pleases everybody.
In an interesting development to the ongoing footsteps saga, it looks as if the controversial audio cues have received a buff that Infinity Ward didn't tell anybody about. This is in addition to an important change listed in the official patch notes for the most recent update.
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"Added a brief decay period when transitioning from heavy footsteps (sprint, tactical sprint) to lighter footsteps (walk)," Infinity Ward explained in a Season 5 update. "This addresses players immediately becoming quiet upon slowing down from fast movements."
In other words, the latest update made it so that you don't instantly move like a stealthy panther as soon as you go from sprinting to walking or crouching. A fair change, I'd hope we can all agree. But as it turns out, Infinity Ward has also made some subtle adjustments to occlusion, making it easier to hear approaching foes through walls or windows.
As documented by YouTuber XclusiveAce in the video below, it seems that approaching footsteps can now be heard at nearly double the distance from before and with a great deal more clarity as they get closer - all through a closed window. The comparison, which uses earlier footage obtained by JackFrags, comes in at around the 10:25 mark.
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This should, in theory, come as welcome news to the Warzone community. This update definitely makes it easier to tell when a squad is approaching wherever you might be holed up, after all. But if I've learned anything from the past several months, it's that fans will almost immediately complain that the footsteps are too loud and force Infinity Ward to nerf them again. It's an endless cycle, it really is.
Featured Image Credit: ActivisionTopics: Modern Warfare, Infinity Ward, Warzone, Call of Duty, Activision