The one mechanic Vanguard players don’t want to see in MWII

Call of Duty: Vanguard is currently the lowest-selling mainstream title the franchise has had in nearly two decades; the World War II setting, the new series name, and the gameplay just haven’t resonated with fans the way Activision hoped it would. In addition to all of that, there are several eccentricities present in Vanguard that fans do not seem to enjoy at all. The mechanic known as “bloom” sits at the top of that list; this mechanic adds a bit of randomness to each shot a player takes. This mechanic got a poor reception when players discovered it in Vanguard, and fans are hoping it doesn’t return in Modern Warfare II.

Vanguard players have pleaded with developer Sledgehammer Games to remove bloom since it was discovered shortly after the game’s launch. Bloom creates an unnecessary level of randomness in multiplayer, as shots don’t always go exactly where players aim. To most players, this feels counterproductive when playing a competitive multiplayer shooter. While Vanguard has stuck with bloom, albeit at a reduced level from its original state, fans are begging Infinity Ward to not include it in MWII.

A recent post on the Modern Warfare II subreddit basically summarized the community’s feelings about bloom. The post implores Infinity Ward to not make the same mistake Sledgehammer did with Vanguard.

IW, please do not add Bloom to this game
byu/derkerburgl inModernWarfareII

Fans responded to the post saying “COD is NOT the kind of game where bloom adds anything to the experience,” and “Gunplay should never ever be sacrificed for the sake of realism.” It’s thought that Sledgehammer introduced bloom to add more realism to Vanguard, seeing as real-life soldiers wouldn’t be able to control a gun as well as COD players can in multiplayer. Fans argue that multiplayer should be fun with an arcade-style mentality, and not based on realistic gunplay.

Of course, some fans enjoy Call of Duty’s realism, so the developers will upset one crowd of players either way. Still, it seems like a good amount of players wish that MWII would remove the bloom mechanic; we’ll have to wait for the multiplayer beta to confirm whether or not bloom is in the game.