Call of Duty: Modern Warfare gets first Spec Ops footage and details

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is just a couple weeks away and we’re finally getting the first details about the game’s co-op mode, Spec Ops. Yes, Spec Ops is back after an 8-year hiatus and it’s better than ever.

After years of alien and zombie co-op modes, Call of Duty is going back to the beloved tactical co-op mode but it’s totally revamped. While in the past, Spec Ops are largely just little vignettes, this is an extension of Modern Warfare’s campaign and has many more layers.

The four-player co-op mode tasks a squad of soldiers with “Operations”. These multi-stage Operations seem to follow a narrative with events and factions from the game’s campaign and allow for big, bombastic missions. As the trailer seems to indicate, one of these levels sees you drive a car onto the back of a plane that’s taking off then you clear the plane and jump out as it explodes in mid-air. Pretty wild stuff.

Activision describes the Operations in a blog post as levels that can be approached with different tactics and strategies. Go big and loud, employ stealth, use vehicles, killstreaks, and whatever other tools at your disposal. It definitely sounds far more engaging than the more arcade-y levels of past Spec Ops modes.

There will be four Operations at launch with more to follow post-release, all at no additional cost. On top of that, there are some of those more classic Spec Ops levels with “Missions”. These missions will rank you with a 1, 2, or 3-star ranking and times to complete the objective in.

In both versions of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare’s Spec Ops mode, you can earn unspecified rewards to use across Spec Ops and multiplayer. You can also bring your loadout across the MP into the co-op experience so you can keep your preferred weapons, perks, and items of choice with no worries.

There’s also a PlayStation 4 exclusive wave-based mode called Survival. This mode is pretty self-explanatory but will be locked to Sony’s console until next October.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare will release on October 25th, 2019 for Xbox One, PS4, and PC. You can read our preview of the game’s campaign and multiplayer by clicking the respective links.