Modern Warfare 2 dev responds to fears they are reusing MW2019 animations

Liam Mackay
Modern Warfare 2 player reloading in Dark Water campaign mission

Call of Duty players adored Modern Warfare 2019’s realistic weapon animations, and with the confirmation that some weapons will return in Modern Warfare 2, players were worried that animations would be reused. However, the Weapons Animation Director has responded.

2019’s Call of Duty Modern Warfare revolutionized the franchise’s weapon animations. Infinity Ward took inspiration from real-life military personnel and players absolutely adored the attention to detail.

We got a proper look at Modern Warfare 2’s gunplay and mechanics in the Dark Water campaign walkthrough shown at Summer Games Fest. After seeing some of 2019’s weapons return, players were worried that we’d see the exact same animations again, and an Infinity Ward dev has responded.

modern warfare 2 ghost

Some Modern Warfare 2019 developers have uploaded their weapon animation reels to YouTube, where they showcase their work. Now that we’ve seen raw Modern Warfare 2 campaign gameplay, players took to the comments section to ask Infinity Ward’s Animation Director of Weapons, Khoa Le, about Modern Warfare 2’s weapons.

Several of these comments were concerned that Modern Warfare 2 would reuse 2019’s animations. In response, Khoa Le said that if they ever reuse anything, “we always try and improve or make it feel better.”

Another player asked whether there would be new Vector animations and Le explained that with how the weapon is designed, “there’s not really many/any other ways to reload it differently other than minor tweaks.” They also have “other anims to this weapon that weren’t in the last game.”

Infinity Ward dev responds to question about Modern Warfare 2 weapon animations

There are only so many ways that a weapon can be animated, but Khoa Le and his team strived to improve on these animations for Modern Warfare 2 and have added new animations as well.

Although some were worried that the weapon animations would be the same, many fully expected Infinity Ward to reuse animations and are absolutely fine with it. “I noticed the SCAR had basically the same reload animation as MW19, and I’m not complaining,” explained thenoard on Reddit. “Don’t fix what isn’t broken.”

“I don’t see why people are upset about reused animations,” said another player. “If it’s the same gun it still needs to be reloaded the same way.”


Modern Warfare 2’s beta should be here in the next few months, allowing players to try out a handful of the game’s weapons themselves.

Image Credit: Activision