Modern Warfare 3 fans praise visual improvements after Shroud slams MW2

Ryan Lemay
Price in MW3

Shroud called out Modern Warfare 2 for poor visual recoil, but fortunately, Modern Warfare 3 footage shows a stark improvement.

Visual recoil is an FPS term used to describe how much the in-game camera shakes when you fire a weapon, while muzzle smoke describes the effects that pop up on screen while firing a weapon. The combination of both makes it a nightmare to see clearly in Modern Warfare 2 and especially challenging for PC players.

Some community members argue that PC players suffer more because aim assist helps controller users overcome both visual hindrances. Frustrations mounted in August as Warzone 2 players hit out at the devs over the “busted” visibility levels. Different muzzle and barrel attachments are advertised to improve visual feedback, yet players aren’t satisfied with their performance and plead for a muzzle smoke decrease.

Battle royale expert and former CS: GO pro-Shroud credited visual impairments for pushing him away from playing Warzone, but Modern Warfare 3 may resolve his biggest complaints.

Modern Warfare 3 players impressed by decreased visual recoil

Sledgehammer Games gave fans a first look at Modern Warfare 3 gameplay during Gamescom 2023. The presentation featured a playthrough of one of the game’s campaign missions.

ModernWarzone posted a snippet of the gunplay shown during the mission, and a decrease in visual recoil and muzzle smoke impressed community members.

Basketball fans will be familiar with Kevin O’Connor for his NBA coverage with the Ringer. But the writer enjoys playing and streaming Warzone as well, and commented: “Can actually see what you’re shooting at.”

A second user added: “I feel like this is an improvement in Modern Warfare 3 vs MWII. But, the smoke from the muzzles definitely still needs looking at.”

Other community members weren’t ready to celebrate just yet, arguing campaign and multiplayer use different gun physics. A third commentor responded: “I would like to remind you all that this is campaign and back in every cod campaign every weapon had little to none recoil.”

Players will be able to find out for themselves soon if anything changed, when the Modern Warfare 3 beta kicks off in October.

About The Author

Ryan is a former games writer for Dexerto. Ryan graduated from Ithaca College in 2021 with a sports media degree and a journalism minor. He gained experience as a writer for the Morning Times newspaper before joining Dexerto as a games writer. He mainly writes about first-person shooters, including Call of Duty and Battlefield, but he is also a big FIFA fan.