A month on from its release on PlayStation 4, Modern Warfare 2’s campaign remaster has arrived on Xbox One and PC. With developer Beenox taking point, the game features new texture work, lighting and post-process effects all delivered by a more advanced offshoot of the Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare engine. Perhaps as much remake as remaster, the game respects Infinity Ward’s original vision, while modernising the game for the current generation. From our perspective, it was a success on PlayStation 4, and the Xbox One version is just as good – if somewhat under-ambitious when it comes to getting the most out of Xbox One X.
Still, at least there actually is support for Microsoft’s enhanced machine. Looking back at the first Modern Warfare remaster from 2016, the game never benefited from any kind of specific enhancement. The only advantages came from the inherent improvements delivered by hardware-level backwards compatibility, meaning better performance and a dynamic resolution set-up that guarantees the top-level 1920×1080. That’s still the case even today, but crucially, Modern Warfare 2 Remastered deliver a higher resolution mode on X hardware.
The numbers speak for themselves. On the X model you get a native 2880×1620 resolution – or 75 per cent on each axis. As far as I’ve tested, it’s completely fixed to that figure too, with no drops under during load. Curiously though, PlayStation 4 Pro delivers the exact same pixel count so it’s not beyond reason to suggest that the Xbox One X may be somewhat under-utilised here. Make no mistake, the game still looks impressive – especially when played with HDR – but the numbers and the comparison points up against PS4 Pro suggest that the Microsoft machine could have delivered more.
Switching over to the base model, predictably it’s not quite as flattering, closely matching the original Modern Warfare remaster. A native 1080p is the best case but just like the previous 2016 offering, it’s a dynamic solution that wavers below that. Most shots in any major outdoor battle settle at a lower figure, adjusting the horizontal axis as needed (the vertical is always 1080p). So for example, the opening battle across the bridge is dense with AI, transparencies and huge draw distances – pushing the renderer down to 1404×1080. That’s the lowest figure I’ve encountered so far, but potentially it could drop under. Equally, the Gulag level later in the game, with its dramatic fly-over through smoke, really hammers the base Xbox One in image quality, and performance can drop too.