CoD players demand (and get) Shipment – for the seventh time in MW2! Yet the map is a horror by all design rules. What’s behind it?
Shipment is actually a horror. At least according to various rules of good map design. Call of Duty throws two teams into a tiny arena here – a small cargo area – and lets the frisky shooting begin. It was like this in 2007’s first Modern Warfare and repeated in the 2019 remaster and re-release, in CoD Mobile, in Vanguard and now in Modern Warfare 2.
Now also in the new CoD
This article originally appeared in 2020 when Shipment was released for CoD Modern Warfare. Now the map is also available in CoD Modern Warfare 2: The update to Season 1 Reloaded brings back the classic map, albeit in a slightly different form.
In a bad Shipment round, you’ll easily be shot over 50 times – and because there’s no safe square inch in such a small space, you’ll regularly spawn right into the next headshot. Thus the map becomes a hectic continuous dance of “spawn – fire three shots – die – spawn – don’t fire a shot – die”.
Despite this, fans love Shipment so much that calls for even more Shipment on Reddit are now a running gag in the CoD community. This was already the case with Modern Warfare 2019: as soon as developer Infinity Ward took the small map out of the rotation, it was met with a hail of criticism:
☻
Such postings seem more reliable than the ebb and flow. But how can that be? Why do CoD players love a tiny map so much even though it seems unfair, unbalanced and unspectacular? Why doesn’t the frustration of being spammed out of the picture by the same trolls with shotguns for an entire game outweigh it?
Is grind really everything?
The first answer is obvious: You can grind wonderfully on Shipment!
You need to bring the Kastov 762 to maximum level for your Battle Royale loadout? Just play ten rounds of Shipment and the problem will solve itself. Because the fact that you’re constantly spawning into enemy fire on the tiny map also applies to the other side, of course. Nowhere do kills accumulate more easily than here.
Challenges are also easy to grind. 10 kills with the throwing knife? In the big Ground War it sometimes takes an eternity – especially for inexperienced players. In Shipment you can bag the challenge in a single game. 50 kills without attachments? Easy. 50 kills with five attachments? Likewise. By the way, this exploitation of Shipment as a grind spot is also causing criticism in the community:
☻
But there’s more to the appeal of Shipment than just grind. Many fans confirm this – but also our own experiences.
A look at CoD’s past: Warzone exacerbated in 2020 what Modern Warfare had suffered from since release – too much idle time in regular PvP multiplayer. The fact that you won’t find an enemy team at every corner on the large Warzone map is of course part of the appeal. But that makes fast-paced action in classic Team Deathmatch and Domination all the more important.
And here the regular playlists left a lot to be desired: Aniyah Palace, Akrlov Peak, Azhir Cave – if you were looking for small 6vs6 rounds, you sometimes ended up on maps that were far too big. And other maps like Piccadilly or Euphrates Bridge suffered from balancing problems that also interrupted the action.
Shipment places itself perfectly
Our test proves: In Modern Warfare 2 there are again many really great 6vs6 maps and the pacing is much less problematic than in the predecessor. But Shipment still places itself as the perfect reflex training for Warzone 2 and the all-new DMZ mode!
If the whole game consisted of maps like Shipment, it would be a balancing disaster. Because even fans might get frustrated at being unfairly shaved down by a clan of shield and shotgun bearers for the whole match.
But as with karate training, it can be very, very useful on the way to mastery to train individual techniques over and over again in complete isolation. This is exactly what Shipment makes possible as a run-&-gun course – poor balancing or not.
