Skip to main content

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II’s campaign comes early if you pre-order it

Early access for the entire Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II single-player campaign will be available starting October 20 on all platforms with a digital pre-order.

Breaking: #ModernWarfare2 Campaign Early Access announced

Pre-order #MWII digitally and start playing the entire campaign one week early on October 20

Available on all platforms for digital pre-orders. https://t.co/FcncgqW3OQ

— CharlieIntel (@charlieINTEL) August 16, 2022

Call of Duty titles have had a mixed history regarding their single-player campaigns in recent years. Black Ops 4 ditched the mode altogether, and Warzone was a purely multiplayer experience, though a single-player component was brought back in subsequent mainline releases to middling reception. Earlier entries, such as the original run of Modern Warfare and Black Ops games, were highly praised for their campaigns as main pillars alongside their multiplayer offerings. After the reboot of Modern Warfare in 2019 seemed like a return to form for the series, and the disappointment that was Vanguard, high hopes have been placed on Modern Warfare II‘s campaign.

Recommended Videos

It was announced earlier this month that Modern Warfare II would be getting several multiplayer beta periods where players could experience the online component of the game ahead of launch, with extra time being afforded to those who pre-ordered. While this is common practice for the series, this is the first time early access to the game’s single player has ever been given out as an incentive for pre-ordering.

Unlike the multiplayer beta access, which gives PlayStation users first shot at the game, there are no platform restrictions on accessing the campaign. As long as you digitally pre-order the game, you will gain access to the entire campaign one week before those who get the game physically do.

The reception to this announcement has already been met with concerns from fans, as many consider withholding early access to a game a dirty tactic. The move opens the doors to widespread spoilers before many people even have the opportunity to play for themselves.

Those who don’t want to pre-order the game can play the campaign when it officially launches on October 28 for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.

Jesse Lennox
Jesse Lennox has been a writer at Digital Trends for over four years and has no plans of stopping. He covers all things…
The best Call of Duty games, ranked
Soldier holding weapon in Modern Warfare II.

Few video game series are as influential and popular as Call of Duty. The annualized franchise throws players into fast-paced battles across various historical time periods -- along with fictional eras as well. Call of Duty has taken us to World War II, the Cold War, a modern setting, and even to the future.

Although it's one of the most successful video game franchises out there, Call of Duty's quality varies significantly from game to game, with some fantastic entries in the series, but many mediocre ones as well. But which Call of Duty games are worth your time and which ones should you skip? To answer that question, we've ranked all the mainline entries in the series, with details about why you should or shouldn't play a particular game.

Read more
All Call of Duty games in order, by release date and chronologically
e3 2021 missing games call of duty

Call of Duty is one of the most successful video game franchises of all time. The original Call of Duty set a new standard for first-person shooters, the series' online multiplayer work has been a must-play for gamers for nearly two decades, and Warzone has been one of the top battle royale experiences of late.

The series has covered a lot of warfare, from World War II to futuristic fictional wars in 2187, but never in any set order. Players have been bounced around from era to era with each annual COD release and even revisited the same conflicts multiple times from different perspectives through direct sequels and remakes.

Read more
You might want to wait a bit to play Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 on Steam
A player runs in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 multiplayer.

It's Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 launch day, which means potentially millions of players are hopping into the new single-player campaign, the updated multiplayer mode, and Zombies. While posts online about the performance of the game seem to be minimal, there have been reported issues on PC, specifically via Steam.

It's been a common story lately about players being mad at third-party launchers on Steam, and that remains the case for Black Ops 6. Call of Duty's is called Call of Duty HQ (COD HQ), and it's a hub for players to manage their game installs, whether they want to only download certain game modes or launch a specific game. It seems as if players can only switch between modes through the launcher and have to go through multiple menus to boot the game up. In the worst cases, they can't launch the game at all.

Read more