Everyone is saying the Infinite Warfare multiplayer beta sucked. It didn’t.

It’s always been fashionable to crap on the latest Call of Duty game. If something is popular, you can bet that core gamers will probably hate on it until they decide that they can’t live without. Such has been the case with Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. The infamous reveal trailer was at one time the most disliked video on YouTube, and now that the multiplayer beta has been live for two weekends, the hate is pouring out in earnest.

I played a lot of Infinite Warfare‘s multiplayer these past two weekends and you know what? I had a lot of fun. I believe the hatred and declarations that the game will be “dead on arrival” are completely premature. After several hours spent blasting my way through all of the available maps, using every available weapon, and using four out of the six combat rigs, here are my initial impressions:

Black Ops 3: 2

For anyone who played and loved Black Ops 3, Infinite Warfare is going to feel very familiar. It uses the same movement system by the way, only slightly modified. If you were looking for something completely brand-new, then you’re very likely going to be disappointed. However, if you loved Blops 3 and you’re craving more of the same but with different weapons, skins, classes, streaks, and maps, then this is exactly what you’ve been waiting for.

Infinite Warfare‘s multiplayer basically took all of the things that made the Blops 3 multiplayer experience fun and chaotic, and fine-tuned them.

Combat Rigs offer more variety than Specialists

The Combat Rigs in Infinite Warfare are a great step in the right direction. With the Specialists in Blops 3, you pretty much chose your class and picked one of two special moves. Each Combat Rig has three special moves to choose from, and the addition of three “traits” as well. Traits are basically class-specific perks unique to that Combat Rig, and they absolutely affect and enhance the way that you play. When you consider all of the different Combat Rigs and their various setups and stack that up with all of the different loadouts and weapon upgrades, the customization possibilities seem limitless.

The maps were mostly a lot of fun

With the exception of a pretty generic space station map called “Frontier,” I really enjoyed myself on all of the maps offered during beta period. Everyone needs to keep in mind that we’ve only seen a fraction of the maps that will be available in the full game, so it’s too early to cast judgement. My judgement, however, would be very favorable indeed. I thought the maps were all quite varied and nice to look at. I especially love the remake of “Terminal” from Modern Warfare 2. I could play that map all day, every day.

The action was always intense

People have been complaining a lot about TTK (time to kill), saying that you die way too quickly in this game. It’s funny: I heard the exact same complaint during the Titanfall 2 beta. The truth is that players just don’t know the maps yet, and they’re unfamiliar with the game. When you’re running around a new map for the first few times and you have no idea where to look for the enemy, well, you’re going to get shot a lot. I died a lot when I first started, too.

After about an hour I was able to learn my way around a few of the maps and I found out that I could hold my own. The TTK is fine, but that action is really intense, and there’s always a firefight just around the corner. For run’n’gunners like me, that’s exactly what I like.

Check out some streams!

See for yourself! Below is a fresh livestream from the latest beta weekend.

And here’s a conversation I had with A9K’s very own “Canadian Mat” about my experience.