Modern Warfare’s short-lived Cranked mode made Team Deathmatch not only tolerable, but fun. Matches start like Team Deathmatch, hell the announcer even calls it that at the beginning of the game – but the rules change in a hurry after getting a kill. A 30-second timer begins as you race against the clock to get a kill/assist to reset the timer. If it hits zero, you go boom – which can lead to some hilarious moments as you spontaneously explode next to a car, killing an enemy player.
Fun fact: Cranked isn’t a stranger to the franchise. It first appeared in Call of Duty: Ghosts and became a permanent mode. It later returned as a limited-time mode in Infinite Warfare.
Besides becoming a literal ticking time bomb, Cranked gives you another incentive to keep moving. Every kill you get while the 30-second timer is live nets your team 2x points. Gaining all your killstreaks can lead to huge swings in momentum. I’ve played matches where my team was down 50 points only to come back and win. You can’t say that often (if at all) about regular Team Deathmatch.
Cranked is designed all around getting the action fast and keeping it there. Every first kill you get, you’ll also be rewarded with faster movement speed, reload time, and weapon swapping.
With 2x points coming into play often, the mode ups the score limit to 150. And unlike some modes were they finish without hitting the score limit (cough, Kill Confirmed), that’s not the case with Cranked. And playing it on Shoot House is so much damn fun.
I mostly play Headquarters or Domination these days, but Cranked gives me that more fast-paced action from objective modes wrapped up in a deathmatch package. Team Deathmatch isn’t for me anymore, and Kill Confirmed is the worst game mode in Modern Warfare. Folks camp the dog tags waiting for people to get them. Any time I see it come up in Mosh Pit playlists, a little piece of me dies inside.
I don’t expect Infinity Ward to get rid of Team Deathmatch, and don’t think they should. But I wouldn’t mind seeing Cranked replacing Kill Confirmed instead of being a limited-time mode. Camping is a complaint that always pops up for Call of Duty, and most shooters out there. Cranked helps address that complaint by making movement an integral part of the mode. Whether it’s the 30-second timer or the movement buffs you get while chaining kills together, Cranked strives to keep the matches flowing at a steady clip.
Unfortunately, Cranked was barely here. A new playlist update went live for Christmas giving Shoot House and Shipment fans the present they always wanted. Nothing but Shoot House and Shipment all day every day.
Hopefully, this isn’t the last we’ve seen of Cranked.