Open-source remaster of the original Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer is now out

Fans of the original Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 from 2009 just aren’t giving up. Though the community’s previous attempt at reviving the revered Modern Warfare 2🍷 multipla🧔yer mode using remastered assets crashed and burned, HorizonMW is here to save the day. Or, at least, try t🅺o do so.

More specifically, since Activision shut down the fan-made multiplayer mod for Modern Warfare 2 Remastered. The mod developer was served with a case & desist and forced to stop developing it, but a different project has been in production since. This has now come to fruition via HorizonMW, which is live right now and features all the goodies you know and love from the original Modern Warfare 2, albeit using new and improved assets.

HorizonMW is out now on PC as an open-source revival of H2M

If you’re wondering what the difference is between the scuttled H2MR and the new HorizonMW, you’re not the only one. It’s apparently being billed as an open-sour🌃ce alternative that can, should Activision aim its sights at the dev team, be picked up and developed further by a wholly diff💯erent development team.

As per the HorizonMW’s developers’ post on their Discord, “We want to make it very clear, we did NOT create this mod, this mod is fully made by h2m original NOT R and we are trying to carry on what their goal was.” If the project’s title, HorizonMW, confuses you, there’s a reason why it isn’t more obvious what it’s all about at a glance. HorizonMW’s original title was S2M, though the team decided to change it to the mod’s current title to help it stand out without any immediate comparisons to other, similar projects.

As it currently stands, then, it’s hard to say how Activision might react to the existence of HorizonMW. Obviously, there’s a significant community of nostalgic gamers who just want the classic Modern Warfare 2 back in some way, shape, or form. H2MR didn’t pan out in the end, but the key difference between it and HorizonMW is that HorizonMW is already available right this instant. Any reaction from the Activision side of things will be too slow, as the cat is definitely out of the bag by now.

Further, there’s also the fact that the HorizonMW team is deliberately open-sourcing the project. Even if the people responsible for this mod get served with yet another cease & desist, someone is highly likely to pick up the torch and carry it onwards.

Note that you do need to have a purchased copy of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered on Steam before being able to play HorizonMW. So, this time around, there’s an argument to be made that this isn’t piracy in a meaningful sense of the word. Will this argument pan out with Activision, though? Let’s wait and see.