Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Player Swarmed by Riot Shield Players at End of Search and Destroy Match

A Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 team all donned riot shields to get the jump on an unsuspecting player in a Search and Destroy match.

The riot shield was used against an unwary player en masse towards the end of a round of the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Search and Destroy game mode. This contentious weapon in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has become a somewhat notorious choice in the game, largely due to its defensive capabilities.

As the name suggests, the riot shield is a bulletproof shield that blocks incoming bullets from the front. It also doubles as a melee weapon and can help players close the distance with enemies. It has been a popular choice with those that prefer close-range weapons, but it was also subject to exploits as it was initially able to kill players in two hits. The mid-season update for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 nerfed the riot shield to require three hits to get a kill.

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It is a common phenomenon in multiplayer games for players, especially when working as a team, to band around a certain weapon that is seen as overpowered in the game's meta. An easy way to surprise the enemy team is for every player to use similar loadouts, something that requires a degree of coordination that is more common in shooters other than Call of Duty. A team playing Search and Destroy was able to pull this off by equipping riot shields, forming a mob, and attacking a lone player at the end of a round.

Despite having the chance to finish the player off with typical melee attacks, one member of the team added insult to injury by doing an execution on them while their teammates gathered around. Executions in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 do not always go as planned and are known to glitch out, leaving players helpless. In this case, the outcome of the round would have likely remained the same even if the execution had failed. In the comments of the post, the player who shared the clip added that in the following round, their team was able to fight off the shields with RPGs.

Given the fact that the riot shield was nerfed, it shows that Infinity Ward is aware of how it has been used and, in some cases, exploited by players. It is not always used in nefarious ways as one player showed by using the riot shield, among other equipment, to reach max rank in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 with zero kills. Player interactions like this have given the riot shield a reputation among fans, and it will be interesting to see how its inclusion in the game will be received as the game's meta evolves over time.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

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Alex is a lifelong gamer and avid follower of games media. A multimedia journalism graduate of Cal Poly Pomona, he served as a copy editor of CPP's student newspaper, The Poly Post, and also started a gaming blog of his own, Doom Foundry. His favorite genres of gaming include shooters, platformers, and action RPGs. He is also a big fan of metal music and loves going to concerts.