The 12 Worst Maps Ever Put in a Modern Warfare Game, From Al Bagra Fortress to Piccadilly

Activision really wants us focused on the Modern Warfare series right now, so I'm looking back at what I think are the 12 worst maps ever put in a Modern Warfare game, old and new. My number one is Piccadilly from Modern Warfare 2019, but there's a long road of frustrating layouts to get there.

You'll notice a common theme on this list: a map looks great, seems like it would be awesome, and then everything goes wrong once you actually start playing it.

12. Al Bagra Fortress gives one team a fortress and the other team a problem

Al Bagra Fortress in Modern Warfare 2 (2022) looks like it should be a fantastic Call of Duty battlefield until you actually have to play a match on it. On paper you get a giant fortress, multiple levels, plenty of routes to flank enemies, and a central area that should create some really exciting firefights. In practice you've got awkward sightlines, annoying elevation changes, cramped corridors, and a layout that can make crossing from one side to the other feel like attempting to conquer a medieval castle with a frying pan.

Spawn balance was another major complaint, with players reporting that one team had a blatant advantage basically every moment. Depending on the mode, the central courtyard could become a frustrating meat grinder where the team that secured the right positions had a massive advantage, which the unbalanced spawns didn't help. The map could absolutely work when both teams were moving and fighting over objectives, but it could also devolve into a miserable stalemate where everyone was terrified of leaving cover. It's what happens when somebody designs a map around defending a fortress without considering that one team having a fortress means the other one doesn't, and that's not fun.

11. Downturn doesn't belong next to Modern Warfare 3's best maps

Modern Warfare 3 (2011) had some fantastic maps, including all time favorites like Dome, Hardhat and Mission, and that makes Downturn pretty confusing. What is it doing in the game? It looks like somebody took a perfectly ordinary city block, dropped a building on it, covered everything in concrete dust, and decided the resulting mess would make a wonderful multiplayer experience.

The biggest problem, I think, is the layout. Downturn is full of broken structures, awkward pathways, debris and elevation changes that make navigating it way more complicated than it needs to be. Instead of encouraging players to move naturally between firefights, the clutter creates countless places to hide, while the numerous routes and disconnected areas make it hard to predict where the next engagement will happen. The drab visual design doesn't help either; it blends together so much that it's difficult to tell useful routes from pointless detours. Because Modern Warfare 3 was generally a much faster paced game, Downturn's awkward flow can make matches feel slow and sluggish. It's not even that big or complicated, but when players spend more time wandering around a pile of rubble than fighting each other, you have to reconsider the concept.

10. Azhir Cave puts realism ahead of gameplay

Azhir Cave is a perfect example of Modern Warfare 2019's obsession with making every map feel like a real location, even if that meant making the gameplay worse. It features a desert village surrounding a large cave system, and while that sounds interesting, the combination of dark interiors, rocky terrain, buildings and multiple sightlines creates a nightmare for actual Call of Duty gameplay. The cave is the main attraction, but fighting inside it can be frustrating because enemies blend into the darkness. Visibility is poor, and players could be hiding in plain sight.

Anyone who avoids the cave has to navigate the surrounding village, where windows, rooftops, doors and other elevated positions give little Timmy plenty of opportunities to sit and wait for his next unsuspecting victim. The result is a map where fights often revolve around a handful of predictable locations, while the rest can feel like a maze full of potential ambushes. Modern Warfare 2019 already encouraged cautious play through its sound design, mounting mechanics and abundance of plantable equipment, so Cave was practically begging players to sit in a dark corner and not actually play. "That is not a cave expedition. It's Call of Duty."

9. Bloc is the questionable decision in the legendary COD 4

Even games as legendary and influential as COD 4 have some questionable decisions, and Bloc is one of them. It's set in an enormous Soviet apartment block, with long stretches of open ground surrounded by buildings that provide countless windows and second story power positions. That creates a simple problem: the person trying to cross the street is usually at a massive disadvantage against the person already settled into one of the million windows with a sniper rifle. Because the buildings dominate the battlefield, controlling them can become more important than moving around and fighting.

Flanking could be equally miserable, because you have to cross exposed areas while accounting for several different windows, balconies and sightlines. The relatively muted color palette also made it hard to pick out enemies, particularly when everyone was wearing camo. Every mode here was a nightmare, except maybe Search and Destroy, since you could rule out bad spawns. Every other mode was basically guaranteed to hit the time limit without a clear winner, because nobody was going to run around and play. When you're innovating as much as COD 4 was, you're allowed a weak map or two, but Bloc was so bad it became an all time bad map.

8. Taraq turns crossing a street into a tactical decision

Taraq in Modern Warfare 2 (2022) is what happens when Infinity Ward looks at the success of classic Call of Duty maps and concludes the missing ingredient was more empty space. It's set in a devastated desert settlement with ruined buildings, scattered cover and wide open areas connecting the various points of interest. Those open spaces can make crossing the map a nightmare, especially when enemies are watching the routes with assault rifles or sniper rifles. The surrounding buildings offer lots of positions to attack players moving between objectives, and the rubble and uneven terrain make it feel really inconsistent.

Depending on the mode, you could spend an unreasonable amount of time running across the map looking for somebody to shoot, only to get picked off by an enemy who has been sitting in a window for the past three minutes. The larger layout makes sense for modes with more players, but it's way too big for standard 6v6. There's a difference between a battlefield with room to maneuver and a battlefield where the maneuvering is the most dangerous part. Taraq turned the simple act of crossing a street into a tactical decision that's just not fun.

7. Euphrates Bridge is just a race to the bridge

If you ever wanted to know what happens when a multiplayer map revolves almost entirely around one enormous bridge, Euphrates Bridge in Modern Warfare 2019 has the answer. I have no idea why you'd ever want to know that, but clearly someone at Infinity Ward was curious. The concept sounds all right, I guess: two opposing sides, a massive bridge in the center, and plenty of opportunities to fight over the elevated position.

Unfortunately, the bridge provides such powerful sightlines over the surrounding battlefield that whoever controls it first wins the game. Players crossing open ground get picked off, and enemies holding the bridge can exploit the limited routes available. Even worse, the elevated position can overlook areas close to the team spawn. Honestly, it annoys me so much I don't want to talk about it anymore. "No strategy, no tactics, just a race to the bridge."

6. Derail is an unreasonably big frozen map where nobody does anything

Derail in Modern Warfare 2 (2009) is another Infinity Ward map that's unreasonably big. It's set around a derailed train in a snowy landscape, with enormous stretches of open terrain, scattered buildings, and a central area that can become a chaotic collection of long range engagements. The primary issue is the sheer size. In standard 6v6, players can spend the whole match running between locations, searching for enemies and wondering whether the other team actually loaded in. You could go a whole match without seeing anyone, and then somebody climbs into a building with a sniper rifle and the game becomes about identifying which window holds the person who's going to ruin your killstreak.

The snow covered environment makes certain encounters difficult to read, and the buildings and elevated positions give campers plenty of places to set up shop. To be fair, it could work a little better in objective modes or larger lobbies where the extra space gives teams more reasons to move. But nine times out of 10, with that combination of sightlines, slow rotations and empty terrain, it's lifeless. Modern Warfare 2 gave us Terminal, Highrise and Favela, and then somebody decided the game needed a frozen parking lot where nobody does anything.

5. Black Gold's night vision gimmick undermines an interesting idea

Black Gold in Modern Warfare 2 (2022) might be one of the most frustrating examples of an interesting concept completely undermined by how it's put together. It takes place at night in an oil facility, and its defining feature is that players need night vision goggles to navigate much of it effectively. The idea is different, but the execution has problems. With the goggles on, the green tinted visuals can make extended play uncomfortable, and switching them off can leave players struggling to see enemies in the dark. Visibility becomes a central obstacle instead of something that supports the firefights.

Add the oil facilities, buildings, narrow routes and multiple angles of attack, and you get an environment that encourages cautious movement and makes it easy for enemies to wait in dark corners. Even if you turned the lights on and set it in broad daylight, it would still be a D tier experience because of the layout. The gimmick also means spotting an opponent can matter more than outshooting them. This is Call of Duty, a series where people generally want to sprint around, find enemies and get into gunfights without managing night vision equipment. Black Gold sounds like an exciting special operations mission, but as a regular map it sometimes feels like Infinity Ward is trying to trick us into playing a mil sim. If I wanted to play one, I wouldn't be playing Call of Duty.

4. Grazna Raid captures everything people criticized about Modern Warfare 2019

Grazna Raid perfectly encapsulates everything people criticized about Modern Warfare 2019's multiplayer design. It's a sprawling Eastern European village with buildings, windows, alleys and open streets, enough potential firing positions to make every movement feel like a security assessment. The problem isn't simply that it's big. There are so many sightlines and hiding spots that moving around feels like an exercise in paranoia. You check one window, turn a corner, and immediately get shot by somebody in a building you didn't even consider.

All those buildings also encourage defensive play, with players setting up in windows, watching lanes and waiting for someone to cross an exposed area. In 6v6 the map can feel completely oversized, leaving players searching for action while the other team sits comfortably behind cover. 10v10 definitely makes better use of the environment, but Grazna Raid still feels complicated for a game built around quick matches. You don't need a UAV here; you need a building permit, a floor plan and a team of researchers identifying every vantage point you could get shot from. That's not an arcade shooter.

3. I believe Santa Seña Border Crossing was made annoying on purpose

Santa Seña Border Crossing in Modern Warfare 2 (2022) is what happens when somebody comes up with a map concept, identifies the most annoying possible implementation, and greenlights it. Yes, I'm claiming this map was made annoying on purpose; that's the only way it makes sense. The whole battlefield is a massive traffic jam of abandoned cars at a border crossing. At launch, most of those vehicles could explode when damaged by gunfire or explosives, so an ordinary firefight could turn into a chain reaction of exploding cars, with half the lobby blowing up because they dared to leave spawn.

The map has very limited flanking routes, and its narrow side passages funnel players into predictable encounters, while the central highway becomes a chaotic mess of wreckage and explosions. The destroyed vehicles add extra cover and awkward sightlines, making the battlefield even harder to read. The explosive car gimmick was toned down, but that didn't fix the layout. With or without explosions, you're still fighting across a traffic jam where vehicles obstruct movement, cover is inconsistent, and the routes can make engagements feel painfully restrictive. I wholeheartedly believe it was made bad on purpose. I don't believe Infinity Ward put it together without thinking people were going to hate it.

2. Shipment is popular, but its design is the problem

I get it: Shipment in Modern Warfare 2019 is popular. People love it for weapon leveling, camo grinding, ridiculous killstreaks and turning an ordinary match into a slaughterhouse. But judged strictly on map design, it belongs here. It's essentially a tiny square surrounded by shipping containers, with no distance between opposing players and very little room to maneuver. You could spawn directly in front of an enemy, get shot from behind before you can react, or get caught in a chain of deaths where the other team seems to have taken up permanent residence inside your spawn.

The containers create narrow corridors that funnel players into constant close range fighting, while the lack of space means grenades, shotguns, submachine guns and killstreaks can turn the match into an overstimulating mess. Because it's so small, the normal rhythm of Call of Duty multiplayer ceases to exist: no real setup, no meaningful rotations, barely any chance to control the pace. You spawn, shoot somebody, get shot, and repeat until the scoreboard says it's over. Shipment is "fantastic if your objective is to grind 47 weapon levels in a single evening," but as an example of balanced design it's a dumpster fire with shipping containers. Somehow we keep asking Activision to bring it back. Well, I don't ask, and most of you don't, but somebody's asking them, I think, or at least they say somebody is.

1. Piccadilly became a symbol of everything wrong with Modern Warfare 2019 maps

Number one has to go to Piccadilly in Modern Warfare 2019, a map so infamous that seeing its name in the matchmaking lobby was enough to make players reconsider whether they wanted to play Call of Duty at all. It's set in a London shopping district with abandoned houses, cars, storefronts and open streets, and it looks amazing from an artistic perspective. The gameplay is a different story. The layout creates an awkward choke point, exposed crossing areas, and numerous spots where players can sit behind vehicles or inside buildings waiting for someone to wander into their line of sight.

The buses and other obstacles break up movement in ways that make navigating the center really frustrating, while the mix of long sightlines and narrow routes makes flanking hard. Then there's the spawn system, which was a particularly notorious problem early in the game's life. Players complained about being trapped near their spawn while enemies controlled the streets, making it hard to escape without getting shot. I dealt with that. Infinity Ward eventually adjusted parts of the map and its spawn behavior, but Piccadilly's reputation took a beating.

The really frustrating part is that it could have been a genuinely memorable map. The setting is super distinctive, the visual design was impressive, and the environment offers plenty of opportunities for interesting firefights. Instead, it became a symbol of everything people disliked about Modern Warfare 2019's map design: too many awkward angles, too many places to hide, too many frustrating choke points, and not nearly enough reasons to enjoy playing it. "It's not just a bad map. It's the map that made an entire generation of Call of Duty players look at a perfectly innocent London bus and experience immediate psychological distress."

Which of these maps would you rank as the worst in Modern Warfare history?