MW3’s newest small map Meat already a huge hit—but players still want improvements

Call of Duty’s new mini-map Meat has struck a chord with the Modern Warfare 3 player base following its release with the season one update last week, but that hasn’t stopped players from asking for improvements related to the map’s spawns.

Meat launched alongside two other maps in an action-packed season one update on Dec. 7 and has already slotted in alongside Rust, Nuketown, and Shipment as a favorite among fans who enjoy the smallest CoD maps on offer. The map sees players battle in a slaughterhouse, with tight corners and thin corridors key features. In total, the map is slightly smaller than Rust—and it’s leading to some issues with player spawns.

As the dust has settled and players have become accustomed to Meat, it’s clear the spawn system for certain game modes just doesn’t fit correctly with the map. “On Kill Confirmed, it actually plays pretty well, but on Hardpoint and even Domination it sucks ass because the spawns get super wonky,” one player said on Dec. 10.

Another shared this sentiment, noting they’d be enjoying the map if the spawn system wasn’t as broken as it is, annoyed after spawning directly next to or behind an enemy player. Ultimately, the bulk of the complaints about the map’s spawns come down to Hardpoint and Domination, both zone-based objective modes that don’t work well on any small map.

At the end of the day, MW3 players have got to be able to spawn in somewhere but with so little room once the large capture points open, it’s entirely possible to land multi-kills on enemies less than a second after they spawn in.

It hasn’t stopped the player base from enjoying the map though. Gone is the gold-standard “three-lane” setup we’ve come to expect out of modern-day CoD maps, with Meat’s center divided into tight hallways and rooms. A large and quite open roadway and car park surround the center building offering snipers a chance to get a shot off, although we wouldn’t recommend trying to use a long-range weapon on such a small map. “Overall it’s like if Shoot House and Shipment had a baby,” one player explained.

I have played a few rounds on the map and am happy it breaks the monotonous formula I’ve come to expect from MW3, which has been fighting at moderate range purely with assault rifles. Meat gives players the freedom to put down the MCW and pick up an SMG or shotgun, which I feel doesn’t happen often enough on many of MW3’s other offerings.

Here’s hoping the rather random spawn placement gets a tweak soon, and given Sledgehammer Games’ speed at which they’ve pushed updates, we could see a change should things remain troublesome.