Infinity Ward defends Santa Sena Border Crossing map

The Call of Duty franchise has truly never seen a map like Santa Sena Border Crossing. While it took a big swing to be added to Modern Warfare 2, it missed the mark, by a mile.

It's not the only bad map in MW2 either, with the likes of Taraq also being rather formidable as one place where players will be quickly backing out of.

But, Infinity Ward executives have now defended their unique map designs and have backed themselves for trying to make something that caters to a different audience.

Infinity Ward defends 'experimental' Santa Sena map

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With fewer multiplayer maps than previous titles, Modern Warfare 2 fans scrutinised each and every landscape in the title, with many being built for competitive and others being adapted to casual players.

But that hasn't stopped Infinity Ward from persisting with these designs, and it likely won't stop them from continuing this trend in the future, despite the heavy backlash.

"Map-wise, we try to have a balance between experiential maps and the more competitive maps," explained Infinity Ward Multiplayer Design Director Geoff Smith in an interview with Dexerto.

Infinity Ward backs their 'balanced' Modern Warfare 2 map pool

Smith also claimed that the map pool is rather balanced, with a range of "sweaty" CDL-backed designs built for Ranked and competitive play, others that give off the classic "balanced" arcade-shooter vibe, and others that are "experimental" for a modern Call of Duty game.

"Not all of them are super sweaty, balanced ones. There are ones where 'hey, it'd be really cool to fight over a border crossing,' and I know that map's not super popular in certain groups, but we like to keep it fun."

"Not everybody's into super sweaty matches, so we kind of balance it for everyone. We do our best," he added.

Heading into the final few seasons and Infinity Ward has already claimed that the remaining few maps will be "tailored for competitive," and that one iconic map will be remastered, which certainly adds to the balanced pool. Hopefully, Santa Sena Border will continue to grow on us.