GameCentral delivers its verdict on the campaign and DMZ modes in this year’s Call Of Duty, which brings an end to the Modern Warfare saga.
After over 20 years of annual instalments, there’s a baseline expectancy with Call Of Duty. The gunplay will be some of the slickest in the business, there’ll be a vast set of modes in the robust multiplayer suite, the maps will be a mixed bag interspersed with the odd banger, and, in recent years, there’ll be some egregious AI art wedged into the high production value.
Arguably, the most inconsistent part is the campaign. These have ranged from genre-defining classics in 2007’s original Modern Warfare to terrible co-op leaning experiments, bombastic spy thrillers and, in the case of Black Ops 4, nothing at all. The question of whether Call Of Duty games need a campaign has been debated to death, but while they don’t have the long tail of the multiplayer, they have always helped define an entry’s success or failure.
In the case of last year’s Black Ops 7, the abysmal campaign cast a shadow over its extensive, if tired, multiplayer package – a sentiment compounded by poor sales compared to Battlefield 6 and awkward apologies from Activision, as they promised to do better. A year later, and we’ve arrived at Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, and while there’s no competition from EA’s shooter this year, we do wonder how differently things would have played out if this entry had come out in 2025.
On the campaign alone, Modern Warfare 4 is leagues above last year’s mess – something we were surprised by after the lacklustre level that was shown off in the beta. Oddly, that’s the worst mission in the game, which makes you wonder why it was used to try and drum up anticipation.
The only explanation we can muster is that, story wise, it’s the least consequential. Modern Warfare 4 continues the story of sub-franchise regular Captain John Price, who has gone rogue after assassinating General Shepherd in Modern Warfare 3. He’s pulled into an uneasy alliance with the Mexican cartel, as he looks to hunt down a mysterious target called ‘The Archer’ who has been pulling the strings to instigate Russia’s occupation of the Middle East.
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These Western antics are against the backdrop of a war between North and South Korea, centred around new rookie protagonist Park Hyun Jun. The campaign oscillates between Price and Park – and other characters – across 16 missions of varying length. The combination works surprisingly well, satisfying those invested in Price’s exploits, delivering the globe-trotting scope the series is known for,and anchoring it with a distinct Korean flavour unique to this entry.
Modern Warfare 4 isn’t going to win any awards for its action B-movie narrative, but there’s a propulsive urgency here that other entries have lacked. Activision has said this is a conclusion of sorts to the Modern Warfare saga, and the sense of finality comes through as Price faces his former Task Force 141 squadmates in tense shootouts and chaotic fisticuffs. The villains are memorable this time around too, between Mads Mikkelsen’s performance as The Archer and the power-hungry Korean commander Ri Ju-Young (played by Prisca Kim), even if they are two-dimensional bad guys of the week.
The campaign locks into a breathless pace right from the off. In the first mission, Park’s squad are casually shopping for supplies in a local Korean supermarket in Hajin City (interestingly, all the Korean locations are fictional – possibly to avoid controversy), when a missile barrage rains down from the sky. From there, you’re catapulted across chase sequences with Price in a New York nightclub, explosive Paris shootouts from the back of a car, and a bleak mission set in North Korea where you’re rounding up civilians in a village to fish out a defector.
None of it is especially novel, especially if you’ve played a lot of Call Of Duty campaigns over the years, but it is well executed and varied in its ideas. Our favourite mission puts you in the shoes of the reluctant, newly appointed Supreme Leader of North Korea, as soldiers invade his palace and you have to break out with his security team. Eventually, he’s forced to fend for himself, as you scurry around patrolling soldiers, guided by comms, with a limited arsenal.
There’s a riff on the open world style mission last seen in Black Ops 6 too, where you’re given three objectives to complete in any order on an expansive plain. Smartly, if you don’t fancy making your own way across the map, to loot for better weapons and take out enemy patrols for extra supplies to upgrade your hideout’s armoury, you can trim down the experience through a fast travel option straight to the objectives. So, if you’re not interested in slowing down the pace with open-ended exploration, you have the choice to beeline through it.
Modern Warfare 4’s campaign does lose steam towards its conclusion, with the ending coming off as rushed, but it’s still a good showcase of why they’re still a worthwhile addition to the larger package. It’s far from the best in the series, when it actually felt like it was taking bold risks in its mission design, but it’s a worthy follow-up to the quality seen in Black Ops 6, when Call Of Duty rediscovered some creative spark.
If the campaign is better than expected, then DMZ might be Modern Warfare 4’s secret gem. The extraction mode debuted with 2022’s Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone, and it was mildly riffled on with the relaxed PvE Endgame mode in Black Ops 7, but it’s been refined and expanded here to compete with modern rivals like Arc Raiders and Marathon.
Modern Warfare 4’s DMZ mode doesn’t have the distinctly tense atmosphere or visuals of those PvPvE extraction games, but the classic Call Of Duty gunplay and smart progression systems make it a compelling alternative. It all takes place on the giant map of Hajin, which combines sprawling forests, residential towns, toxic nuclear reactors, and North Korean prisons.
The scale of it is huge, and you’ll struggle to see it all even after a few matches, but it’s well populated with enemy patrols, secret stashes, and dynamic operations – which are missions you only discover when roaming the battlefield. These range from escorting a VIP, securing a package, to other minor operations, but they’re a compelling wrench in DMZ’s rhythm which reward you for sticking around, and exploring more, instead of immediately extracting once you’ve completed your pre-assigned objectives.
DMZ has plenty of these preset goals too, ranging from basic chapter orders – where you’re asked to raid containers in a specific location, extract certain items, and other rudimentary tasks – and more elaborate, multi-stage story missions. There are a limited number of these (six at launch) but they’re very fun, and rewarding, with the right squadmates.
In one of the first story missions, we had to break into a casino, reach the penthouse, deactivate the security doors concealing a vault at the bottom of the building, drill it open, steal the cash inside, and make our escape, all while enemy AI forces – and other human squads – get in your way. It’s tense, chaotic, and leads to some unique close scrapes you won’t find in the rest of Call Of Duty’s multiplayer suite. However, it does rely on some collaboration with your teammates which, in our experience, wasn’t exactly plentiful in comparison to other extraction shooters.
You can play DMZ solo, but when it comes to the story missions, pairing up with two other players feels like a necessity. The decently sized ‘trait’ skill tree, however, is broad in offering perks that would benefit both solo players – like reduced revive speeds or damage from explosives – and team players who want to drag teammates faster across the field, or release smoke grenades when downed.
There’s a surprising amount to unlock and upgrade, laid out in the Forward Operating Base hub area you can freely roam around between matches. Extraction shooters have often had trouble with accessibility, and there’s still some clunkiness here in the myriad of menu overlays, but we wouldn’t be surprised if this turns into many people’s gateway into the genre.
Modern Warfare 4’s traditional multiplayer isn’t available until the game fully launches on October 23, so we’ll report back with a score later, but between the campaign and DMZ, this is shaping up to be a stronger than average Call Of Duty, and a fitting send off to Infinity Ward’s crowning series.
Formats: PlayStation 5 (reviewed), Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC
Price: £69.99
Publisher: Activision
Developer: Infinity Ward
Release Date: 23rd October 2026
Age Rating: 16
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