I fell in love with Call of Duty way back in 2009, when my friend group pushed me to make the jump from Halo 3 to Modern Warfare 2. While initially I was concerned I couldn't get a handle on certain mechanics, like learning weapon types beyond the simplified "AR" and "BR" I had grown accustomed to in Halo, I ended up really getting my footing in Modern Warfare 2 after a couple of months. It was the start of a fixation with Call of Duty that only 2016's Infinite Warfare could put at risk. I still quote several lines from MW2 (2009) to this day, even.
17 years after my first foray into Call of Duty's Modern Warfare subseries, my attachment to the franchise has only grown. For quite a while, I considered the 2019 reboot of the Modern Warfare franchise among my favorite games of all time. After completing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, however, I think that list has been shaken up — and I can finally tell you why.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 — Story, setting, and art
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is divided up between three different modes: a single-player campaign, the revival of the PvPvE experience in DMZ, and classic multiplayer.
Modern Warfare 4 was piecemealed out over the last week, with players who had preordered gaining access to the Campaign one week in advance, followed by an early access period for DMZ lasting a few days before the launch of MW4 multiplayer (which the team ended up releasing a few hours earlier than originally planned, as well).
Because of the staggered launch window, I went ahead and wrote a longer review explaining why I felt the campaign for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is a cinematic masterpiece, as well as an individual article discussing my first impressions of the DMZ. But I'd also like to reflect on those modes as part of the full launch, too.
The singleplayer campaign for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is a cinematic masterpiece
I'm reiterating that headline because I don't think I can say it enough to stress how incredibly well done the campaign for MW4 truly is. In the very beginning, MW4 introduces a new squad — Sierra-1, a collaborative group of young soldiers consisting of South Korean conscripts and American Marines.
The narrative team from Infinity Ward really showed their chops with the opening sequence, as the American soldiers introduce the ROK members of Sierra-1 to Wu-Tang's rap classic, C.R.E.A.M. The team banter and poke at one another before side-questing into a convenience store to purchase junk food and stomach medicine for some light hazing of the squad's newbie.
The sequence feels like a video game's cold open and more like an expertly shot film, with care and attention to detail oozing from every neon light, every brightly colored and meticulously packed item on the corner store's shelves, all the way to the silly expression on the American corporal's face when you lie and tell him that a specific food item is, well — fish soaked in piss.
Modern Warfare 4 is a war game, though, not a shopping simulator, so of course things have to go awry for our charming young squad when they find themselves thrust into the front lines of urban warfare in downtown Seoul after North Koreans invade under the cover of night.
Fighting through this battle with this inexperienced squadron adds more risk to the invasion of North Korea, and as they are forced to retreat, we learn that the story here is not being told in a linear fashion. Instead, we're pushed back to 5 days before NK's attack on Seoul.
It's through these time jumps that Infinity Ward's narrative team weaves a complicated tale of brotherhood and comradery between squad mates, the weight of grief when a squadmate is lost in battle, and the consequences of how that grief is dealt with. Sierra-1's story intertwines with MW staple, Task Force 141, which has been severely affected by the loss of Johnny "Soap" MacTavish (at the end of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2023).)
While the young squad of Sierra-1 grapples with loss in one way, TF141's leader, Captain John Price, has gone the revenge route. Now rogue after having killed American General Shepherd, Price finds himself at the mercy of his former enemy, El Sin Nombre (Valeria Garza.)
Every element of the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 campaign will have you pulled in, waiting with bated breath to see what happens next. For a franchise that has historically been considered a vapid first-person shooter without any sort of deep-rooted story to tell, Modern Warfare 4 pulls out all the stops and effectively proves anything uttered by detractors as wrong.
MW4 juxtaposes the actions of its younger, inexperienced squad against those of the battle-hardened TF141. Both bands of brothers tackle grief and motivations for continuing on in the face of a heavy loss, doing so in ways that affect the other squad without their even knowing it.
These parallels also appear in the campaign's other subplot, which highlights the brutality of the invading North Korean regime and its hunt against defectors. We get yet a third angle to study the issue of blind loyalty and defecting from the safety of what one knows because it is inarguably just the right thing to do.
The MW4 campaign is a gut-wrenching story that serves as the finale for the Modern Warfare reboot. While we see several known characters' storylines come to an end in one way or another, there are still some characters for the subseries that are left in the wind who do not have neat little ties to their loose ends.
The story continues with the tense, beautifully haunting DMZ
Modern Warfare 4's "third mode" is a return of the MW2 (2022)'s PvPvE experience, DMZ. Set in a demilitarized zone in Hajin, on the border of the Korean peninsula and Russia, players can infiltrate the region and carry out missions to check off objectives for several missions that expand upon the post-credits world of Modern Warfare 4.
DMZ differs from the single-player campaign in that it takes on the form of an extraction shooter, with players able to take an operator from one of the game's story characters and put that operator through their paces in the DMZ, completing story missions and dynamic ops to level up and loot for better gear.
Because the Modern Warfare campaign wraps up most characters for the subseries, we're given a varied roster of operators, many of which have previously served as multiplayer Operators for Modern Warfare titles past.
Hajin is visually stunning. The open-world map is mostly controlled server-side, so Infinity Ward has been able to introduce new mechanics like dynamic weather to the mode. All players on a server will see the way weather and other factors affect Hajin collectively, so you can't blame the weather for your untimely demise in the DMZ.
A classic multiplayer experience tries something new for Modern Warfare 4
In an interview with Infinity Ward's multiplayer team, I was once told that the battles that go down in multiplayer should be looked at as if they're happening a block or two over from the events that happen in the campaign.
You can see that philosophy very clearly in Modern Warfare 4's 12 launch maps, each of which features very noticeable elements from the campaign that are arranged in a way that makes them feel like they could have been nearby, but not quite the same.
Multiplayer's maps offer an impressive variety of biomes, from a small, tight bus yard to the dilapidated remains of an old coal mining operation. It would be easy to expect Infinity Ward to let the visuals for multiplayer lapse — after all, who would even notice if the paint cans spill when hit or that bullets impact surrounding set pieces?
But the team wasn't content to just let these maps exist. Instead, the multiplayer maps of MW4 are beautiful sets ripe for destruction that offer adequate flanking opportunities and enhance the sustainability of using non-meta weapons, even on small maps, through the power of good design and reasonable player movement.
Infinity Ward did not just stop with multiplayer's classic map structure, though. Modern Warfare 4 introduces a new concept for how to play multiplayer with the new dynamic map, Kill Block.
Kill Block rotates the available set pieces for the map and selects three to piece together to create one unique gameplay experience from mere pieces. Despite being pulled from a multitude of different styles from Modern Warfare's past and present, Kill Block still manages to be a cohesive (and addictive) new feature for MW4.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 — Gameplay
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is a first-person shooter with intense action at its core. Everything about the game is meant to make you feel like you're a war hero, fighting the good fight, across all of its modes. However, there are some notable differences in how each mode gets you to that point (or keeps it dangling in front of you like a carrot.)
Modern Warfare 4's campaign gameplay is a reminder that sometimes we have to get our hands a little dirty
"We get dirty, and the world stays clean" is a recurring mantra throughout the Modern Warfare subseries. The idea is that Task Force 141 may sometimes make decisions or act in ways that might seem questionable or otherwise dirty, but it's okay when the end will inevitably justify the means.
So then it should come as no surprise that Captain Price, who is clearly built to be a brawler, gets his hands dirty in the literal sense by carrying out some of his revenge plot.
Most sequences with Sierra-1 feature classic linear COD set pieces that put you in the heart of battle. But some of Capt. Price's appearances lean into his ability to take down friends and foes in some good old-fashioned fisticuffs, pushing the player into using LT and RT to block, counter, and attack.
Infinity Ward also breaks up the long linear sequences by introducing classical mechanics like rappelling down a skyscraper with night vision goggles, clearing stairwells and rooms where enemies are waiting to take you out under the cover of darkness.
One mission, "Stranded", deviates from the standard gameplay funnel by introducing a semi-open world with three objectives that players can interact with in any order they choose. In addition to the three main objectives, there are multiple secrets littered around, including yellow storage crates with loot and keypad puzzles to unlock for bonus gear.
DMZ gets a major glow up thanks to feedback from the 2022 Beta
When Infinity Ward first introduced the concept of the DMZ in 2022, I was intrigued. I was originally a fan of The Division's Dark Zone concept, and really fell for the extraction mode DLC "Survival". But few games had managed to recapture the excitement of that PvPvE experience that won me over in the Dark Zone.
When the DMZ Beta dropped, I actually spent quite a lot of time with my friends exploring but ultimately ignored the mode sometime before it began to receive new content updates like Building 21.
The things that I felt were lacking and failed to keep me engaged in the DMZ beta for the long term seem to have been addressed with MW4's Beta. Players select their operator, which can be leveled up by earning XP completing story missions and Dynamic Ops, or free roaming to take out lieutenants and other players.
Unlocking Trait Perks lets you spec out a skill tree for your operator, but should they succumb to an untimely demise without extracting their gear and loot, the operator becomes MIA. MIA operators require in-game currency to recover.
This system has proved to add a significant amount of tension to the DMZ, which also offers players a heightened sense of discomfort by introducing NPC characters that behave much more like players than any we have ever seen before. These NPCs drive recklessly, attempt to run players over or take off-road shortcuts, flank squads, and otherwise offer a formidable foe to the DMZ.
It's a challenging new mode, and the community seems to be at odds over whether PvP or PvE elements should reign supreme, but as it stands at launch, DMZ's a tense and exciting experience with friends that has managed to make loss and success both feel more gratifying than its predecessor.
The desire for nostalgia meets the push for innovation in multiplayer
Despite having reviewed every single Call of Duty that has launched in the last 5 years, I still find myself pointing out with each one just how much the development team has had to find a balance between half of a player base that longs for a nostalgic past and half of a player base that craves something new for multiplayer.
Modern Warfare 4 is no different, but I do think there's a chance that Infinity Ward has found a way to walk that line with precision. Launching into Modern Warfare 4's multiplayer when it went live, I immediately felt at home. Despite new menus that allow players to attach custom class loadouts to one specific operator, the system feels familiar and comfortable.
Many of the menus for Multiplayer have gone back to a vertical layout, making them more manageable and a welcome change of pace from the last few years of seemingly endless horizontal options.
Like how DMZ had a glow-up based on player feedback, so has Multiplayer. Many of the game's ills from its open beta earlier this fall seem to have been addressed. UAV spam, for example, led to the developers increasing the cost of all killstreaks by one to help lessen their frequency.
There is still some room for improvement, however. The Time-to-Kill speed was adjusted based on player feedback during the beta, but the open beta period only offered a core playlist. That means players who preferred Hardcore modes were unable to experience exactly what Hardcore had to offer before its launch.
As an avid hardcore fan, I find that there's definitely still wiggle room for some minor weapon balance passes in the mode, but those sorts of quality-of-life improvements are typically made throughout the game's post-launch lifetime. It wouldn't even surprise me if the TTK for Hardcore wasn't already addressed even before this review goes live.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 — Should you buy it?
Few games make it to the 4th entry in a subseries that has been rebooted from a franchise that has been running annually for more than 20 years. But here Infinity Ward sits with Modern Warfare 4. A game that blends the story of a nostalgic brotherhood coping with immeasurable losses with a fledgling brotherhood that is just forming under the burden of war and tragedy.
The nostalgia of the Call of Duty franchise oddly mirrors that of Task Force 141 in some ways. Similarly, the bright-eyed potential of Sierra-1 mirrors that of an Infinity Ward under new studio leadership and grappling with the loss of influential members of the team that are memorialized in the post-credits In Memorial screens.
And yet, from the heartbreak and nostalgia and changing of the guard, there's room for something new. Something exciting that reinvigorates a community that refused to give up on CoD. Modern Warfare 4 may be the final chapter for Task Force 141, but it's just the beginning of this new era of Infinity Ward.
So, do I think you should buy Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4? I think you'd be crazy not to, truthfully. For anybody who has ever played Call of Duty, Modern Warfare 4 is the love letter that reminds us of what was special about the franchise in the first place and gives us hope for what it can be going forward.
Buy Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 now to experience a brand-new, thrilling campaign, reworked multiplayer, and a new DMZ experience for yourself.
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