Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 feels like a blast from the past with a newer and broader storyline. Infinity Ward delivered an over-the-top, action-packed story that still felt grounded; the multiplayer feels exactly how I remember it from years ago, and DMZ offers a unique way to play the first-person shooter.
The campaign tackles multiple stories at once, but none of them ever felt like they conflicted with one another. Modern Warfare 4 starts like many traditional Call of Duty games. You play as a normal soldier who’s thrust into war with little to no clue about what’s going on. The twist is that you’re a South Korean soldier defending your homeland from a North Korean Invasion.
A moment later, you jump into the shoes of Captain Price, now hunted by his former allies. Many of his story beats feel more like what the series has become recently, with fast-paced action scenes that mimic an action movie. Given everything he’s in any other Call of Duty title.
The campaign wastes no time getting into the thick of it. Immediately, you’re introduced to a wide cast of characters who are just as lovable as the next. It also doesn’t hurt that Young Mazino (Beef Season 1) and Luke Tennie (Shrinking) are among the star-studded cast of characters. This is where it leans into a more traditional story, where you play as normal soldiers going through hell and back without knowing why. It feels a lot more grounded and personal.
It’s not just them who shine, because everyone in the game delivers an amazing performance from start to finish. One thing that kept surprising me was how many twists and turns they managed to sneak into a roughly 8-hour campaign. Just when I thought one thing was happening, something drastic would occur and change the entire course of the plot.
Although it’s hard to say where the Modern Warfare series can go narratively from here, I can confidently say this is one of the best campaigns the team has produced in a long time. Some parts feel a bit rushed, but the highs outweigh the lows. I’m excited to see how the series evolves from here.
Story beats aside, multiplayer has never felt better. It’s jam-packed with various modes for players of all skill levels. Want to play something a bit more challenging? Play Search and Destroy. Want to play something new and fun? Try playing the 10v10 Gunfight mode. I spent a good amount of time trying out these new modes to see what they had to offer. The only mode that still falls short is Ground War: Combat Outpost. This is Modern Warfare 4’s big battle mode with vehicles and large maps. It often feels like a sluggish mess because Call of Duty still has a way to go in making vehicle combat fun. This made me want to go back to smaller skirmish modes instead.
One of the smaller modes that I spent a lot of time in was Frontline. Although it wasn’t too revolutionary, it solved the age-old issue of spawn camping. In short, it’s Team Deathmatch, but the catch is there are set spawns for both sides. So you no longer had to worry about someone spawning right behind you or vice versa.
Another thing that I truly appreciated was the return of the classic perk system. This time around, you don’t have to worry about what your boots, helmet, and gloves do. Everything is back to how it used to be, and it’s a lot better. What I love most about all of this is that the Riot Shield is no longer a weapon and is now part of your equipment. The best part about this is that it can now be broken, so you no longer have to run in fear whenever you see someone crouch-walking towards you with one.
As you might expect, there’s a wide variety of gun customizations in Modern Warfare 4. Finding out what works for you can be half the fun. It’s one of the things I love most because it lets me theorycraft the ideal weapon. The Apex attachments always gave me something to work towards, and whenever I unlocked one of them changed how they worked all together. By giving a sniper rifle, throwing knives, and a pistol shotgun shells. But when I started to get a bit lazy, one thing I leaned on more and more was Gunny.
This automated weapon-building system does all the work for you. It can be done for any gun, and once you select it, you’ll have the options to pick: Short Range, Balanced, and Long Range. Every time I used Gunny to build a weapon, it was never a bad choice; each one did its job as described.
What was especially great about Gunny is that even after you build it, you can still customize it however you like. This is what I ended up doing a handful of times when a build was almost perfect for me. As someone who can’t spend as much time as they’d like looking through the meta, this was perfect for me to jump right into a game without fear of using a bad build.
As useful as Gunny was, none of that mattered whenever I loaded into Modern Warfare 4‘s extraction shooter mode, DMZ. This mode takes place after the main campaign and serves as an extended story. On paper, that sounds nice because the main game was so compelling, but DMZ handles its story beats in a way that’s extremely half-baked and underwhelming.
I found myself not caring at all about the overall narrative of the world around me, and just wanted to go out and loot some items to make my next run easier. That is where a lot of the enjoyment comes from. Each section of the map is broken up into difficulty scaling, and if you run into one area with low-end gear, you’re almost guaranteed a quick death.
Nothing in this mode is easy, but that’s part of the charm. It can be cold and unforgiving if you get too greedy or make a fatal mistake, it’ll cost you a lot. Each mission lasts only 30 minutes, but in that short time you can do all sorts of activities, such as DMZ story missions, raids, or simple runs.
As you play, more features open up, including the 3D printer that lets you craft items, mission objectives, stores, perk trees, and even the bounty board. The DMZ offers plenty of room to immerse yourself in the world around you. But as immersive as it is, I found some runs a bit repetitive. Once you’ve established yourself, things get a lot easier, and the novelty wears off quickly.
Despite that, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 brings a lot to the table; even if a few do fall flat, you’ll be bound to find a mode that you’ll gravitate towards.
Good
The Final Word
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 feels like the series it used to be in its glory days. The story is perhaps the best it’s been in recent titles, with twists and turns at every corner. Multiplayer fixes many of the key issues from previous editions, and DMZ offers a fun way to get more of a narrative experience, even if it gets dull at times.
