Sometimes James Bond, sometimes John Wick, then MGS 5: Modern Warfare 4 shows just how varied a shooter campaign can be.
After the Black Ops 7 campaign—which I found extremely disappointing—I had actually written off Call of Duty. The whole thing felt like a failed experiment where the developers apparently couldn’t decide between a co-op and a single-player adventure.
And for years, I’ve kept hearing people say, “Nobody plays Call of Duty for the campaign—they play it for the multiplayer.” I have to disagree on two counts. First, I’ve always played the series exclusively for its single-player campaigns. And second, Activision would hardly invest millions in elaborate single-player adventures if no one were actually interested in them.
Surprise: My initial skepticism toward Modern Warfare 4 didn’t last five minutes. “I hope this isn’t another flop” quickly turned into “Holy shit, what’s going on here?” When the credits rolled after about seven hours, I immediately started a second playthrough. Partly because I absolutely wanted to experience this spectacle all over again. And partly because I was curious to see if the decisions you have to make in some missions actually influence the rest of the story. Here’s this much I’ll reveal: Anyone expecting consequences as far-reaching as those in *The Blood of Dawnwalker* will have to significantly lower their expectations.
With its campaign, Modern Warfare 4 proves just how much more a first-person shooter can offer. James Bond-style spy action, hard-hitting close-quarters combat in the vein of John Wick, and sandbox exploration like in MGS 5, combined with the usual unrestrained Call of Duty bombast. And before any of these elements can get old, Infinity Ward already has the next surprise in store.
A colorful array of violent excesses
One moment you’re chasing an enemy across the rooftops of New York in true parkour style; the next, you’re fighting your way through a nightclub. Then you’ll race through downtown Paris in a wild car chase, rappel down the facade of a skyscraper in Mumbai at night, or fight for survival on the Korean Peninsula in the midst of a brutal invasion.
Infinity Ward isn’t just mindlessly swapping out the backdrops, though. In terms of gameplay, Modern Warfare 4 also throws one surprise after another: You’ll sneak, climb, drive vehicles, dish out punches, solve little puzzles, operate heavy machinery, and, of course, fight your way through enemy positions with an assault rifle in classic style. While Black Ops 6 already headed in this direction, Modern Warfare 4 now completely shatters the old constraints.
The only thing more impressive, really, is the unbridled audacity to be wasteful. Some game mechanics are used for just a few minutes and then disappear never to be seen again. While other studios would immediately build a progression system around such an idea—complete with three skill trees and 20 hours of grinding—Modern Warfare 4 has long since moved on to the next attraction.
Beneath all the madness, it’s still Call of Duty
Without a solid foundation, this flood of ideas would quickly collapse like a house of cards. The fact that this doesn’t happen is thanks to the excellent gunplay: the weapons pack a serious punch, hits feel powerful, and the controls respond with their usual precision. As atypical as the whole thing gets—as soon as I pull the trigger, Modern Warfare 4 unmistakably feels like Call of Duty.
This solid foundation is also why the campaign doesn’t devolve into a mere collection of spectacular gimmicks. It’s like Destiny 2, where even the weakest new story DLC wasn’t a total flop because the basic framework—namely, the phenomenal gunplay—is rock-solid.
The fistfights and knife duels, however, are an exception. While they’re spectacular and staged like a movie, they feel a bit imprecise. Above all, in the heat of battle, it’s not always clear when I should block an attack and when I should strike.
My personal highlight
The “Stranded” chapter deserves special praise. After your unit crashes behind enemy lines in North Korea, the otherwise largely linear shooter suddenly transforms into a mini open-world adventure. You can tackle mission objectives in any order, explore the environment on your own, complete optional tasks, and collect plenty of loot. In your hideout, you can upgrade weapons and gear or trade items with your teammates.
By this point at the latest, Modern Warfare 4 feels more like Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain or Far Cry 6 than a classic Call of Duty. You cruise around in vehicles, jump off towers or cliffs, deploy your parachute, and glide unnoticed past enemy checkpoints. If you’re not in the mood for stealth, you can instead pilot a bomb drone right into the middle of a group of enemies, run over soldiers with a truck, or take them out with a sniper rifle from the roof of a radio tower. And those are by no means all the possibilities.
Depending on whether you focus on the chapter’s three main objectives or complete all the optional tasks as well, you can spend two, three, or even four hours in this mini-open world. Above all, this foray into the open world works significantly better than the open-combat missions in Modern Warfare 3. To me, those felt like multiplayer maps where the developers had retroactively scattered a few mission objectives.
The story is more or less functional
While Infinity Ward pulls out all the stops in terms of gameplay, it’s best not to scrutinize the plot too closely. North Korea invades the South; in the background, of course, even more powerful forces are pulling the strings, and Captain Price is also up to his neck in an international conspiracy.
There isn’t much that’s believable about any of this. Modern Warfare 4 isn’t a political thriller; rather, it uses world politics primarily as a catalyst for the next big action sequence. Anyone expecting a nuanced analysis of the conflict on the Korean Peninsula here is about as well-advised as someone who thinks *Fast & Furious* is a documentary on traffic laws.
Still, I don’t care about the characters entirely. Park and his comrades, in particular, stand out pleasantly from the usual unshakable super-soldiers. They aren’t just walking hero clichés, but young men in the midst of war who are allowed to be afraid or overwhelmed at times. That makes them believable and gives the story an unexpectedly human touch.
On the other hand, I was disappointed by Mads Mikkelsen as “The Shooter.” Not because of his performance—the man commands the screen from the very first second. But the script gives him hardly any room to craft a truly memorable villain. A classic case of a “premium reserve”: absolutely top-notch casting, but criminally underutilized.
The enemies could be a bit more strategic
As soon as Modern Warfare 4 slows down a bit, it becomes apparent just how clumsy some enemies are. They seek out the most inconvenient cover possible or simply seem oblivious to what’s happening two meters away from them. In large-scale battles, such glitches usually get lost in the general chaos. However, as soon as the combat becomes more manageable, this questionable behavior is hard to miss.
On the audiovisual front, there are no deductions in the “B” grade. The battles are spectacularly staged; everywhere, things are crashing down, exploding, or being blown to pieces thanks to your active involvement. The settings are brimming with detail; even in the background, there’s constant bustle and crashing noise.
You can practically see the enormous production effort that went into Modern Warfare 4 in every single second. But as impressive as the visuals are, Infinity Ward takes it up a notch for me when it comes to the sound—I’ve never experienced such a magnificent soundscape in any other shooter.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 – Review Summary:
After Black Ops 7, my anticipation for another Call of Duty campaign was pretty much at rock bottom. Modern Warfare 4 has won me back. Not with a great story or particularly clever enemies, but with spectacular visuals and an enormous entertainment factor. If you look up the word “spectacle” in the dictionary, the cover of Modern Warfare 4 should actually be pictured next to it. After the credits rolled, I didn’t feel like I’d only played for seven hours—I felt like I’d experienced an incredible amount. And that’s exactly what matters more to me in a Call of Duty campaign than any number on the clock. If it were up to me, Activision could serve up the campaigns exactly like this every year from now on: as a highly efficient, compact blockbuster action concentrate without an ounce of fat.
