There have been sixteen years since I first played the original Call of Duty. While the franchise had its ups and downs, it is still going strong after all those years. For example, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare’s trailer is one of the most downvoted videos in its entire history. On the other hand, the original Modern Warfare, is one of the most beloved first-person shooters ever made.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is the sixtieth title of the series. The game was developed by Infinity Ward, published by Activision, and its PC version was handled by Beenox. This is a reboot of the original game, thus the story is almost entirely different. This is also the first time a Call of Duty game supports cross-platform multiplayer, something I believe it’s worth mentioning even if this review will only cover its single-player campaign. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is not for children, if it ever was. The campaign is dark, brutal, shocking and definitely only for mature audience. The game will remind you of this, each-and-every-time you open the campaign tab, which was a bit annoying to be frank.
Same story, different time
As I said, the story is dissimilar compared to the original, but the main plot is kind of the same. Some bad guys are doing bad things and the good guys are trying to stop them, from doing even more bad things. There is also a classic revenge story thrown into the mix. I mean, there is nothing original here. Fortunately, though, the presentation is excellent and it helps a great deal in this seven hours long campaign.
“Let’s gear up and get evil”.
Captain Price
Once again you get the opportunity to play with several characters and experience the story through their perspective. There are also a few returning characters from the original game like Captain Price. Sadly, you cannot play as him, but he will accompany you in numerous missions. You can even play as a little girl, who can actually hold, shoot and reload a revolver. Yes, you read right; there is an animation of a ten year old kid reloading a revolver. You can even see the recoil of the gun realistically pushing her back. It is crazy and kudos to Infinity Ward for this level of detail.
Graphics and performance
This is the first Call of Duty that looks so pretty. It is visually impressive for such a title, even without an RTX card. Very few games created realistic nights and this game excels on the subject. However, the game is currently plagued with technical issues. For instance, I had several crashes, slowdowns, freezes and audio delays. The cutscenes are completely messed up, which is a shame, since they look totally flipping gorgeous.
Also, for some reason, every time you launch the game, it starts installing shaders which makes everything, even the freaking Activision logo stutter. So far I found no way of resolving any of these issues. And despite all these issues, the game runs extremely smooth. With everything almost maxed, I had stable sixty frames per second, all the way through the whole campaign. For more details you can read John’s performance analysis.
Audio and controls
The audio is also great. From gun sounds to explosions, everything sounds grand. The music is minimal but most of the tracks blend in nicely. The voice acting is very good as well, and the same goes for the lip-syncing. Also, and despite the cut-scene audio issues, I did not encounter any audio glitches while actually playing the game.
“Shock and awe”.
Captain Price answering Gaz’s question regarding their plan.
The controls are solid while playing with mouse and keyboard and there are several available settings to customize to your liking. I suggest changing the default button for cover which I found it to be working best with the right click. So yeah, don’t be afraid to experiment a bit to find what’s best for you, especially since cover can be an important asset during firefights and clearing corners.
Shooting is the name of the game
The gameplay is pretty much fantastic, especially compared to the previous titles. In the beginning of almost every mission, you get to see your playable character, before the camera moves into a first-person perspective. Now you can actually witness how your character looks like. Moreover, the majority of the missions differ from each other, making the game less repetitive.
Of course the gameplay does not drastically change. You will still spend most of your time shooting, but there are a couple of missions that play almost completely different. Personally, I enjoyed playing with all the characters, even if my all time favorite character Soap is not in the game. Unfortunately, there is very little character development and only for specific characters.
Glorious gore
My favorite mission, by far, was the one using a high-caliber sniper rifle, where you need to take into consideration gravity and wind. Every sniper shot dismembered enemy body parts and it was glorious. Sadly the rest of the gore in the game is mediocre. Only snipers can dismember enemies and the dismembered parts vanish.
“When you take your gloves off, your hands get bloody”.
Captain Price educating Gaz.
The game also lacks a wound system as there are no bullet holes or knife wounds. But hey, at least there are blood puddles. Honestly, from what I was reading prior to the game’s release, I was expecting something more gruesome. Also, dead bodies do not stay forever like they used to. Call of Duty was one of the very few games in which you could adjust the amount of dead bodies. Sadly this is not the case here.
And that really puzzled me. Infinity Ward wanted to make a more realistic shooter this time around. That’s why I don’t get why they didn’t put a bit more effort into the gore. On the same subject of realism, I have to say that the friendly A.I. is completely useless. They just suck at their job. I don’t know if it’s the “Stormtrooper training” or whatnot. Seriously, they can’t kill for crap.
Gunplay, weapons and pew-pew
The gunplay as always is particularly good. I mean this is a Call of Duty we are talking about. Most of the guns feel great and I love some of the reload animations. Generally speaking, shooting feels a bit less arcade-ish compared to the previous games. And while pray & spray is still a viable solution, most of the guns require some recoil management, unless you are in cover.
“We get dirty and the world stay clean”.
Captain Price.
Something I never liked in Call of Duty was the pre-selected weapon loadout. In fact, I do not recall ever having the choice to select the weapons on the beginning of each mission. Of course you can still pick weapons throughout the missions but all of them have preset attachments. There is no weapon customization of any sorts.
Take cover
Regarding cover, I have to say I got mixed feelings. While I do appreciate a cover system in a shooter, it seems they made it kind of necessary in specific sections of the game. Of course you can still play without using it, but what is the point of having such a feature and never use it?
You can take cover almost everywhere and while doing so you get less sway and recoil, while also shielding yourself from enemy fire. You are not invincible though as you can still take damage while aiming. Even so, the game becomes much easier this way. It makes more sense in the highest difficulties, at least for me. Honestly, I would much rather prefer a simple lean mechanic.
Moving through the battlefield
I really like the movement in the game as it is slower than before. It can still be a fast-paced shooter if you wish, but not in every mission. For example, there are quite a few missions that force you to play slower and more tactical. Personally, I really liked those missions, especially the one in London where you raid a house as an SAS operative.
“We are all a little crazy, aren’t we?”
Captain Price ending the conversation with the CIA.
Most of the animations are superb and help a lot with the immersion. More often than not, the NPC animations are not great in video-games, but in this particular title they actually are. There is even a movement lock when you follow other NPCs in order to match their movement speed, and I really appreciate that.
Bringing a knife to a firefight
Now melee is mixed bag. You can melee hit with your gun and you can also perform a finishing animation with your knife. Unfortunately, there is a delay before you can actually get the prompt to perform the finisher, making it neither fluid nor satisfying. Also the butt-stock melee kills the enemy, which is just bizarre.
The body physics and death animations are way, way better this time around as most enemies have death animations. If you shoot unarmored enemies once, you will see them get into a death state animation. But if you shoot them multiple times they usually just drop dead on the ground, without any unique animation. It’s not perfect but it still looks better than any previous Call of Duty title.
This is still a game
Personally I did not have any problem with any of the missions, in terms of violence and such, but that’s just me. The “No Russian” mission in Modern Warfare 2 was way more shocking and plain inhuman. If I have some issues with the campaign is the lack of a proper wound system. Also the blood puddles look mediocre, but at least there are blood decals from gunshots.
War never changes
In my seven hour long playtime, I have to say that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare really entertained me. The slower paced gameplay might not be for everyone, especially for people who love the previous futuristic Call of Duty games. On the other hand, if you – like me – loved the original Modern Warfare, you will also like this. COD4: MW was extraordinary and definitely my favorite Call of Duty game. This one is close and probably the second best, but still inferior to the original, at least in my humble opinion.
“I’m more of a dog person”.
Farah after Alex commenting on her cat like reflexes.
I prefer slow paced tactical shooters but sadly there aren’t many anymore, and most of them are not that great. Infinity Ward did something they never did before and – from my viewpoint – it worked out great. It’s not perfect but it retains the COD identity.
Paying a full triple-A price for a seven hour campaign is probably not worth your money. At least right now. Perhaps on a sale. If you are interested in the multiplayer, I would still not recommended the game as it is beleaguered with technical issues, like any other multiplayer game on launch. My suggestion is to at least wait for a couple of patches.
- Great shooting mechanics
- Slower and more realistic
- Awesome presentation
- Captain Price rocks
- Beautiful locations
- Mature campaign
- Varied missions
- Ragdoll physics
- Technical issues
- Terrible friendly A.I.
- Lack of wound system
- Mediocre cover system
- Always online requirement for single-player campaign
Computer Specs: CPU: i5 4440, GPU: Palit 1660Ti OC 6GB, RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws X 16GB, HDD: Crucial 275GB MX300, OS: Win7, 1080p
Playtime: 7+ hours total.
Note: All screenshots are taken from John’s performance analysis, due to incompatibility of the game with my capture software.
Chris was born in the early 80’s along with the very birth of home gaming. After spending many maaany drachmas on arcades, his father decided to buy him a PC instead of going bankrupt. He lived through the advancing and development of the gaming industry, having played TONS of games on all platforms. He is always honest and will never hesitate to give his true opinion on a game no matter what. Loves stealth games and dislikes microtsansactions, DLC and pre-ordering…who doesn’t after all?!
Contact: Email
Tethered to an authentication server, which gives it an expiration date. Automatic zero.
I like your style brother. ?
” For example, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare’s trailer is one of the most downvoted videos in its entire history. ”
and the campaign of that game was more interesting and fun than this generic slow paces scripted bore fest.
CoD: Infinite Warfare is my Favorite FPS bar none since 1996
I like your style.
Excellent campaign, really enjoyed it personally although it could have been couple of hours longer.
excellent? HHAHAHAHAHAHA LOL DUDE. I bet you liked medal of honor war fighter campaign.
Haha, that game was utter Schitt. I remember playing that Garbo. Man you do know the classics ???
Ye I liked it. More than others MoH.
lol
How many SINGLE player Missions/campaigns are actually there ??
Fourteen, if I remember correctly, but some of them are quite short.
OK….Thanks for answering, Chris…
You are welcome buddy.
That’s an AI, created by Timothy Sweeney. The first of its kind, able to exists outside of the Unreal 4 Engine for indefinite periods of time. He only comments and doesn’t responds. Fernando Diaz is his name, but Robo-Fernando is his game. <—– This Is A Public Service Announcement. ?
By the way, NICE review, @Chris….
I think I’m going to buy this Game now, since I mostly play first-person shooters, regardless of whether it’s a AAA, AA or an INDIE DEV game for that matter.
Haters gonna hate, but I won’t be skipping this COD title in this entire franchise…Some Gameplay Missions are really good, and I like the graphics/visuals as well.
Thank you dude! The only reason I didn’t recommend the game right now are the technical issues, otherwise is awesome. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. ?
Agreed the campaign was enjoyable and the graphics are impressive it’s just the cutscene issues that mar the experience for me. Good fair review it’s a shame that these threads are full of constant moaners.
Thanks bud, I’m glad you like it. ?
Tbh I didn’t encounter any of those technical issues aside from the stuttering cut scenes. Of course people moan because its not cool in edgy-net to like CoD. Sometimes these negative nancy’s are as bad as the SJWs.
Seriously? Lucky you!
I’ve noticed more games lately relying on high speed storage, at least with my system. Could be my aging 16GBs of DDR3 ram, but I find I have to install games to my NVME drive more often to avoid stuttering.
The Outer Worlds had a huge reduction in stutters after transferring from a standard 7200rpm HDD.
In Modern Warfare, I did have to wait a second time for ‘multiplayer shaders’ to install and decided to play the campaign instead. I had significant stutters and lower fps until I went back to the menu and waited for the shaders to install again.
I agree with u m8. People here on dsog only want to post negative comments, be it any new topic…Hard to find any constructive reply.
So it doesn’t surprise me if someone hates this COD game as well. I know it’s not the best shooter, but it’s definitely not bad either. but still Haters gonna hate…
I’m enjoying this Game though…Cheers.
I deleted my original comment though..No point in commenting here, because you are only going to get hate and negativity.
Pity they don’t go and find a new hobby as they seem to hate every damn game that comes out.
Did you 2 have to bring up the part about “Haters Gonna Hate”. Just buy the game & play the game & shut the fuq up. Stop trying to stir up controversy. No one cares, it’s your money. If you wanna throw it away to worthless copy and paste carbo every year, then JUST DO IT. Because we don’t on here blowing menthols up these publishers/developers azzholes, that means we are negative? There is always PC Gamer, IGN, Gamatsu & polygon bruh. They have EXACTLY what you need. I hear they provide the air and matches for free.
STFU moron…Who asked about your opinion ? We didn’t force you guys to read our comments, or to fully agree with us.
“Haters Gonna Hate” doesn’t apply here, so I won’t bother replying to you more on this issue. MM just posted his thoughts, I replied to him, and you come here all the way barking like a dog.
How old are u ? Jeez, obviously it’s our MONEY. Who told it’s not ? I have the full right to play this game. But no, you got hyper just because we expressed our own opinions/thoughts about this game.
How childish and immature that is !! You can ignore comments which you don’t like, but DON’T force others to agree with what you, and what your friends think about this game.
But We didn’t counter any of those hate comments which u and your friends posted about this Game though. Please Grow up..
I have to agree. Although I like this website more than most for the community, it can be pretty emo. Most comments are very predictable. Modern Warfare’s campaign is very good (mostly because of the amazing graphics), but I do not enjoy the blatant Anti-Russia/ Pro-Islam propaganda. First campaign I’ve bothered playing through since Black Ops 2.
Man you don’t owe that fool any explanation. They just want to feel justified for participating in Garbo… I don’t know why he has to bring up the part about “Haters”. Waste of time, Space & Back Bone.
Why are you calling me a fool ? Just because I like this Game, and my thoughts are different ?
I’ve never offended and argued with any of your or someone else’s comments here on DSOG though…
You’re always decent, MM.
The Farah stuff was pretty insufferable. I couldn’t care less about that Mary Sue. The story focused more on her than justifying why Russia was the modern equivalent of North Korea.
Although they look very real, they also made Price and Gaz look decidedly more soy than before.
It wouldn’t be a 2019 game unless one of your main protagonists was an African migrant serving on the British Special Forces.
That said, the game is objectively good despite these thanks to incredible graphics and silky smooth gameplay.
Ya the white-hats things was pretty egregious. Many of them have been ID’d as ISIS members. To be honest I was waiting for it at that point though. Its like they sourced all their information from CNN.
After going through this discussion again, Actually, I agree with some of your points though…You are not totally wrong as well. Makes sense.
And I respect what you and others think and base your opinion about this particular game, and others…
I’m kind of addicted to playing first-person shooters, so I can’t sometimes resist playing any latest FPS title, though I agree this always-online DRM is pathetic and intrusive.
Hey man, i didn’t meant to make you feel bad or attacking you because you enjoy the game, You like FPS games and this game is above average by any standards, Yeah always online and s**t like that is anti consumer and all but i played Diablo 3 alot, Diablo 3 is anti consumer as well (I am guilty, so no judging) and worst , it’s below average compared to other ARPG games in the market. It was just Haters gonna hate comment that made me replay to it, that was it then i rambled too much.
Also let me clear something up, i said things about Kurds and White Helms etc… that doesn’t mean i support the other, Assad was and still is a Human Filth and Russians (gov) are even worst.
Anyway, i respect you buddy, so hug ? <3 i also deleted my comment.
Hey m8, no you didn’t offend or annoy me by any means. There was no need to delete your comment though.
I just wanted to share my thoughts about this Game. And I fully understand your point of view as well, and I didn’t feel bad/insulted after reading your comment. Not all all. My pologies if I sounded like that..
I didn’t feel bad though.
i too respect you man….There are hardly any decent guys here on DSOG…I also like Bub@Bob, durka durka, Alin, and few others as well. But this “Sr_Chalice” guy keeps on insulting me whenever I post a comment under any topic..
Not sure what he wants, since I’ve never quoted any of his comments though….Sometimes he is good though, so no hard feelings for anyone here on DSOG.
Yeah, let’s HUG now..Haha..Take care. I will talk later….? ?
If you played on REALISM that mean you were able to disable the FEMALE that WAS leading a bunch of men in an army in the middle East right? Because we all know that schitt wouldn’t fly in Sharia Country.
You’re right about shari’a.
There are some female Kurds I think but they showed a women leading what was practically Al-Queda mixing Rebels. No way that would fly. I doubt they are allowed to lead in any capacity despite fighting.
Also I’m pretty sure as a muslim if you are killed by a woman or a dog you don’t go to heaven.
The A.I. still sucks in these games? Lol
so, the campaign is soft reboot from the old COD MW 1-2-3 ?? or just sequel ??
It is a reboot as I described in the second paragraph.
It’ll start going for a discount around July or August after the next game is announced. By then it will be made clear whether the post-release support has been able to salvage the lackluster multiplayer/coop portion.
I agree, but I can’t take you seriously when your profile pic is a woman fking a dog. It says way too much about your degen psyche.
After so many years this CoD finally made my buy list….damn shame about online only. I dont really want to make temporary purchases where gaming is concerned. Pass.
Nice single player.fully agree with the cons
War never changes. Unlike the game that got a bit better