Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Review

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is back in 2019 and remade from the classic of 2007. This time it marks an evolution of the series as the FPX market is in a hugely different place than it was 12 years ago. Back then Call of Duty was the leader, the trendsetter… now it’s playing catch up to other games like Fortnite, Apex Legends and Destiny.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare has been rebuilt from the ground up and feels both modern and fresh. I’ve been focused on the campaign during my time with the game and since we missed a campaign in Call of Duty last year it’s a welcome return to the game mode.

This Call of Duty campaign feels a little more subtle than years gone by. Sure we have Captain Price and the gang and the game chops and changes locations much as we’ve seen before, however, it’s the story of brother and sister Farah and Hadir that takes centre stage. There’s a civil war in their fictional home country of Urzikstan and they want it liberated from foreign forces. Captain Price and the Urzikstan siblings are joined by CIA operative Alex and Kyle Garrick.

There is the Call of Duty set pieces we’ve seen before which scream quality and cost at you through the screen. No doubt Activision have invested in this game, particularly through their game engine which has been built from the ground up making the environments look absolutely gorgeous. However, it’s not the set pieces which are front and centre this time as Farah takes the lead.

There’s a variety of game styles here rather than just simply running and gunning. There are tense moments where members of the public have bombs strapped to them, creeping through houses with night vision stealthy taking out enemies as you sweep from floor to floor. There are moments of huge action and scale which leads to jaw-dropping moments as you can feel every bullet, bomb and aircraft as they fly close overhead. There’s a weight to the guns that’s unlike any other game that seems to reach out from the screen and make you feel the action. The variety of the weapons here too is impressive.

It’s an enjoyable campaign with a mix of shocking moments (where Price throws a civilian out of range as the bomb that’s strapped to him goes off), impactful gameplay and immersive audio. The music, sound effects hit hard and really draw you into the action. Although enjoyable with some high octane encounters it does fall into the familiar formulaic territory and doesn’t evolve the campaign mode as much as it could have done.

I did encounter a few performance issues while I was playing which led to a frustrating amount of time fixing things as my controller on PC kept disconnecting, something which hasn’t happened during other games before. The graphics didn’t seem as smooth as I’m used to, leading me to lower the settings of the game to try and resolve the problem. Eventually, I found a decent middle ground where everything worked again, but it was a frustration I could have done without.

I’ve focused on the campaign mode for the moment and haven’t jumped into PVP, but I’m looking forward to it.

This review is in progress and will be updated after some time with impressions of PVP.

Check out the reviews section for other games like this. If you need help through the game, check out the guide or the YouTube playlist.