Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Campaign Review – Putting the Ground Back Under Our Feet
While almost every Call of Duty release included a full-fleged campaign, it’s hard to deny that the main draw in the franchise has always been the multiplayer component.
It’s gotten to the point that many first-person shooter fans have lowered their expectations for Call of Duty campaigns, since it’s seen as a bonus more than anything else.
That changes in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, which is the conclusion of the Modern Warfare saga according to Activision, and what a conclusion it is!
There’s a Price to Pay
Despite the excellent start to this rebooted era of Call of Duty with Modern Warfare 2019, I’ve been rather “cold” on the franchise’s narrative approach lately. The original Modern Warfare trilogy wasn’t perfect, but it had no denying its impact on the gaming industry, and it’s one of the few times I actually felt excited for the next entry in the franchise. I think many of us can agree that the story, and how it balanced cinematic spectacle with grounded camaraderie, was unmatched, and this new timeline has consistently struggled to do the same. Black Ops has also been folded into this new era, and while each sub-series has had strong moments, recent years have been unkind to both series’ storytelling, often making it feel like an afterthought for a franchise that has generally delivered on that front.
So the sentiment around this year’s Call of Duty has been rather “muted” by the community, especially after the experience we got with last year’s Black Ops 7 disappointing campaign. There’s always some hype around these games, despite the franchise fatigue many of us feel, but this year really feels like it lacks real excitement. Of course, it doesn’t help that GTA 6 is literally around the corner, shadowing nearly every other release, but this is Call of Duty, one of the biggest gaming franchises there is. There should be hype; the community should be excited, and yet it seems like Infinity Ward is fighting a battle that many have already deemed unwinnable.
I would be lying if I didn’t admit that the general vibe around this year’s release put me in a bit of a mood too, making it all too easy to just scroll past the marketing trailers and treat launch week like any other ordinary day instead of the massive industry event it used to be.
What I’m trying to say is that, for probably the first time in a Call of Duty campaign, I went in expecting the worst. Suffice it to say, I was wrong. In fact, I’m so wrong that I’d say Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4’s campaign might be one of the best in the franchise, capturing a feeling I haven’t had since its golden era.
That said, the campaign isn’t perfect; a few areas didn’t land well, and some weren’t explored as deeply as they should have been. The biggest critique that many of you have probably seen is around the open-level design. For most, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 returns to the franchise’s narrative roots, focusing on a tightly woven, linear story that prioritizes cinematic tension and scripted moments over sprawling sandboxes the last few games tried so hard to introduce. Sometimes the best way forward is to look back at what made the series’ campaign so beloved, and Infinity Ward and supporting studios have no doubt recaptured that classic, adrenaline-fueled magic that has always made me excited to play a Call of Duty game.
But then, out of nowhere, we’re reminded why recent entries haven’t landed so well: the addition of an open-level where you choose how you approach things on a massive map. Luckily, you don’t have to deal with the bore of traversing, since you can skip directly to the main objectives, but even then, you can’t help but feel how weak this level is compared to the rest of the campaign. The campaign takes you through all these high-intensity set pieces, only for this mission to show up and throw off the pacing, making it feel like a crawl compared to the rest of the story. It’s a single level, and that’s not to say this design can’t work for Call of Duty, but the way it’s been in the last few games, and a bit here, it feels built to introduce players to some online mode (DMZ extraction mode in this case) to some extent.
I think the franchise needs to stop trying to blend multiplayer-like aspects with the campaign in any capacity, but again, it’s just a single mission, and most of it is skippable.
My bigger issue with the campaign is the stories it wants to tell while trying to serve as the conclusion of this rebooted saga. I’m not sure whether this is praise or criticism, because Modern Warfare 4 somehow delivers a satisfying end while also leaving us with more questions and unresolved story issues. This is because the story is actually split into two parts: one that gives a definitive conclusion for the members of Taskforce 141, and another that feels more like the start of a new story, revolving around the new war with North Korea and Russia. If this is somehow the “end” of the Modern Warfare series, I’d actually be disappointed, not because it’s “bad” but because it feels like it just got good again. That means I want more; I don’t want it to just end here because there is so much left to tell, and I really feel like the studios locked, and pardon my language, the fuck in. I doubt Activision plans to stop with the Modern Warfare franchise with this, since it sets up a grander story.
So what is my issue with the campaign? Well, it’s a tale of two stories that feel like they were loosely thrown together. On the one hand, we have Taskforce 141 and Price’s story, which, by the way, is completely unhinged in this game. A line was drawn, one that was never meant to be crossed, and Price has strayed far beyond it. The Price we’ve grown to love and respect, the very one that the other members of Taskforce 141 have looked up to whenever they’ve felt lost, is long gone, replaced by a man who isn’t afraid of losing anything in his blood-drenched rampage, driven by a terrifying focus that forces the rest of the squad to question whether the man they were following is still worth saving. Making him feel less like a seasoned tactical leader and more like a relentless, bullet-riddled action icon ripped straight from the frantic gun-fu choreography of a John Wick film or the globe-trotting, consequence-free rogue vengeance of a late-era James Bond movie, where the mission completely supersedes any code of honor.
It’s as thrillingly unhinged as it sounds, and if you had any lingering doubts about casting Barry Sloane as Price in this rebooted timeline, Modern Warfare 4 proves him unforgettable, cementing his gritty Price portrayal as easily the best performance in the series.
On the other hand, the other part of the story is a classic Call of Duty narrative that shifts focus away from Task Force 141 and centers on a new global threat: North Korea. This side of the story puts you in the shoes of ordinary, boots-on-the-ground soldiers who end up in the wrong place at the wrong time. Without warning, North Korea invades South Korea, enacting a full-scale war with its ally, Russia. Infinity Ward isn’t afraid to go full shock value here too, showing us the harsh and brutal living conditions of North Korea, where even the slightest misstep or murmur of dissent is met with immediate, merciless public execution, laying bare dystopian oppression that strips away any remaining illusion of civilized order and sets a grim, harrowing tone for the grueling conflict ahead.
I’m actually shocked by what Infinity Ward shows and does in the campaign; while it’s fictional, it mirrors real-world events, and you know who these made-up characters’ real-life counterparts are supposed to be. I really loved this side of the story, though, as it felt like we were cogs in a war, much like much older Call of Duty games, where you weren’t saving the entire world single-handedly, but rather fighting tooth and nail alongside brothers-in-arms just to survive another day on a brutal, unforgiving frontline.
This band of brothers has heart, and I fell in love with the characters practically instantly. For every victory, I cheered. For every tragedy they suffered, I mourned (ok, not literally) as if I was the one losing that person alongside them. I felt the devastating weight of a conflict that made every surviving member feel like family.
The game’s two stories are great, but I feel like they’re forced to be tied to one another. Either story could have worked on its own, since they don’t really fill each other’s “gaps” to create a unified narrative arc. When I sat and reflected on the story I played, I realized how many more questions went unanswered. The Korean War story tries to build this global war, with Russia seizing power in other regions, but we never really get to see that beyond Korea. Taskforce 141 hunts down Price, but the story focuses little on them otherwise.
It’s a bit of a nitpick for some, but the story left me wanting more connection between the two halves, which could have made the conclusion hit much harder.
Even so, I’ll firmly stand by it as the best Call of Duty campaign in this rebooted timeline. I don’t think any of the games in this timeline even come close to the campaign in this, and I would even say it’s pretty high up there in terms of the series as a whole. It certainly feels like a return to form, something fans have wanted, not just in multiplayer, but in the campaign too.
Of course, the campaign is only one part of the Call of Duty experience, and with DMZ (extraction) and the core multiplayer experience releasing in the coming days and weeks, it’s going to be interesting to see if Infinity Ward can keep this momentum going. For now, things are off to a great start, and if this is truly the end of Taskforce 141, it’s been one hell of a ride, ending with a resounding bang rather than a whimper.
We’ll have our final score for Modern Warfare 4 once the full experience is out, so stay tuned!
Pros
- Incredible set pieces
- Gripping story
- Better-than-expected visuals
Cons
- Still not convinced on open mission design
- Although the dual narratives are amazing, they do feel rather rushed when it comes to timing them together
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