Call of Duty 16: Modern Warfare 4: The First Modern Warfare Game
What a blast! The first great CoD campaign in years. I only play the campaigns these days, never have time for new multiplayer games. Plus why would I want to play anything other than Wolfenstein Enemy Territory? That said, I'm sure the multiplayer is a lot of fun, aside from the fanbase...
Installation is very stupid. I could not find the game on Battle.net after I bought it. Turns out you need to install Call of Duty: Warzone, then launch that and navigate to the Modern Warfare tab and install that campaign. They don't tell you any of this.
The shooting feels great and the new engine is breathtaking. There are plenty of words written about the graphics for this game so I'll spare you. It looks great. It sounds even better, somehow achieving both chest-rattling depth and fine detail. Sound design is the best I can remember for a shooter. Overall the direction, polish, and presentation are top notch. The levels start with big bold title screens and cool transitions.
The story is a bit of a maze, but the characters are interesting enough to keep it moving. The story really exists to place you in the cool setpieces and settings. You get a wide variety of locations and varied map scales and they all work. No crummy vehicle missions. Hunting Party is a highlight as a classic CoD mission of a large scale battle advancing the front with AI companions and vehicles which then transitions into the MW style corridor shooting in a hospital. Great level but the best comes later. I'll echo the common sentiment here that the relatively freeform penultimate mission Going Dark is the highlight of the campaign. You're given three locations to investigate and your support comes from Capt Price with a sniper rifle taking out lights so you can't be seen. It highlights the dynamic gameplay and incredible night vision graphics, while giving you the choice to tackle the mission how you prefer. It's clear to me that Call of Duty is the next game that needs the Halo: Infinite treatment. Think CoD gameplay in a Wildlands world, but with some level of CoD-style setpieces throughout. Would be dope.
The rewriting of the Highway of Death from a real-world American modern war crime into a fictional Russian one is the most despicable thing I've seen in a game narrative. Shameful. Waterboarding is turned into a dastardly Russian deed, not an all-American torture. Mothers and children have guns pointed at them by the Hero and it's all fully justified by the story. All-in-all perhaps the worst CoD-DoD propaganda yet. I judge it herein on it's merits as a video game. As a work of art it is despicable.
4/5 stars