Many gamers know and love or hate Call of Duty for its frenetic multiplayer offerings, but my very first taste of the franchise was its bombastic, Hollywood action flick-style campaign mode.
The cinematic action set-pieces of Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare campaign way back in 2007 is what got me hooked on the series originally. The multiplayer component soon followed, and I’ve been playing the series yearly ever since, for work or for fun, and as an easy way to catch up with friends.
Recent CoD campaigns have strayed from the path, for various reasons, likely due to time constraints and making do with what the various dev teams had on shorter dev cycles. Modern Warfare II’s campaign was decent, but Modern Warfare III’s was messy. Black Ops 6’s campaign was solid, and Black Ops 7’s was blasted for its ridiculousness.
After playing through MW4’s campaign in full during a visit to Infinity Ward’s HQ in California this week, I bring happy tidings: the studio still has the goods, and a strong CoD narrative has returned with four years of dev time.
“Ripped from the headlines”
MW4’s story centering around a massive conflict between North Korea and South Korea feels very grounded and real, as if it could happen any day, and the devs say this was by design to bring it back to a sense of realism and war. The countries have been (technically) in conflict at a standstill for over half a century, and at any given time everything could really explode into destruction and devastation, so the stunning events of this campaign feel very possible.
It begins quickly and powerfully with North Korea launching an attack on the South in the wake of the country’s supreme leader passing away and leaving his two children in power, throwing the region into chaos and a squad of inexperienced soldiers into full-on warfare.
Because of the ongoing conflict, military service is mandatory in Korea (even the K-pop star BTS members had to serve their requisite time), so soldiers feel like they’re going through the motions. The squad comprised of both US and South Korean soldiers that takes center stage in MW4 feels this in various ways, but none more than player character Private Park Hyun-jun. He’s stuck, and lost, and suddenly central to a massive war, and one of the more relatable characters the series has had in some time.
Recent CoD campaigns have leaned more into special operations and black ops assignments with super soldiers and special forces. MW4 brings it back to large-scale warfare as Park and his team defend their homeland, launch counter-attacks, and attempt to rescue civilians, and the game is all the better for it.
But this is still Modern Warfare, and so Captain John Price also plays a central role in the game, but not in the ways you may think. Price is out for revenge after the events of Modern Warfare III, where his comrade “Soap” MacTavish was taken out by Vladimir Makarov.
The CoD veteran goes fully rogue in the events of the campaign by pushing himself to the limits to cross “the line” while chasing down Makarov, running into a new nemesis known only as “The Archer” (played by the excellent Mads Mikkelsen), and eventually butting heads with his former squadmates in Task Force 141: namely, series favorites Ghost and Gaz. This means teaming up with an unlikely and unfortunate ally in cartel member Valeria, who is after her own individual selfish goals, leaving the two to combine into an uneasy alliance that pushes Price to the brink as a man seemingly possessed by revenge and anger.
MW4’s campaign events serve as a satisfying conclusion to the rebooted MW games that started in 2019, and I don’t know where it goes from here. But if this is the end, I’m fully satisfied that Infinity Ward brought back the juice for the finale, which I expected after the studio was given nearly four years to work on it. When given proper time, CoD’s devs still know how to cook quite well.
Expectations of the unexpected
This campaign took me by surprise a few times over. For one, it’s longer than I expected, clocking in at 16 missions. But the variety on display was a return to form for the games that felt like they had been retreading quite a bit in recent years.
The old familiar styles of gameplay and mission presentations are there: open battlefield combat where you hunker down behind a tank for cover as you press the advantage, defending an objective from an onslaught of enemies, stealth segments, vehicle chases, chopper gunner scenarios, hand-to-hand combat battles, and even a John Wick-style nightclub shootout. It’s mostly the good version of singleplayer CoD you’ve come to expect (unfortunately no co-op this time), but it’s familiar in a good way, and all done really well.
There are also several points in the campaign where you play from the North Korean perspective, showcasing some twists and turns in the plot to keep things interesting if not a tad cheesy. But nothing shocked me more than a lengthy mission towards the middle of the story that surpassed anything I could’ve expected.
I don’t want to say too much here because I hope players will experience it for themselves, but in recent campaigns, CoD and its various studios have experimented with singleplayer missions in an open-world setting. I was never a fan of them, as I felt they didn’t realize the potential of what could be done with the style, and I’ve been highly critical of them, as have many long-time CoD fans. MWIII’s “Open Combat Missions” especially felt like a tacked-on Warzone experience with some random objectives sprinkled in.
I’m happy to say Infinity Ward nailed it this time around in MW4. When I realized partway through the mission that it was another open-world scenario, I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. But I soon realized that it was actually really well done this time around.
Players can choose to focus on three main objectives in this mission (these basically function as three mini campaign missions) and blow through it quickly, but I highly suggest everyone use this specific experience to its full potential by exploring the map, completing optional objectives, upgrading weapons and gear, and really diving into all it has to offer. There’s potential for several hours to be spent in this mission, and narratively, it makes sense.
MW4’s full scored review comes next week, but I can say that fans of CoD’s singleplayer components should not be disappointed with what Infinity Ward cooked up here. I think it could go down as one of the better options in the series, and definitely one to remember for righting the ship after years of uncertainty and questionable decision-making. And to top it all off, the game is gorgeous on PC, offering the best visuals in the franchise to date, making it all the more enjoyable throughout.
The full MW4 campaign is available now in early access ahead of the full release next week on Oct. 23, and as someone who’s played every CoD campaign yearly for about two decades now, I definitely recommend it. There’s nothing that will blow you away, but for a short-lived singleplayer component to a game that will last via its multiplayer modes, it’s a good time.
Activision provided Destructoid with travel and lodging for the review event at Infinity Ward in Los Angeles.
