Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 review: Three-headed monster

Modern Warfare 4 is fun, but there’s a surprising weak link in the trifecta of Campaign, Multiplayer, and DMZ.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is the latest game from Infinity Ward, and the seventh Modern Warfare game to date. It’s the strongest entry in this rebooted quadrilogy, even if that’s not the highest bar to clear. I had a great time playing through the action-packed campaign and dipping into the endlessly dangerous DMZ, but it was Multiplayer that left me wanting more.

Going dark

Modern Warfare 4’s campaign is a blend of new and familiar elements. Franchise staples like Captain Price and Ghost are back, but the story also introduces an entirely new group of characters and a fresh, nightmarish conflict. The game envisions a reality in which North Korea invades South Korea, inciting a new war that threatens the lives of millions but also creates dangerous implications for the rest of the world.

Playing as Park Hyun-Jun, you have a front row seat as the disaster unfolds. Park and his troop, which is a blend of Korean and American soldiers, fight for survival as South Korean society destabilizes around them and soldiers from the North invade. The story flips back and forth between the new characters in Korea, and the old ones elsewhere. I enjoyed seeing new characters take the spotlight, and came to really like this group of fighters by the time it was said and done.

The other half of the story, which focuses on Captain Price, wasn’t bad, but it does have more baggage to it. It’s a continuation of the last three Modern Warfare campaigns, which I haven’t been particularly high on. However, one thing is undeniable: Infinity Ward has crafted some truly excellent set pieces here. Just about every mission has an extended sequence that feels like something out of a big budget action movie, whether it be high-speed chases through the streets of Paris or rooftop brawls, it felt like every mission sought to outdo the last. 

Call of Duty campaigns have become the least important aspects of the franchise over the years, so it’s cool to play a new one that feels like it matters. It’s especially nice after the abysmal campaign from Black Ops 7 last year. Still, I would have loved a game that fully embraced the new cast, but I was satisfied with what we got.

CoD raiders

The most interesting returning mode in Modern Warfare 4 is DMZ. While DMZ has been featured before, it’s been greatly overhauled following the advent of games like Arc Raiders and Escape from Tarkov. Inspired by the game’s campaign, DMZ is set in the Korean Demilitarized Zone, straddling the border between north and south. Players load in to grab valuable resources, intel, and get out with their lives.

The loop of building a loadout, finding loot, and trying to escape successfully is a ton of fun. It’s exactly why the aforementioned extraction shooters have thrived, and Infinity Ward knows what makes the genre so appealing. MW4 already has tight and satisfying gunplay, which slots in just nicely.

The DMZ is mainly populated by NPC enemies that patrol the map in vehicles and guard certain buildings. They’re more dangerous than the standard difficulty enemies you fight in the campaign, and can easily overwhelm you if they catch you off guard. There are also special enemies that you’ll need to work cooperatively to take down. Take Colossus for example, the massive, juggernaut enemy who terrorized my squad with an LMG. Just getting the entire group away from him in one piece proved to be a challenge.

You’ll occasionally run into other players, too, and unlike Arc Raiders, there’s not much negotiation to be had here. It’s usually shoot on sight, especially when you encounter other players in a valuable loot area or at an exfil point. It makes engagements less exciting, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t relish in taking the nice guns and gear off of less fortunate players before making my exit.

In between runs, you return to a Forward Operating Base, a physical headquarters in which you can store loot, upgrade gear, and test weapons. A vendor offers a daily rotation of items for purchase, and a display case shows off the dog tags of other players you’ve killed. After a daring escape, I’d laugh with my friends about the crazy things that happened on our last run, and then strategize about how we’d approach the next one. There’s emergent storytelling here, as no two runs play out the same. 

DMZ has its own leveling system, which awards the player with points they can use to unlock traits in a skill tree. The skill tree is randomized per operator, creating a bit of a roguelike element. It’s an interesting concept, but it feels a bit half baked here. The abilities don’t feel like they have a natural progression, and it’s pretty easy to just reroll characters until you get better ones, anyway.

DMZ is the one mode that I kept thinking about after I closed the game. Thoughts like “What F.O.B. upgrade should I prioritize next?” and “Why did I let Michael talk me into getting on that helicopter?” washed through my mind. It’s the sign of a compelling gameplay experience, and I plan on coming back for more in the future.

Counter attack

Have you ever seen that meme of the three-headed-dragon, and two of them look intimidating, but the third looks goofy? Multiplayer mode is that goofy third dragon this year. Unlike the other two game modes featured, Multiplayer feels more like a refinement than a step forward. For what it’s worth, I like a lot of these small changes. I think the removal of Omnimovement has improved game speed, class sharing has been made simpler through unique codes, and 2XP Tokens have been altered to only count time you spend in matches. Still, the overall experience lacks punch.

It could be that the new batch of maps has about a 50 percent hit rate. Nothing is more deflating than seeing Coal or Lithium pop up as the selected map for the next match. Or it could be that the playlist of game modes feels stale. This year’s game introduces Collateral, a round-based mode that uses a buy system. It’s CoD’s version of the Counter Strike and Valorant models. It’s a cool idea, but it’s just incongruent with maps, guns, and abilities that were designed for fast-paced multiplayer modes.

There is of course another nagging issue that’s carried over from Black Ops 7: the mysterious use of generative AI. The game’s Steam page has the AI disclaimer, but nobody will tell you what exactly was made with gen AI tools. I’ve got a strong suspicion that it’s once again been used to make some of the game’s Calling Cards and Prestige icons, but I couldn’t get an official clarification on this. It sucks, and has taken all of the joy out of accolade-chasing, something I used to truly enjoy in these games.

I still had fun with multiplayer, as shooting people in Call of Duty is fun, and I’m not immune to the dopamine rush of seeing the Triple Kill medal pop up on my monitor, or hearing the sound cue when I level up. It’s a decent way to kick back, but I feel like it’ll need a couple of seasons’ worth of content updates to get to a better place. 

New intel

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is a fun attempt to reinvent the series. It’s only partly successful, but enough so that I’ll keep Multiplayer and DMZ installed on my PC for just a little longer. Despite having fun with it, I really hope that this is the end of Modern Warfare, at least for a very long time. This franchise is desperately in need of a fresh start. 

This review is based on a PC code provided by the publisher. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is available now for Xbox Series X|S, PS5, and PC.

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Review for
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4
7
Pros

• Compelling campaign with great set pieces
• DMZ gets a nice overhaul
• Gunplay still feels satisfying
• Quality of life improvements

Cons

• Feels held back by previous games in the series
• Multiplayer mode is uninspired
• DMZ progression needs some tweaking
• AI