Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Review – Best in Years

Campaign: the closing chapter

The campaign closes the Modern Warfare reboot and is described as the best since Modern Warfare 2019. It is varied, mixing stealth, open-world, large-scale war missions and even one in pure John Wick style. An open-mode mission serves as a preview of DMZ. Almost all the subfranchise's characters return, though a few from the first two reboot games are missed. The story also carries over into DMZ and multiplayer, and the move to the Korean peninsula opens up new characters, weapons and operators. Even so, a campaign alone is not enough to justify an 80-euro price tag.

Multiplayer: solid, but held back by SBMM

There is no omnimovement and no tactical sprint by default. Time-to-kill sits between the slower entries and the very fast MW19 and MWII. New scorestreaks and a feature called Gunny, which automatically builds custom weapon loadouts, are the biggest changes. Some map spawns are not fully refined.

The real problem is skill-based matchmaking, which punishes strong players and makes matches predictable. Casual players get plenty of grinding and progression, from camos to reticles. Killblock, a Gunfight-based mode with randomly generated maps, is a fresh addition worth trying.

DMZ: the crown jewel

DMZ is Call of Duty's take on the extraction shooter, and this time it gets a full effort. It has its own progression for operators and for the FOB base, where players upgrade and craft weapons and items. Matches pit your squad against 20 other trios. Die and you lose almost everything, though you can pay to rescue your operator and keep their perks. At launch it includes 6 story missions of its own.