We’ve spent the best part of the last week playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. We even had a first impressions blog published on the day of release looking at the online multiplayer and campaign. It’s been a blast so far, but to be honest, so much of what has made this game great to play is different it feels to other recent CoD games.
In many sense, it feels like what CoD should be – somewhere between the gimmicky games we’ve had in recent years and the hit FPS, Battlefield 4. We’re over the moon with how the new game has turned out and wanted to share 5 things that we love about the new Call of Duty release.
1) Campaign
The campaign is quite different from any of the recent Call of Duty games, heck, Black Ops 4 didn’t even have a campaign, and to be honest, given how other recent campaigns had played, that was a strong choice. But Modern Warfare has come back fighting for the title of best FPS campaign.
It’s dark. It’s gritty. It’s tense. And it’s great. It’s the best Call of Duty campaign we’ve played in 10 years and it’s all down to the fact that Infinity Ward has been brave and gone for realistic over the usual arcade style of campaign. The game really makes use of today’s hardware to create something brilliant and exciting. It’s pretty edgy with some of the missions and even a little hallowing at times, but it’s fun to play and an interesting take on potentially real-life events.
Bonus points for the fact that the campaign is taking place at the time of launch (around the 25th October 2019) – it was a nice touch.
2) Ground War (and generally more players in the map)
Ground War is new addition in Modern Warfare and is an online multiplayer mode like you’ve never seen before in CoD. It’s big, it’s got up to 64 players, it’s got vehicles and it’s chaotic! Think Battlefield 4 Conquest and you’ll pretty much be there with Ground War.
The objective style play mixed with the big maps and lots of players mean there are so many ways to play this gametype and it’s great fun as well.
As well as Ground War, MW also introduced 20 player matches including TDM and Domination, which again, just adds some excitement to the online with more going on and bigger maps!
3) Audio
The audio in this game is perfect. The echoes of gun fire as you move from outside to a building and even in a cave, it just all sounds great. Admittedly, it can be a little overwhelming as you have a chopper above you bringing down rockets and raining bullets while a team mate sprays an SMG next to you and a sniper shot in the distance keeps you on edge. But this is all good stuff. The sensory experience is really something.
The audio also goes the other way, from being a bit too loud as if you’re actually in a war zone to eerily quiet as you sneak around corners in a larger map. Sure, there’s gunfire in the distance, but the audio also helps to keep the thrill as you hear an enemy soldier in the building on the floor below. It’s brilliant!
4) Maps
Yet another improvement in Modern Warfare is the maps. They all offer something slightly different and you can really see and get a feel for the thought that has gone into each map. At times, they might seem frustrating as players can dominate an area with cleverly placed claymores and a couple of decent window spots but this just makes the game more challenging and arguably interesting.
The maps have evolved from purely run and gun with a bit of camping style play to mix of run and gun, stealth, cover and move and camping, which means there is something to suit everyone. The larger maps are also a breath of fresh air in this game allowing for much more open warfare but also keeping it possible to run an SMG and Shotgun as needed.
5) The Armoury
Gone are the days of only have 10 options for a weapon class that covers your primary, secondary, perks and equipment. In Black Ops 4, I ultimately ran with a primary and no secondary to make use of all 10 slots so having a loadout that allows me to fully equip myself for different circumstances is great.
I can have a properly equipped marksmen rifle or assault rifle and still carry an SMG or shotgun for those closer quarters moments. The progression of weapons also seems sensible. In fact, here’s a shoutout to the weapons in general because although there will likely be some adjustments, they all feel quite balanced and there truly is a reason to use the weapons for different scenarios.
We love the game so far and hopefully that will continue to be the case but in the meantime, these are our top 5 things that we love in the new game!
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