Written by Alex Maidment (nSanity Beach)
My first impressions of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare effectively summed the game up as a solid all-rounder. That was based on day one, a few hours played impressions.
2 months on and we’re still playing the game regularly online and I’ve now actually finish the gritty, twisting, dark campaign and if I’m honest, it was pretty great. It’s been by far the most enjoyable Call of Duty campaign I’ve played for a long time – potentially since I first played the campaign on CoD 4: Modern Warfare.
The Campaign
What I liked about the campaign is the mix of playable characters, different scenarios and different play types. My fear with any war-based game is that it will be all run and gun and a countless number of waves of enemies that keep coming until you reach a certain point. There are certainly some elements of that in this game, but there’s also a nice mix of stealthy style play and slower gameplay that keeps you gripped in the storyline.
There were even a couple of points in the game that I felt more like I was playing Tomb Raider that I Call of Duty, and for me, that’s really not a bad thing. The story that ran throughout the campaign was also a nice touch with the characters aiming for a common goal despite their different backgrounds. This mixed in throwbacks to other Modern Warfare games was also nice to see.
Multiplayer
The multiplayer online is where I and we as a Casual Heroes Gaming team have spent most of our hours on Modern Warfare. It’s not unusual for me to start getting bored of any Call of Duty game by this point after launch but I really am finding this game different.
The removal of DLC that you had to wait months for an pay extra for is a breath of fresh air and the Halo style approach of changing the gametypes every couple of weeks is something I love as it keeps the game interesting. Of course, this isn’t to everyone’s taste and there have been a lot of complaints about game types being removed too soon after they’re released.
The free addition of maps regularly is another welcomed part of the online experience – again, it keeps the game fresh and also gives the older games a nod with the introduction of new versions of old classic maps like Crash, Vacant, Shipment and others being added to the game in the future.
For me, the overall rotation and number of maps in the game has been brilliant!
It’s also nice to see Infection return to the game and we’ve certainly spent a lot of time on this game-mode already making it an easy CHG favourite, even pushing aside Ground War, a completely different but great gametype.
As much I praise the game, the good comes with the bad and there is still a lot of bad in this game. To name just a few: broken spawns, broken maps allowing people to use glitches such as going outside or under the map, different lines of sight for different people, no option to vote for maps and the list goes on.
Although these issues exist, for me personally, none of which have completely killed the game for me. The issues have been talked about online for a long time so you can see what you’re getting into if you buy the game or have just got it for Christmas!
After 2 months, my honest opinion of the game as a whole is: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is the most fun I’ve had on a Call of Duty game for years. If you like some of the older CoD games, for example the MW series, the first two Black Ops games, then there is a good chance you’ll like this one!
Casual Heroes Gaming 