Sound design has been notched up, too – every weapon kicks up a harsh rattle that rebounds realistically according to your surroundings. You haven’t seen flexibility like this in Call of Duty before The models of the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare weapons have been overhauled to ensure every shot feels impactful, with smoke pouring out of the ejector port, spent shells spitting into your peripheral vision, and puffs of pink bursting from enemies as your bullets punch home. Global volumetric lighting changes bring new levels of depth to every scene, as close-quarters firefights fill rooms with dust and explosions drown streets in thick smoke. Every surface looks distinct, leading to some of the most convincing environments in gaming. Photogrammetry tech enables a feast for the eyes, with lifelike textures ranging from minute details on weapon models (such as rubber-stippled grips) to immersive environmental touches, like realistic piles of rubble and rusted metal car doors. Modern Warfare looks great across all three of its modes, but the audiovisual improvements are plainest to see in the campaign.
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It helps that all of this has been built in a brand-new game engine, the first full engine change in over a decade. This is easily one of the best, if not the best, Call of Duty campaigns yet. From start to finish, the six-hour campaign is a polished, immaculately produced, and genuinely affecting experience that plunges players into the murkiness of modern warfare and doesn’t pull any punches. Barry Sloane takes on the iconic role of Captain Price with swagger and charm to spare, while Claudia Doumit’s performance as freedom fighter Farah Karim brims with humanity and grit. Modern Warfare also boasts the best cast of any entry in the series, all brought to life with grounded performances and the most realistic mo-capped cinematics to date. This is easily one of the best, if not the best, Call of Duty campaigns yet In their place you’ll find several tense breach-and-clear missions set in claustrophobic 1:1 scale buildings (most first-person games exaggerate the size of hallways and doors, to make navigating tight spaces simpler).
There are no vehicular chases in which you fend off an entire army, or burning buildings collapsing around you. In keeping with this serious new tone, Infinity Ward has also scaled back the frequency and bombast of set pieces. Care has been taken to ensure the game’s toughest scenes are given proper context, and it cannot be overstated how important that is when the campaign’s narrative treads so close to recent real-world events. Yes, a couple of scenes do feel misjudged, but unlike the infamous No Russian mission from Modern Warfare 2, they don’t feel like the work of a provocateur seeking controversy for its own sake and headlines at any cost. Instead, it comes across as an earnest attempt to tell a story that reflects the world in which we live. You’ll witness war crimes, endure torture, abandon people in the need to pursue an objective, and participate in repugnant interrogation tactics. The campaign is filled with similarly challenging material. Back in 2007 it was pretty obvious who the good guys were. This mission sets the tone for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare’s campaign perfectly. It’s a story about the messiness of contemporary conflict, the vast grey gulf that exists between right and wrong, and the burden that operating within such vague boundaries places on soldiers. You can and probably will kill an innocent person during this short firefight – my very first shot killed a fellow police officer – and a mistake like that will play back in your head for days. There’s no correct call to make, no instructions of what to do, and absolutely no time for hesitation. Ahead of you are several armed terrorists shooting indiscriminately into crowds of fleeing civilians, but with distraught commuters scrambling across the street between you and your targets, it’s nigh-impossible to get a clear shot. Panicked screams and wailing sirens flood your ears as you get back to your feet and draw your gun. In the twelve years since the original released the world has seen a surge in deadly terrorist attacks – resulting in over 600 fatalities in Western Europe alone – and within a few minutes of starting Modern Warfare’s campaign, you’re placed at the scene of a massive bombing at Piccadilly Circus, right in the heart of London. It doesn’t take long for Infinity Ward to justify its reimagining of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.