Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 review: bombastic campaign, refined multiplayer
Infinity Ward's Modern Warfare 4 offers a short, polished campaign, fast multiplayer and a rebuilt DMZ mode, though its long-term pull is uncertain, The Guardian's review says.
At a glance
- Modern Warfare 4's six-hour campaign follows a fictional North Korean invasion, with Korean and American marines leading the fightback.
- Multiplayer adds Combat Outpost, Collateral and Kill Block, while DMZ returns as an extraction shooter set around Hajin City.
- The Guardian calls the game polished spectacle but doubts it will win a vast new audience, with GTA 6 on the way.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 arrives from developer Infinity Ward, with Activision publishing, and The Guardian's review finds it a polished, bombastic package that stops short of reinventing the franchise. The campaign centres on a fictional North Korean ruling family that invades its southern neighbour, with a small group of Korean and American marines helping lead the fightback while SAS veteran John Price pursues his own morally ambiguous mission. Mads Mikkelsen appears as villain The Archer, though the review says he is given very little screen time, much as Kiernan Shipka was in last year's Black Ops 7 — an instalment that was a sales disappointment for Activision and put extra pressure on Infinity Ward.
A short, loud campaign
Across roughly six hours, players move through set pieces including parkour across Manhattan rooftops, a car chase in Paris and a train-yard shootout, building to a climactic battle at a North Korean airbase. An open-world section set in a snowy landscape offers story missions and side quests that improve your armoury, which the review says breaks up the corridor shooting without stalling momentum. Some sequences force stark unethical actions, faintly recalling the notorious "No Russian" mission from 2009's Modern Warfare 2. The review argues the Captain Price arc is overlooked toward the end, leaving its denouement short of the intended emotional impact.
Multiplayer and DMZ
Multiplayer refines the turbo-paced, ultra-lethal style of Black Ops 7, with movement described as a touch more naturalistic and weapons that carry real heft. New modes include Combat Outpost, which supports up to 64 players, Collateral, where players buy weapons and items between rounds, and Kill Block, which randomly selects three landscape types from dozens of options and randomises weapons each round.
The rebuilt DMZ extraction mode takes place in and around Hajin City, abandoned during the campaign. Squads of up to three parachute in, complete PvE missions to earn cash and gear, then call for air rescue while avoiding or attacking other players. A new Forward Operating Base serves as a safe house where players upgrade weapons, 3D print gear and learn about boss characters, supported by a three-branch skill tree that unlocks abilities such as faster revives and reduced explosive damage.
The review notes DMZ was played only in an early access version, and that its survival will depend on how many players Activision can attract and retain from rivals such as Arc Raiders and Escape from Tarkov. It concludes that the game delivers spectacle and months of content, but may not bring in a vast new audience, especially with GTA 6 on the way, and describes the series as a gung-ho Hollywood fantasy of armed conflict that glorifies the military-industrial complex.
Source: The Guardian Technology.
Questions and answers
- How long is the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 campaign?
- The Guardian says the campaign lasts about six hours and describes it as short but polished, with classic set pieces plus an open-world section set in a snowy landscape.
- What is the DMZ mode in Modern Warfare 4?
- DMZ is a reconstructed extraction shooter mode set in and around Hajin City, where teams of up to three complete PvE missions for cash and gear before calling for air rescue while avoiding or fighting other players.
- Who plays the villain in Modern Warfare 4?
- Mads Mikkelsen plays the evil mastermind The Archer, though the review notes he has very little screen time and is rather wasted.
