"Call of Duty: Modern Warfare" offers the best campaign in years
30.10.2019
Translation: machine translated
"Call of Duty: Modern Warfare" lives up to the recycled series name and finally offers a gripping campaign without too much pathos. And the multiplayer mode is also great fun. We show both in our Let's Play.
For a long time, the "Call of Duty" campaigns were synonymous with bombastic action fireworks. Four to six hours of non-stop action with constantly changing backgrounds ensured that time flew by. In recent years, the single-player part of the game has become less and less important. Since "Modern Warfare" from 2007, the multiplayer part has undoubtedly been the star of the game, but there was also an almost equally large number of players who only bought "Call of Duty" because of the campaign. It is therefore a shame that the quality of the single-player mode has been declining for years. For me, the air was out after "Black Ops 2" at the latest. It was therefore no great surprise that there was no campaign at all for the first time in 2018.
With "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare", Activision digs deep into the mothballs and not only recovers the iconic name, but also the recipe for good entertainment. The campaign is around five hours long and chases you from London to Russia and into fictional Urzikstan. It is not a remake in the classic sense, but rather a re-imagining. It's about the terrorist group Al-Qatala and its leader the Wolf. You try to stop them alternately in the body of the British SAS Sergeant Kyle Garrick or the CIA agent Alex. In doing so, you will work closely with the freedom fighter Farah and her brother.
Sneak instead of sneak
Activision, or rather developer Infinity Ward, is finally showing some willingness to take risks in mission design again. There are hardly any scripted levels with tons of shooting gallery enemies anymore. Instead, you work your way slowly and quietly from floor to floor in one level, trying to take out terrorists without accidentally hitting civilians. In another mission, an embassy is stormed and you have to defend it with a handful of soldiers. Because it's night and the attackers have shot out all the lights, you have to shoot flares at regular intervals so that the field in front of you is bathed in an eerie green light for a short time. You can then set your sights on the attackers. Or you can storm an enemy base and control explosive drones in between. There are even some reasonably functional sneak levels on sale. You can also put your sniper skills to the test again - with the calculation of distance and wind strength.
The campaign has pace, exciting characters and offers plenty of variety. And without too much pathos - press E if you know what I mean. It looks breathtaking with the new engine. Thanks to ray-traced shadows, night missions in particular come into their own. "Call of Duty" finally looks contemporary again. The highlight, however, are the cutscenes, which are even rendered perfectly in ultrawide. The facial animations are some of the best I've ever seen.
No slip-ups in the multiplayer
There is also the classic multiplayer mode, this time without loot boxes and DLCs. Instead, there is the now almost standard Battle Pass in a free and paid version. The latter gives you better rewards. However, all new maps are available to all buyers. The number of modes is still limited and there is neither a zombie mode nor the battle royale mode Breakout - the latter could follow at the beginning of next year according to rumours. Instead, you can play through various missions with friends in co-op mode.
"Call of Duty" fans will immediately feel at home in the 23 maps. The satisfying sound of you hitting an enemy made me release a lot of dopamine. Infinity Ward knows like no other how to keep you on your toes with experience points for everything, constant upgrades and awards. The gameplay is motivating, the action is constant and the grumbling idiots are omnipresent. I had to mute the voice chat after the very first game. Some things just never change.
You can see how I fared in the game in our Let's Play.
"Call of Duty: Modern Warfare" is available for PC, PS4 and Xbox One and was provided to us by Activision.
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Philipp Rüegg
Senior Editor
Philipp.Rueegg@digitecgalaxus.chBeing the game and gadget geek that I am, working at digitec and Galaxus makes me feel like a kid in a candy shop – but it does take its toll on my wallet. I enjoy tinkering with my PC in Tim Taylor fashion and talking about games on my podcast http://www.onemorelevel.ch. To satisfy my need for speed, I get on my full suspension mountain bike and set out to find some nice trails. My thirst for culture is quenched by deep conversations over a couple of cold ones at the mostly frustrating games of FC Winterthur.
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