Call of Duty: Modern Warfare does a lot right in terms of game mechanics, but doesn’t keep its promises.

The campaign of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is spec-ops porn. If you feel as euphoric about series like “Six”, movies like “Sicario” or the old Modern Warfare parts as a Navy Seal does after basic training, you can look forward to an extremely atmospheric five hours of CoD single player. Infinity Ward has tweaked several things in order to hit the bull’s eye when it comes to the spec-ops atmosphere. The fact that the main character of “Six” was hired as the new Captain Price is just the icing on the cake.

In the 14 campaign missions, you pretty much shoot your way through the ABCs of special forces scenarios: Use night vision to infiltrate terrorist cells at night, take airfields alongside local militias, and use drones and explosives instead of just a rifle in your hand. Of course, the arsenal of weapons is still abundant: from M4s to MP5s and FN FALs to AK47s and Dragunovs, you’ll be handling a wide range of contemporary firearms. The characters hold their weapons in front of their bodies in a reasonably realistic way, there is tactical reloading and so on.

Modern Warfare stages its missions opulently, as expected, but much more grounded than in part 3 or the more recent noise orgies. Sure, something still explodes frequently, but it’s clear that Infinity Ward wants to create a more comprehensible scenario. Fewer enemies, more intense battles, more drastic depictions of violence. But the last point is the crux of the matter.

Because the new Call of Duty wants to provoke. It shows gas attacks against children, torture of civilians, waterboarding of prisoners. All factions involved are permanently committing some kind of war crimes. If a developer puts such sensitive topics in the spotlight, he has to do them justice.

We already warned in our first preview that war atrocity provocation can quickly turn into tastelessness, if the whole thing is essentially just a marketing tool. And indeed, the new Modern Warfare doesn’t even begin to exploit its potential here.

What did we play? Unfortunately, Activision decided to unlock the PC version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare later than its console counterparts. That’s why our multiplayer conclusion is still a while off, of course – we’re testing the game under live conditions, after all. However, since the story doesn’t differ on consoles and PC, this story summary is based on the PS4 and Xbox versions of Modern Warfare. Of course, we will provide gameplay impressions of the PC version as soon as possible. Read more in our overview of how we tested Modern Warfare.

What is the story of Modern Warfare about?

Briefly for classification: In the story of Modern Warfare, a bioweapon is stolen – and the four main characters want to recover the agent for their respective factions. Farah Karim is a resistance fighter in the fictional Middle Eastern state of Urzikstan, Captain Price embodies the hardened SAS soldier, “Alex” represents the Americans as a CIA agent, and British newcomer Kyle Garrick leaves the London police force because he wants to hunt down more radical terrorists.

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare – single player campaign conclusion video

On the opposite side are renegade Russian military forces that rule Urzikstan, as well as a terrorist group that wants to free Urzikstan from foreign intervention by any means necessary. Both parties therefore logically fight each other – and this results in a field of tension in which friend and foe are often almost indistinguishable. An exciting starting point? Definitely.

At times, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare even manages to illustrate the horrors of this modern war in a comprehensible way. In combat, our and the enemy’s people often don’t wear uniforms: If you accidentally hit civilians or colleagues, you directly collect the Game Over. And this happens often. Especially during a bomb attack on London’s Piccadilly Circus, this creates a enormous panic and tension. But this momentum evaporates as soon as it dawns on us how mechanically the developers stage the same provocations over and over again.

Every waterboarding, every execution, every war atrocity is merely a finger pointing, a “Look how violent this war is.” Modern Warfare does not exploit the potential of its own story. The Russian warlord and Captain Price, for example, could have been wonderfully staged as mirror images: Both want to ensure peace at all costs, both commit amoral acts to do so – and in the end Price would really have to come to terms with what kind of man war has made of him. But the story doesn’t dig that deep at any point. It remains a superficial “Yeah, we’ll just have to do that or we’ll lose the war.” Too bad.

Modern Warfare humanizes

That’s not to say that we don’t care about the actual characters. On the contrary, Modern Warfare actually manages to make its own characters tangible better than most CoD parts. Especially Farah and Price shine in their acting performance – and in their contrasts. Moreover, the setting changes with each mission. Sometimes we fight in London, sometimes in Russia, sometimes in Georgia, but mostly in Urzikstan.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare – View screenshots from the solo campaign.

In one mission, we guide a secretary through an embassy occupied by terrorists through camera surveillance. Then, as a drone pilot, we capture a Russian airfield. In the next mission, we infiltrate a London apartment building at night, only to relive the Russian conquest of Urzikstan in a flashback time travel. The rhythm of the campaign is excellent, we were never bored for a second.

And with that, we’re already in the middle of the gameplay. The new Modern Warfare campaign plays much more down-to-earth than any other CoD story. You’ll often only fight a few enemies in a mission, but they’re much more deadly even on the second of the four difficulty levels. Conversely, a well-aimed shot from you is usually enough to eliminate a threat. But don’t worry: there are still bigger spectacles, just no more Eiffel Tower collapses.

Call of Duty remains Call of Duty nevertheless

On higher difficulty levels, you’ll have to resort to every innovation the game offers you: You can now rest weapons on door frames to aim extra carefully around corners. Doors can be opened gently. And reloading now also works while you are aiming with the rear sight. If you don’t proceed at a leisurely pace, you won’t get anywhere in many situations. If, on the other hand, we peek around corners with sensitivity, throw a flash-bang grenade and surprise the enemies, then incredibly atmospheric spec-ops situations arise.

This successful atmosphere but still remains eyewash. The fact that the enemies are so deadly is simply due to the so-called “hitscanning”: Instead of developing a really smart AI, the enemies basically hit you at the moment of eye contact. Especially on high difficulty levels, this still makes for frustrating trial-&-error passages, because enemies know unrealistically well where you are currently hiding.

However, the enemies put enough pressure on you and (for the most part) take cover cleverly enough to not ruin the atmosphere. The fact that the weapons feel noticeably more powerful than in earlier parts of the series also benefits the battles. In terms of level design, the cobbler sticks to his last: Most areas are narrow level tubes where you can only choose between several attack points here and there.

Let’s close the bag

So what’s left in the end? A Call of Duty that shines primarily with spec-ops atmosphere. The improved gunplay, the more grounded scenarios, the more cautious movement – all these things lead to a campaign that doesn’t play like a tactical shooter, but does feel more tactical. The story arouses curiosity, serves the fan service desire of Modern Warfare fans in a striking, yet purposeful way. Characters like Farah show that Infinity Ward is gradually moving away from the macho mantra of past series installments.

All the more tragic that Modern Warfare lacks the guts for the storytelling master class. The potential would be there to tell a thrilling anti-war story and really blur the lines between black and white. Instead, the Russians remain the bad guys on average, the Americans the good guys – and the war crimes shown are primarily marketing provocation.

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