The game that started the hype around Call of Duty was Modern Warfare. So you can expect that people are really looking forward to the next installment of the franchise. Modern Warfare 2019 will be a reboot of the previous Modern Warfare chapter, so you can expect to see some familiar faces and maps returning to the scene. Let’s check it out.
The reason I started playing COD was the authentic look of spectacular battle scenes. COD was one of the best games that focused on a cinematic experience of different battles and tried to stand out from the crowd with its amazing solo experience. We’ve seen a lot of chapters within the COD franchises that didn’t share the same success as the single-player journeys you could expect from a Modern Warfare game because of the experimental phase the developers were going through. Don’t get me wrong, experimenting will always be a good thing but sometimes staying true to the origin of the franchise is the best way to go. Let’s take this reboot as an example, Modern Warfare succeeds in enhancing its origin game and yet implements some interesting features.
“What Infinity Ward does best, is making excellent story missions.”
What Infinity Ward does best, is making excellent story missions. The story missions in Modern Warfare are short but raise the adrenaline levels in your body like its supposed to do. Modern Warfare takes its inspiration from current events around the world and makes it their own. The single-player setting is all about the role you have to play in small scale missions that influences “ good versus evil” worldwide conflicts. However, there’s more than meets the eye. Modern Warfare’s campaign is about “making war” and acting like you’ve got nothing to do with it. It’s about Spec Ops missions that’ll trigger other nations and gain the benefit of the doubt. Let someone else do the dirty work!
Everybody around you is involved and it’s your job to play the part. As the player, you’ll be walking along the CIA, Terrorist and the American Army with only one mission: find the stolen gas. These side missions will take you all around the globe to find the whereabouts of terrorists and their experimental weaponry. Just like previous Modern Warfare titles, nothing is what it seems… So expect some betrayal… or so it seems? Infinity Ward did a great job to create a story that’s much deeper than you would expect. There are some thrilling moments in the story that you won’t easily forget. However, the thrilling experience isn’t always there as there are some missions that have been designed much better than others. Even though the concept of most missions have been worked out decently, these missions often share the same kind of objectives which makes the progress a bit dull. In other words, the concepts are there but they lack a bit of creativity. It’s definitely a decent COD campaign that makes up for the weaker previous campaigns.
Alongside the main campaign, there’s also the option to play the co-op Spec Ops mode that has been added to the Modern Warfare 2 game. Spec Ops was an amazing feature to have during the era of Modern Warfare 2 and Modern Warfare 3, however, this can’t be said for this year’s Spec Ops as the mode lacks creativity and excitement. This could have been a great addition to the game but it’s clearly a waste of time really. Too bad… I mean as Infinity Ward proved earlier on that this mode could bring some amazing missions to the table, It’s not happening this time around. The mode contains 4 missions that should build further upon the single-player adventure but it doesn’t feel like they’ve put a lot of effort into this mode. This counts for all of the small things that make this mode. The AI of enemies is truly stupid and even runs towards the building where you and your friends are camping. As you could expect, this doesn’t turn out well for the enemy horde as they’re mown down to bits.
“Thank God, the multiplayer does live up to our expectations… well, most of the time.”
Most of the time, this is also the one thing that you’re doing, facing tons of enemies and you and your team will have to defend yourselves. Some missions do offer small objectives like stealing information, save people or even hack computers but it’s nothing really special. You can’t really speak of a challenge as enemies don’t try to flank you or hide from you and your team to counterattack. The maps are huge and this could offer a certain form of strategy but I don’t think there’s actually some kind of strategy behind the design of these maps because otherwise the placements of certain objectives just don’t make sense.
Thank God, the multiplayer does live up to our expectations… well, most of the time. Multiplayer is definitely one of the best things COD has to offer and each installment in the franchise has its ups and downs. The multiplayer aspect of this Modern Warfare reboot is just as amazing as you would think. This COD just plays smoothly and the gun feel is one of the best we’ve ever had. Each shot feels real due to gun design. Each gun has a certain believable feel to it and this takes the gameplay to a higher level. The sound, the blowback, the spraying capabilities, … every gun acts differently and makes up for some amazing battles. The differences in sound and gun aspects are very wide and open up a lot of playstyles. I do have to mention that some guns are often better than other guns but this is something that they can easily fix with patches.
Each gun can also be equipped with different attachments. These attachments can be activated within “Gunsmith”. The gunsmith sheet gives you a clear overview of what each attachment does and lightens up the pros and cons to give you a quick summary of what the weapon will do. This helps you figure out if the gun suits your playstyle or not. You can create the perfect gun but keep in mind that every attachment comes with a cost. You can hit harder but with fewer bullets. You can aim farther but bring up the scope more slowly. This opens up a lot of options.
“Think Battlefield but with killstreaks…that sums it up!”
Multiplayer is better than before but I wouldn’t compare it to Black Ops. Black Ops characters had different specializations and Modern Warfare doesn’t. However, the game tries to even it up with certain unlockable perks that give you some abilities like deploying an ammunition crate or tone down your footsteps almost entirely. These perks build up during your matches and the screen will give you a heads up when the ability is ready to use. The multiplayer just feels right thanks to its amazing tempo and the realistic feeling of guns. However, keep in mind that this COD won’t be for everyone as Claymores and C4 returns to the stage. The additional modes like gunfight and 2V2 battles are fun as hell. Definitely worth checking out! The ground war mode is also a blast, it’s like a great mode that could easily be compared with Battlefield but with a more COD-like approach. Think Battlefield but with killstreaks…that sums it up!
You’ve probably also noticed that the game is looking very good. Not only does it look good but it sounds great! Every shot, bullet impact, grenade or killstreak has some great sound design. Also talking about sound and graphics, the game truly shines in its campaign. Voice acting was top notch and there weren’t any graphical hiccups. It’s a good thing that they’ve started to use a new engine to get the most out of the game. The only thing I did notice was the loading speed. The loading speed is great but this comes at a cost. At the start of a mission, you’ll see textures pop-in because of the delay but after that, the game’s very keen on the eyes! The difference between the multiplayer section and the single-player section is noticeable but doesn’t take you out of the gaming experience. The multiplayer has a great smoothness that goes along a decent FPS. There’s almost no delay. Modern Warfare reboot is definitely on a higher level, graphically speaking.
We’re speaking highly of the game, but the game isn’t perfect. Even though the gameplay hasn’t been this interesting in years, COD still suffers from a problem that hopefully will be fixed with a couple of patches. The map design is okay, some maps look great and feel like a good combination between short and long-range capabilities. However, the game stimulates a “camping” vibe. There are a lot of hidden corners covered in shadow which obviously are being used to camp the living hell out of other players. This needs to be fixed because it downgrades the gameplay. Don’t get me wrong, there are also maps where a camper isn’t really safe but it just needs to be fixed. Also, the sound quality of footsteps needs to be addressed because it’s difficult to separate your team members’ footsteps from your enemies’ footsteps. This can create a “paranoia” effect that isn’t very healthy. The amount of maps is decent at the moment but hopefully, they’ll add more maps quickly because of a bad rotation system.
Conclusion:
COD Modern Warfare is back and hopefully, they’ll enhance what they’ve got and created an even better game. Thanks to the new engine, this COD feels fresh and interesting to spend quite some time on it! The gunplay feels authentic and exciting while some sound design choices could have been slightly better. This is, of course, fixable with patches. The single-player is one of the best experiences I’ve had with the Modern Warfare franchise, however, they need to be a bit more creative. Multiplayer is smooth but suffers from a lot of campers. Hopefully, they’ll fix this soon because the camping problem is running out of hand. COD Modern Warfare is definitely an FPS that’s worth your time.
