Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 (Campaign) review for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X, Switch 2

If you’ve been following Call of Duty for the past few decades, you’ve surely had your opinions on the highs and lows when it comes to the campaign. Everyone’s different in where they think those highs and lows fall, and I would venture to say that in the 2020s, we’ve had a pretty strong lineup of campaigns, with the exception of the last Modern Warfare entry (which I had some pretty strong feelings on). Now… I don’t want to get sidetracked by something negative, as I really like this campaign, but in my opinion, it’s pretty hard to start talking about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4’s campaign without addressing that elephant in the room.

I’m not going to spend time discussing it, as you can just go read my linked review from 2023 on my feelings with that campaign, but all that matters is this: Modern Warfare 4 has brought it back. This is, in my opinion, the strongest, coolest, most cinematic, and overall best campaign that has been released in the Call of Duty series since the highly regarded first reboot Modern Warfare game in 2019. Which is not to say there’s anything bad about any of them since, but if you’re looking for cool and badass action movie vibes with strong gameplay, this is it. Not to mention how great all of the visuals look, there’s not much I can complain about in this package.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4’s campaign takes place, as usual, across a wide variety of countries. Playing as two different characters alternating mission to mission, every other mission takes place in either North or South Korea, and then goes to a different location between. The overarching storyline charts two separate stories that you swap back and forth between. One, of course, continues what anyone who played the prior three releases in the series should be familiar with: Makarov and the general Russian force funding programs that threaten the world in comic book villain suspiciously-evil style. However, this time, we’re tagging in North Korea, who have recently begun an assault on South Korea. The campaign evolves along the way to bring what starts as two completely separated storylines together, to help you get a view on the bigger picture.

Seemingly trying to prove that there’s still a lot to give from the Modern Warfare name, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is hitting some of the highest action movie notes I can account for in any game that I’ve played in a long time. Speaking about it with fellow Gaming-Age writer, Tyler, I know I told him that there are some sequences that straight up hit me with John Wick level vibes. Just know that I do love me a good John Wick movie, so that’s a pretty high bar. Right out of the gate, launching the campaign, you’re given a strong showcase of what you should expect from this campaign. You’re dropped into a camera that is revolving around inside an infantry vehicle, and are introduced to each character in the new mixed South Korean and American marine joint squad. They’re lovingly introduced through a sequence of witty banter and trash talking, passing a single bluetooth earbud around between them as it blares a bit of Wu-Tang Clan. This is where you’re introduced to one of the two primary characters you’ll be playing as along the journey as well: Park Hyun Jun.

You learn that the squad is simply here for a patrol duty, walking through a bit of the town to show military presence, to upkeep general security and safety amidst tensions within the peninsula. Of course, it wouldn’t be a Call of Duty game if this went as anticipated, so… once you’re given enough introduction on the characters and get a small slice of life style experience of walking through the street and stopping into a convenience store, the city loses power around you and a bombardment begins. Hectic, crazy, and lost, Park is thrust into his first ever live combat(and man, was he just such an excellent shooter, if I do say so myself. So accurate and lethal). Suddenly hit with the full weight of a war, the journey throughout Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4’s campaign will have you, if you’re like me, feeling connected and attached to this new lineup of characters. Aside from Park’s surprising resilience, the joint squad creates an interesting dynamic that hasn’t really been put on display in many video games I can think of before this. Dunn and Park being the two American marines amidst four ROK marines (Jae, Moon, Kwon, and Chow), the respective forces work together to keep a cohesive and co-operative squad that makes a social dynamic that plays out in a very relatable way.

The ROK soldiers have a bit of playful, biting banter that I’m sure you could probably imagine the subject materials of, being the fact that they can all speak Korean and get to take some jabs at the American soldiers alongside them. I personally think that the way this is handled in action is done very well, avoiding easy pitfalls like making it way over the top or unrealistic. The dynamic all heavily reminds me of exactly the kinds of banter you’d expect from any group of guys sitting around and stuck together in real life. I’m not sure, from the ending (which I won’t spoil), if we’re supposed to expect a Modern Warfare 5 in the future, but I can confidently say now that I’d love to see the guys from the joint squad (I believe they’re just referred to as “Sierra-1” throughout, but I’m sure that can change) appear again. If the prospective future release is of anywhere near the same level of quality, I would be there to play again right away.

Now, in contrast to the “I’ve never been in combat before” player character, West, Mission 2 introduces (or well, he probably needs no introduction) you to the second primary character you’ll be handling back and forth throughout your time with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4’s campaign: John Price. No longer “Captain”, Price has picked up from the infamous after-credits scene of Modern Warfare III where he catches Colonel Shepherd in his office in the Pentagon, pistol in hand. Delivering a bit of unauthorized vigilante justice, Price has gone AWOL, and is both disavowed and consider a wanted international criminal. Price’s intentions, however, remain unchanged. On a hunt for revenge, Price tears his way through the underground to stop both Makarov and the forces above him to bring justice.

No longer being a part of the SAS, Price’s methods to find and eliminate his targets have gotten… creative, to say the least. I will, as usual, avoid spoilers as much as possible, so all I will say is Price in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is a beast. An animal unchained, free from any burden of expectation in handling things cleanly that he would have with the SAS, Price is going to do what he needs to. Not how he needs to, just whatever works. Price is quite a bit of a rogue agent in MW4, going pretty far over the edge in brutality and ethicality to do what he needs. If you don’t end the second mission in this campaign with a gasp and an expletive aloud to only yourself, color me shocked. Price is a badass throughout the entire series, but in Modern Warfare 4… he’s really letting it shine. His missions are the primary points that color my opinion in the first paragraph that portions of the storyline remind me of a John Wick movie, and honestly… it never really stops being that way. There’s some degree of interesting dichotomy between playing as Price and playing as Park.

Park and co. are obviously contracted military, and have a degree of organization and backup. They have a gearset, and hardware to carry them through. The personality and comradery carry a large bit of what’s going on in their areas, but for Price? He’s got an objective and two allies: lefty and righty. And don’t worry, he introduces his two new best pals to just about anyone that stands in the way of his mission. Like I said, expect some high levels of brutality from Price’s mission, and don’t be surprised if your eyeballs fall out of your head from the number of times Price shocks you along the way. Honestly, sometimes I’m not really sure I can get behind a full understanding of all of the things Price does throughout Modern Warfare 4’s campaign, sometimes venturing into the territory of “I’m not sure I could picture Price doing this” but… it’s hard to deny that it’s cool as hell.

I’m also not sure that’s a fair reaction to use as a negative, either. To some degree, I get it: he’s a wanted criminal and there’s not going to be “reasoning” when it comes to the government handling the fact that he performed and unsanctioned assassination of a high-ranking and publicly renowned American military officer. Least of all after it was aired as a fact on public-facing news stations (as showcased in the intermission cutscenes). So I suppose I get enough to justify it, being that the two options are to actually complete what he was dedicated to by avoiding the bureaucracy of working under a government agency or surrender and most likely go to prison forever. Choices are hard out here, and I think I can agree option 2 isn’t very appealing. Plus, I’m sure a lot of the things that occur can be written off through ludo-narrative dissonance, as most of the things that happen (like civilians catching my stray bullets because I started shooting in the middle of a Paris street) are entirely in gameplay. If you’re not familiar, ludo-narrative dissonance is a narrative function that allows you to separate the player’s actions from the character’s storyline and handling within cutscenes. It’s the function that reasons why you are okay with getting shot 900 times in gameplay, but a single bullet in a cutscene is enough to call it quits.

If there’s anything left to say for me, it’s just that damn is this campaign hard on Veteran. I haven’t even thought about going back to try some of the sections on the two higher difficulties you unlock after completing playthroughs: Realism and YOLO. I decided to make my first playthrough on Veteran and honestly… I came close to giving up on the challenge a couple of times because I questioned if a few sequences were genuinely physically impossible. A scene where you control a mortar has it so you can’t take cover, add armor, or heal in any way had me questioning if it was me or the game keeping me from progressing. Typical video game handling of course has enemies appearing in staggered waves that you have to work through, but it was, for me, like in this sequence that I would get done with a specific group on the right edge, and before the last shot even landed, another crew would appear and laser me to death with two bullets before I even had time to load and fire another mortar at all.

Not to mention the hand-to-hand combat sequences at a few specific points of Price’s missions. Oh man- don’t get me wrong, these were cool as hell, but on Veteran? Oh. My. God. I think it might have been easier to go back to Call of Duty 4 and get the infamous mile high club than it was to win the second hand to hand combat sequence in one of the later missions (ambiguous details to avoid spoilers). Where the mortar sequence I mentioned above had me mostly questioning if it was possible, this knife fight had me questioning if I have at some point lost all ability to actually play video games and react. I did beat it of course, and the scene itself is maybe 60 seconds long, but… it took me 6 minutes to do it. Most of which was restarting after 10 seconds. So… not terribly long, but I can say it made me feel similar feelings to that of finally getting past a boss in Dark Souls that’s been kicking your ass for a week.

Overall, this is excellent. Last year, I loved Black Ops 7’s storyline, which yes, yes, I know: general public opinion was not quite as favorable to as I was, but… this is, as I said at the beginning, probably the strongest story they’ve had in Call of Duty in general this decade. I’d still personally stick with the idea that Advanced Warfare was the strongest quality story that’s been put out at any point in the series, but Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 comes close to overtaking it. Honestly, given the visual fidelity differences and quality of animations, I’d venture to say it wouldn’t be a stretch to consider this a new highest point for Call of Duty. Which isn’t even controversial to say: check any conversation about it that you can find, and you’ll probably find you’d be the odd one out if you were to say much negative.

To close, I said that it’s better than Black Ops 7’s campaign last year, which I gave an 8.5. Simply: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is the best campaign we’ve gotten in a very very long time; and it is absolutely amazing. It showcases a lot of technical improvements as well as high quality coherence and cohesiveness in the writing. It does almost everything right. This is what I hope we see from the future of Call of Duty as a series. Three releases in the series since are proving that Modern Warfare III was a fluke, and fortunately, it seems that the development companies behind have mutually learned from that occasion. Now, as an apparent glutton for punishment, I’ll need to try and play back through on the two harder difficulties, but if you haven’t purchased already and the Campaign is what you’re interested in, you should absolutely run and buy buy buy. This is peak. Even if it doesn’t become your single new favorite, you will love it.

Note: Activision provided us with a Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 code for review purposes.

Click Here to buy Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 on Amazon