Every year, we have seen new titles, lots of new gaming content and so much more. One thing that always has kept its consistency in the gaming world is the world-renowned first-person shooter franchise, “Call of Duty.” This year, we have seen a re-emergence of a fan favorite title but with a new story.
On Oct. 25, “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare” reboot was released all across the world with developer Infinity Ward taking the helm since the controversial Infinite Warfare in 2016. In “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare,” players saw the return of a familiar face from the original Modern Warfare trilogy: Captain John Price. Modern Warfare also saw the return of a full-fledged campaign story since “Call of Duty: WWII” in 2017. It contains the multiplayer mode, as well as the special ops mode.
In Modern Warfare’s campaign, the story takes a completely different twist than past Call of Duty titles, taking the fight to the present-day and dealing with heavy realism and situations that we have seen in recent years. The campaign takes a complete one-eighty from previous titles and returns back to what “Call of Duty” should be, instead of getting rid of the story all together like Treyarch did with Black Ops 4. Within the game is heavy realism, delving into emotional and mental thought processes as the story goes along. It deals with Russian General Roman Barkov, who is wanted for wrongfully invading the country Urzikstan. Throughout the campaign’s progression, it clearly shows why.
The campaign tells a unique and relatable story, which I believe is the best the sixteen-year-old franchise has had since the release of “Black Ops II” in 2012. Looking into the multiplayer, Call of Duty took a completely different stance, not releasing any paid add-on content. Instead, they took a much more player-friendly route with “The Biggest Free Content Drop in Call of Duty History”, which came on Dec. 3. Seven new multiplayer maps, three new multiplayer game modes, two new weapons and several new special ops missions to play through make the online modes full of continuous content, as this is only their first season of such.
This change in tone of developer Infinity Ward and publisher Activision has gained significant, positive support with fans; in past years there has been a lot of bad blood in the “Call of Duty” community due to the issue of micro transactions and paid content. The introduction of the “Realism” multiplayer mode, as well as open-map Ground War, gives players new challenges by dealing with vehicles and all sorts of new weaponry. The special ops mode was a disappointment, because of the horrendous spawning in missions that only makes the experience worse. The game’s special ops just doesn’t feel as smooth as the multiplayer modes, or as solid as the campaign. By giving the fans what they want and being in communication with the community, the franchise will only continue to be better. As for the future in Modern Warfare’s rebirth, I hope to see a continuation of the new story they’ve built, with the charactersintroduced in the campaign.
For the “Modern Warfare” reboot in its entirety, I’d have to give it a solid eight out of 10. Thanks to the campaign’s return with a solid story, as well as consistent content in Multiplayer across many game modes, and fantastic weapon customization, “Modern Warfare” is one of the best Call of Duty titles we’ve seen in years.
Jeffrey Babcock is a third-year student majoring in communications and minoring in journalism. JB884128@wcupa.edu