Video Game Reviews

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 4

Overly Dramatic Review in One Sentence

A modern take on real world situation, the culminates in understand how far is too far.

The Actual Review

Gameplay

I haven't had this much fun in a Call of Duty campaign in years. No fancy double jumps, boosters, sliding backwards and double barrel rolls while playing. Just a grounded first-person-shooter that reminds you of all the actions matter. Especially when playing on the harder difficulties. I am not saying that your choices matter, which would be very hard to do in a game like this, but your actions do feel like they are weighty.

The gun fighting is very good. The different weapons have a very distinct sound and are meaty. I remember in one mission I moved from a loud pistol to a silenced one, and it still had this thump. What also worked well was the way the NPCs reacted to it. They heard it, but had a hard time telling where it came from. That is accurate. However, that accuracy ends when you are over 75m away, and they just don't look your direction when you are sniping.

There are a couple of driving portions on the levels and honestly, I hate them. I really hope that isn't what we are going to expect when we play DMZ and Warzone. Turning sucks and is just unresponsive at times. This might be a complication with the way the vehicles interact with the level design. The levels are very well-designed and give me a lot of hope for the DMZ function that comes out soon (I know that by the time this review comes out, delayed due to the Halloween movie reviews, DMZ will be released, but it isn't out yet). They also left the bread crumbs for what I expect that story to be in there.

Edit: DMZ has been released before this review and we have to talk about it. I have tried multiple extraction shooters like Tarkov and Arc Raiders. Arc was the most fun, but it needed some balancing in the weapons and the removal of cheaters to make it worthwhile (Main reason I haven't written a review is because of the amount of games where I got torched by cheaters means it wasn't good review time). This though has been outstanding. Yes, cheaters are showing up, but not to the level in arc. the gameplay here is so good and the weapons actually feel like they do something. You feel like you have a chance against the AIs, even the harder ones, when you find a decent weapon. It has truly been a joy to play solo, which I almost prefer, and with friends.

Edit: Multiple player has been fun. I think the only real issue I have with it is more about the camo grind which is unique to this game and the number of "point blank shots" weapons need, but the maps are fun and for the most part feel balanced. There are a couple with some glitches that people are taking advantage of, but it doesn't outright ruin the game.

Graphics and Sound

I talked about this already, but this game has some serious weight and meat to the sound design. Character's voices are accurate to what is going on. You don't get calm voices after they have run a mile or been in a crazy gunfight/car chase. The car chases do feel weak in the sound design and the whole missions is probably the weakest in the game. I think that is because the explosions and the deployment of bad vehicles is identical to what we have seen in the last 10 games. It doesn't look or sound different.

There is a mission that is open world, and you can move from one side of the map to another and the weather changes. I didn't even notice it because it was so subtle, but I found the snowy area just so hard to see and that was the point. I never felt the maps were beautiful or anything like that, but the shadows and foliage do look good with the characters. So it does look good.

Story and Characters

Easily one of the best stories ever in Call of Duty since they moved from retelling real war stories. Fully feels like they wanted to complete the essence of the story from Modern Warfare 2019 and the grueling heaviness of the OG Modern Warfare series.

The Pitt, Price, and Park. There is a conversation between the South Korean Marines about the US Marines about how gung-ho they are is so important to the character of Park. You see him battle his internal prejudice's, lack of understanding, personal emotions, and the invading North Koreans at the same time. It changes the way he talks to his peers throughout the story.

Then there is Price. Price is on a path that has placed him in a weird position and is testing his internal compass. His ethics. This is really put to the test when his team and countrymen are coming after him. The voice actor does such an amazing job in add gravitas and gravel to his lines when he is defending himself.

Lastly we have 2 people from The Pitt playing supporting roles here. It is really nice to see that source of acting really getting into other things in their interest. They do a good job with their limited role, but the lazy parts come from the writing.

The story is stripped from an alternate timeline world that isn't far from ours. The death of DPRK's leader brings turmoil. I remember that being a concern a few years ago about an internal civil war for North Korea between the siblings. This story is right there. Foreign influence, narcissism, the belief that you are meant to do something that is reprehensible to those around you. It wouldn't take much for me to see DPRK invading South Korea with the help of China or Russia in our world, so this game is just adjacent to what is going on now.

My Rating

The story is outstanding. I am so sad and happy with the ending and think it was so well done. I can see how people would be frustrated with some levels for this lack of realism, specially the car chases and the Price-Makarov foot chase, but they all serve a purpose of showing the road Price is on. I was having a conversation with some friends about it, and it hit me this morning that there are reasons for some of our frustration as it adds depth to the character and story. This is why I will rank this as "GET THIS GAME." It is about 6–8 hours of gameplay so from a pure single-player only player, the $60-$70 is way too much, but to catch it on sale with DMZ coming, I think this would be worth it.

Parental Rating

Naw. There are at least 3 executions that I can remember right now. There is also a ton of language, some of it in Spanish and Korean, but all of it just thrown at you. My mom would hate this game. My dad would be mad at the language.