Tom is an expert in all things Fortnite or the latest RPG release, but is probably spending too much time on the latest EA FC game.
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The Modern Warfare 4 beta isn’t just the usual test of a few maps in Domination or Team Deathmatch. This year’s early preview includes a bunch of maps and modes, a brand new Warzone Resurgence map, and even a taster of the single-player campaign. After the disaster that was Black Ops 7, it makes sense to show off everything MW4 is doing to bring CoD back to glory. Having spent a few hours with it, Infinity Ward’s latest does a lot right, while also suffering from a lot of frustratingly similar issues.
The single most important thing in any first-person shooter, Call of Duty or otherwise, is how it feels when you shoot the guns. Is it satisfying? Does it feel good? More so than in recent years’ games, Modern Warfare 4 feels great. The shooting packs a punch. It’s weighty and responsive. It doesn’t feel like you’re firing futuristic pea-shooters; there’s a phenomenal crack sound when you kill an enemy that makes you desperate for that next kill. Running around, popping other players in the head, provides a level of feedback that’s satisfying to a degree I’ve not felt since at least 2019’s Modern Warfare.
That extends beyond just the basic assault rifles everyone uses, too. There’s no doubt in my mind that the M4 will be among the most meta weapons once late October rolls around, but snipers, the ISO SMG you start with, and LMGs were all viable options, and I died to all of them more than once. The SMG feels brilliant, particularly when sprinting around MW4’s smaller maps.
The maps are usually a contentious point in new Call of Duty games, and I enjoyed my brief time with all of the ones I played in the beta. Silkworm was a little unbalanced, with everyone avoiding the central street, while Rooftops and Transit 213 are well designed and don’t rely on verticality to provide the action like the worst of the series’ maps. Of course, it’s hard to say if the maps are great just yet, with players still learning how to approach them, but none of them suffer from the balance and hotspot issues that the last couple of Black Ops games have.
Modern Warfare 4 looks fantastic in any of those locations, too. Black Ops 7’s oddly clean design made it look like a mobile game, but Infinity Ward’s game is detailed and realistic. The maps feel like snippets of real places, rather than arenas built for wall running. It makes the game feel a lot more grounded.
The problem with MW4’s multiplayer is the fact it suffers from some of the same issues countless Call of Duty games have. Potentially due to the pace of the game, spawn logic is bad. I constantly found myself returning mid-firefight, right next to a group of enemies, or in the middle of missile fire. It must be hard to pick spawn points on a map that has 12 people zipping around in all corners, but there has to be some improvement before the full launch.
Elsewhere, most modes regularly turn into grenade and killstreak spam. Flashbags explode every few seconds, you’re often trying to avoid frags, and UAVs are constantly flying through the sky. There’s too much going on around the basic first-person shooting. Infinity Ward has done a lot to simplify the modern Call of Duty experience, but more needs to be done to keep the weapon-based action at the forefront. Considering all of those distractions, and the fact that SBMM has been cranked up to the max once again, every single game of MW4 is a stressful affair.
While the multiplayer is the focus of the beta, and ultimately what it was designed to test, I have to comment on the campaign snippet that’s included. With nostalgia running wild, I replayed the Black Ops 1 and 2 campaigns in the PlayStation 5 re-releases recently, and I came away with a realization of what made a Call of Duty campaign great.
Charismatic characters, cinematic presentation, stunning setpieces, and a focus on the action make them among the best first-person shooter stories of all time. After playing the sole mission included in the Modern Warfare 4 beta, it became clear that the latest game completely abandons that recipe for success. It’s slow, lacks personality, and includes an abundance of distractions.
Warzone-style armor usage and a strange parkour system completely take away from the action, slowing things down when your focus should be on moving forward and getting into the next fight. There’s next to no score playing to ramp up the tension, so there’s no crescendo when the setpiece arrives. It feels lifeless and boring, completely forgetting what has made the best campaign in the series so good. CoD campaigns don’t need to modernize things too much, or add new features. Fans want bombastic, cinematic adventures that put the great gameplay at the forefront, and, from what I’ve seen, it feels like Infinity Ward doesn’t understand that.
Of course, things can and will be tweaked ahead of the full release. Modern Warfare 4 feels great to play, but familiar issues and an overengineered campaign do a lot to detract from the game’s strengths.