Call of Duty Modern Warfare 4 review
By Boasting high production standards and a grasp of what established – and continues to establish – Call of Duty as exceptional, Modern Warfare 4 is a highly awaited, and much-needed, return to its roots.
It’s simple to hold a disdain for Call of Duty. Beyond the yearly cycle of creation, promotion, and disputes that have characterized the series’ identity for the last 22 years, the franchise has become a key component of how video games support the military-industrial complex. While some of the narratives – notably 2025’s Black Ops 7 – have degraded into the territory of science-fiction absurdity, numerous stories within the Modern Warfare segment of the franchise are more anchored in actuality. When you find yourself playing as semi-fictional UK and US soldiers, engaging in unlawful activities on foreign soil, indiscriminately executing individuals over ideological disparities, Call of Duty can feel unsettling: shallow propaganda crafted to glorify warfare and reinforce divisions between ‘them’ and ‘us’.
However, Modern Warfare 4 somewhat steers clear of this. A bit. The expectations are low, to be fair, but there is a somewhat more humanitarian perspective in this year’s game – mimicking 2009’s No Russian, several missions place you in the role of the ‘adversary’, prompting you to make ethical decisions that, I’ll admit, genuinely took me by surprise in a CoD title. In 2019, developer Infinity Ward speculated on the aftermath of a terrorist incident in London. In 2022, the studio explored the consequences when a synchronized global military operation goes awry on a Mexican oil platform. In 2023, we find ourselves in Lower Manhattan as the Russian forces launch an assault on the New York Stock Exchange. Thus, as we shift our perspective and assume the role of a North Korean militia member, I was truly taken aback to discover that – should you disobey your commands – you are swiftly executed, leaving the remainder of the mission to unfold before your lifeless body. There is no ‘game over’ scenario for noncompliance: the atrocities committed by the relentless regime persist even amid your failure to comply.
