A re-imagining of the 2007 masterpiece, the new Call of Duty Modern Warfare does some things exceptionally well, and some quite badly, resulting in a good but ultimately uneven experience. Technically the game vacillates between impressive and surprisingly lazy. The game has truly sublime character models, excellent effects and some expertly crafted environments, but most maps have painfully poor models and rough textures, falling short of the promised "next-generation visuals". Audio and voice acting are superb. Game runs reasonably stably and performant.

The campaign is 8 hours long, with some inspired set pieces, like Picadilly Circle, Farah's youth-nightmare, some night-vision incursions and the like. Some missions are boring and trite however, and some previously excellent plot points from the original are very conspicuously absent (ship escape, caught in the nuke, Price's sniping mission). The plot is neither as mature nor as tactically rich as the original, devolving into more cartoonish Netflix-derived action series tropes. The game also has a woke undercurrent that undermines the serious tone of the story. For each Farah youth mission, you have another where she and 3 female, rebel insurgents in wicker sandals decimate 300 Russian soldiers.

Multiplayer is a bit of a disaster. Playing the game today, five years after release is a big ask. However, Infinity Ward and Activision don't even hide their attempt to monetize your participation by guiding you towards Warzone and other incredibly unfair multiplayer modes. Even now, half a decade after release, you start multiplayer games, both competitive and co-op with almost no real equipment to speak of and you are expected to grind, often at a monumental disadvantage, to amass even a small amount of toys that can improve your combat efficacy. Many modes have atrocious match-making with teams wantonly stacked in one favor. Other modes are abject ghost towns and unplayable as a result.

Gun play is good, traversal is there and weapon variety is solid. In multiplayer, time to kill is too low to encourage skill play and, instead, leans towards "response gods", "first drop", "back-stabbing", or "best toy wins". Ultimately, Apex or Quake, this ain't and it shows in combat with some players camping corners for days or sniping from towers across the map, without ever helping their team in any meaningful way. The title is absurdly large, weighing in at over 240 GB, most likely because it includes other Call of Duty Modern Warfare iterations and Warzone packaged alongside it. Rating this game is difficult because I get the feeling that the title would be a better value on release.

As a result, the conditional review for the new 2019 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare hinges on when you purchased the title and how much you bought it for. I'd recommend this game today for its solid but often unspectacular and ending-bereft campaign and for a few hours of multiplayer distraction. Just don't expect to get a lot of value out of this title today, especially in multiplayer and make sure you nab the game at $20 USD or less, since it isn't worth more than that.

Worth a look.

7/10.

A re-imagining of the 2007 masterpiece, the new Call of Duty Modern Warfare does some things exceptionally well, and some quite badly, resulting in a good but ultimately uneven experience. Technically the game vacillates between impressive and surprisingly lazy. The game has truly sublime character models, excellent effects and some expertly crafted environments, but most maps have painfully poor models and rough textures, falling short of the promised "next-generation visuals". Audio and voice acting are superb. Game runs reasonably stably and performant. The campaign is 8 hours long, with some inspired set pieces, like Picadilly Circle, Farah's youth-nightmare, some night-vision incursions and the like. Some missions are boring and trite however, and some previously excellent plot points from the original are very conspicuously absent (ship escape, caught in the nuke, Price's sniping mission). The plot is neither as mature nor as tactically rich as the original, devolving into more cartoonish Netflix-derived action series tropes. The game also has a woke undercurrent that undermines the serious tone of the story. For each Farah youth mission, you have another where she and 3 female, rebel insurgents in wicker sandals decimate 300 Russian soldiers. Multiplayer is a bit of a disaster. Playing the game today, five years after release is a big ask. However, Infinity Ward and Activision don't even hide their attempt to monetize your participation by guiding you towards Warzone and other incredibly unfair multiplayer modes. Even now, half a decade after release, you start multiplayer games, both competitive and co-op with almost no real equipment to speak of and you are expected to grind, often at a monumental disadvantage, to amass even a small amount of toys that can improve your combat efficacy. Many modes have atrocious match-making with teams wantonly stacked in one favor. Other modes are abject ghost towns and unplayable as a result. Gun play is good, traversal is there and weapon variety is solid. In multiplayer, time to kill is too low to encourage skill play and, instead, leans towards "response gods", "first drop", "back-stabbing", or "best toy wins". Ultimately, Apex or Quake, this ain't and it shows in combat with some players camping corners for days or sniping from towers across the map, without ever helping their team in any meaningful way. The title is absurdly large, weighing in at over 240 GB, most likely because it includes other Call of Duty Modern Warfare iterations and Warzone packaged alongside it. Rating this game is difficult because I get the feeling that the title would be a better value on release. As a result, the conditional review for the new 2019 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare hinges on when you purchased the title and how much you bought it for. I'd recommend this game today for its solid but often unspectacular and ending-bereft campaign and for a few hours of multiplayer distraction. Just don't expect to get a lot of value out of this title today, especially in multiplayer and make sure you nab the game at $20 USD or less, since it isn't worth more than that. Worth a look. 7/10.