Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is Infinity Ward’s chance to not only close a chapter but to go out with a bang. Since Modern Warfare’s reboot in 2019, the series has seen highs and lows often bolstered by the vast success of Warzone, now a fundamental entry in the battle royale genre. But the tumultuous nature of the subseries’ hand-off with Modern Warfare III can’t be denied. It felt that the well may be finally drying up, made worse by the one-two punch of Black Ops games that, despite their quality, laid bare what players want from their annual Call of Duty release.

Time has been on Infinity Ward’s side, time that was used to potentially design a campaign worthy of Modern Warfare‘s legacy from 2007 and 2019, one that would graciously wrap up loose threads. That time has also been used to analyze multiplayer and capitalize on what “boots on the ground” means for players. Is it a wealth of options or is it simple refinement? Years ago a campaign and multiplayer were enough to carry the franchise. But times have changed and players’ expectations grow. And now, with DMZ, Infinity Ward is hoping to make a similar splash as they did with Warzone except this time they hope to have a dominant presence in the fragile extraction shooter scene.

When all these elements combine, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 has the potential for its legacy to live long past 2027, twenty years after Call of Duty‘s zenith.

Outside the confines of actual historic wars, Call of Duty campaigns can exist in perpetuity.

World War II ultimately came to an end. And despite decades of film, television, and video games insisting as much, the tales of those who fought and died exist as a narrative well that will eventually run dry. One of the darkest periods of modern history is full of strife, intrigue, and triumph of the human spirit–a vast ocean of stories that could be told. But at what point has enough been said? When will enough stones of the past be turned?

I believe that many of the players who genuinely wish for a series like Call of Duty to “return to its roots” or go back to “boots on the ground” picture a point in their life in which they enjoyed a new shooter that had done something they’d never experienced before.

In college, I played a borrowed or bootlegged copy of the first Call of Duty. It was astounding. As my cursor hovered over individual NPCs–fellow soldiers on the frontlines with me–their names popped up. These were men I was fighting with, storming the beaches, fighting against the Nazis, overcoming the horrors of war. That shared bond immersed me in a game that, at the time, was quite phenomenal but would soon become transformational.

And as the years and iterations of Call of Duty have come and gone, they’ve always attempted to improve or expand on the foundation set down by Infinity Ward in 2003. Return journeys to World War II, voyages into Asia, a glimpse at the near future, a brief respite into the far-flung future. Call of Duty is a vessel, a repository for ideas. And it’s often at its best when taking risks.

When Infinity Ward rebooted the Modern Warfare timeline and franchise pillar in 2019, some derided it as a desperate bid. Sledgehammer’s Advanced Warfare may have swung too far in one direction for some. Black Ops 3 was, in my opinion, Treyarch at its peak but its heady campaign and specialist-based multiplayer kept tipping the scales towards a “future” slant. And when Infinite Warfare released in 2016, the fervor of “boots on the ground” clawed at the door harder than ever. Sledgehammer’s one-two punch of WWII and Vanguard seemed almost like a sheepish proposition to satiate that subset of players who desperately needed Call of Duty to remain a series entrenched in the trenches of historic combat.

Looking back, 2007’s Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is undeniably a watershed moment for first-person shooters. The game transformed the multiplayer space for both PC and console, setting a trend for years to come. And it was also the first time Call of Duty broke out of fact and non-fiction.

Where the first Call of Duty was developed long after World War II, it hovered in the ominous shadow of a post-9/11 world. A world where the United States would force itself into an international quagmire in the Middle East. Infinity Ward used current events and the signposting of what was happening in the world to construct the events of the original Modern Warfare. By the time that game was released, Bush was still president and blood would still be shed for years for an event that happened at the turn of the millennium.

Infinity Ward crafted an incredible campaign with Modern Warfare. One that felt real, bloody, and devastating. And when the 2019 reboot occurred, it felt like a safe enough moment to recontextualize and reestablish. Conflict across the globe never ended. Call of Duty never ended.

The last seven years of Call of Duty have seen the franchise exist once in World War II, three times in the Black Ops universe, and now a fourth time in this reboot of Modern Warfare. It’s also a kind of full circle moment.

You could spend a lot of time breaking down naming conventions alone. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was the last numbered entry in the series. And during this reboot, the second and third entries have officially used Roman numerals where Modern Warfare 2 and Modern Warfare 3 didn’t have to trouble themselves.

Here we are with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, a game literally and figuratively years in the making. It feels like the closing of a long chapter for the franchise. Of course, I know that if anyone at Activision or a different studio head deemed it necessary, we could find ourselves in the perpetual cycle of “Modern” warfare. But in this moment, I sense that Infinity Ward is ready for Price and crew to pass the torch.

Because, ultimately, the world can only realistically be plunged into chaos so many times, right?

The notion that a subseries of Call of Duty has a kind of infinite continuity is an exhausting premise. While it may challenge the mind to constantly think of new rationales for strife between nations, there have been several moments across Call of Duty’s history where each developer has thought a bit differently.

With Advanced Warfare, Sledgehammer Games believed a corrupt CEO could use his limitless funds to make a profit at the cost of countless lives. In Black Ops 3, soldiers were being augmented with cybernetics and a rogue AI inflicted mass chaos in the battlefield. Infinite Warfare suggested that even in the unforeseeable distant future, we will still be killing each other for control.

War never changing is a bleak concept primarily because it is true. Even when a victory is decisive, when the dragon has been slain, what remains when one glances back at the devastation?

Infinity Ward seemingly sought out to slay their own dragon. 2019’s Modern Warfare heralded a new era for the franchise and with it, a lot of transformative elements including the push towards Warzone. Though there are ways to conceptually “reboot” moments from history that had already been covered in previous Call of Duty games, Infinity Ward went through the trouble of creating an entirely new conflict, using new faces and retooled version of old friends.

Captain Price was a stellar character in 2007 and when 2019 came around, he became even more iconic. Barry Sloane’s performance as Price has now carried across four games, acting as an anchor for players. Infinity Ward understands how cool he looks, sounds, and acts but has also continued to use him as a vessel. Though Call of Duty has often effortlessly swapped between soldiers to deliver catharsis and globetrotting, faces like Price and Ghost help exude cool on top of the camaraderie.

But after three previous games shifting between developers, goals, expectations, and plots, Modern Warfare 4 is unsurprisingly juggling a lot. Players who forget what happened in prior games are welcome to view a recap before starting, just to chew on the major narrative beats before the final act.

Using North Korea’s invasion of South Korea as a framing device is an enticing proposition. It was one that Advanced Warfare implemented, except that game was set in 2054. But for Infinity Ward, Modern Warfare 4 arrives at a particularly troubling time in our current reality.

I couldn’t help but watch this chess match of world leaders and despots with a decent helping of angst. One would think Infinity Ward almost prophetic if it weren’t for the fact that all this seems so… expected.

Modern Warfare 4 opens with the player following a team of South Korean soldiers conscripted into the military who also are accompanied by a couple Americans. A cutscene plays as the camera pans across the crowded tank they are all inside, weaving between the men as they joke and bond. The player briefly exists in a moment of calm before the veil drops and the streets erupt with missile fire.

As Private Park Hyun-Jun, players watch this half of the narrative unfold. The shock of the attack and the tension therein is palpable. These South Korean men are watching their city and fellow citizens burn and can’t understand why. How did the North invade so fast? What caused this? There’s a desperation to the ensuing battles and Modern Warfare 4‘s opening mission “Mayhem” embodies the term. It throws the player into frantic escapes, careful hiding, and a multi-phase defense to fight back the invasion.

And then we shift to Price.

Price’s vendetta has been growing since Soap’s execution and the constant subterfuge higher-ups are responsible for. The men in power use death as a tool, a weapon, an excuse and Price has finally decided to take matters into his own hands. With Makarov still alive, he works with Laswell in an attempt to find the proverbial “Archer” who has used Makarov as an arrow to cause so much death.

Splitting Modern Warfare 4‘s campaign in two is an attempt to provide context and tension for the player. North Korea’s invasion is set in the present with Price’s missions starting days before, helping the player to understand how everything has transpired.

But there is a tonal difference when playing as Price. With him, Modern Warfare 4 features some of the most brutal, intimate moments ever in the framework of Call of Duty. The franchise has always pushed towards spectacle, mixing top-tier visuals and production values with grandiose battles and kinetic gameplay. Players’ first mission with Price sees him skulk through a thudding nightclub before he begins beating men with his fists. Infinity Ward implements a first-person melee system in which players press a button right before an enemy’s attack lands to block or “parry” and then another to punch.

Prince punches a lot of people. But it’s used sparingly and the meaty weight and fleshy crunch of fists connecting with face is shockingly effective. It grounds the player in a way guns can’t. Rather than a distant bullet inflicting damage, the player has to be close. They see a face bloom red with bruises and blood, hear and feel the impact. This is an angry man hell bent on doling out justice.

As Price, I felt stuck to my seat as he chased his target for minutes through a city. The ensuing beatdown a kind of reward and relief. His continued descent for answers lead to a number of highlight moments across Modern Warfare 4. An absurd car chase through the streets of Paris. A shootout at a train yard where lines of sight are interrupted by cargo containers and cabooses.

There is a figurative and literal rush through Price’s early part of the story before everything begins shifting into place. And the utter finality of how multiple characters meet their end paints Modern Warfare 4 with a solemn brush. Those who have been following this series since the beginning may infer what they will but I can’t shake the notion that Infinity Ward, while caring deeply for these characters and their dual legacy, want to provide them all with a send off and, therefore, safe passage as a studio to move onto something else.

This isn’t to say that any kind of resolution is fumbled or rushed. Call of Duty campaigns have always been notoriously short but a few have opted to shoot for the moon or experiment. The Price missions are absolutely an attempt to portray a Call of Duty narrative on a smaller scale. Not every mission can be an outright war zone and often enough, they aren’t. As Price, players are clearing debts in smaller scenes, locations where the sight lines only go far. Even when blitzing through the streets of Paris, players are squarely in the back seat of a car.

Attempting to thread the needle across three prior Modern Warfare games isn’t an enviable task. Like most Call of Duty games, players need to pay a lot of attention to completely understand what’s keeping the ship afloat and why we are here in the first place. Even at the franchise’s peak narrative moments, it often boiled down to a guy in another country wanting to dismantle the status quo. Everyone here is acting their hearts out, new and old alike. Mads Mikkelsen as the game’s “big bad” makes enough of an appearance but players are likely going to crave for more of his metered screen chewing.

Those who wish for a departure from Price’s more intimate hit list should enjoy Park’s missions and his team. They are more standard Call of Duty fare, featuring larger scale battles that toss in fun toys to shoot things with. And even the more contained, less violent missions work to challenge the player and Call of Duty tradition.

In the mission “Following Orders”, players are tasked as a North Korean soldier to investigate a small village for signs of a traitor. Moral choices can be made that may impact the player’s feelings on their actions but it doesn’t slip into anything fundamentally pensive. In fact, Modern Warfare 4 offers a number of choices for players to make, often resulting in the need to make a quick decision. While these all ultimately have the same result, Infinity Ward has the sense to allow players to be present and participate in the violence. Yes, the player can hesitate to pull the trigger and execute a target but that results in the target grabbing the gun and shooting the player. But much like how The Last of Us Part II handled violence, being forced to make a decision you don’t want to do often results in a more powerful narrative.

And ironically, one of my favorite parts of Modern Warfare 4‘s campaign was a mission called “Stranded” where park and his team are thrown into a bespoke map designed as an open area. Here, the team is low on supplies and desperate to escape. To do so, three primary objectives must be completed, each acting as a smaller, contained mission. But across the map are supply caches, enemy patrols, and secrets to discover. Using salvaged found around the map, players can upgrade weapons to become more powerful, equip killstreaks, and make Park more efficient at navigating. I saw “Stranded” as a kind of precursor to what Infinity Ward is hoping to achieve with DMZ, just on a smaller scale. Players can choose to beeline objectives or really sit in this map and explore. Either way, the game creates a separate save file if you wish to return and find everything.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4‘s campaign attempts to wrestle with a narrative that rapidly became unwieldy for almost any singular game to wrap up nicely. Yet Infinity Ward manages to offer a good amount of brutal catharsis in an attempt to admirably lay these characters to rest. Its villains may not be the strongest the franchise has ever seen but its heroes embody everything Call of Duty has worked towards these last decades. Through its dueling narratives, Modern Warfare 4 is undeniably a thrilling conclusion for Price and others. I was constantly engaged throughout the campaign, hands tightly gripping the controller and wondering why I decided to play on Hardened mode my first go-round. But the action packed into every chapter makes for a satisfying bombastic experience that will always be fun to revisit when I need that classic Call of Duty rush.

When Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 released last November, I expected its plethora of modes and cooperative play to consume the small subset of my friend group that were Call of Duty faithful. Endgame felt tantalizing and relaxed enough that it wouldn’t reek of the same stench as bitter MP and Warzone defeats. Plus Zombies is always hectic in the best way.

Yet that year, Call of Duty gathered dust quicker than ever.

Two weeks prior, Embark Studios dropped the overwhelming megaton that was Arc Raiders. It swallowed up every conversation. It became an obsession. Viewed by tens of thousands on Twitch. Dominating the concurrent players charts on Steam for months. Arc Raiders‘ success was undeniable.

And in its wake, my friend group was caught. Evenings on end we would conduct raids, fighting against deadly robots and hoping to avoid the ire of other players. As with many games that are voraciously ingested, Arc Raiders eventually ran its course but that hollow space where Call of Duty would have lived that year was palpable.

Call of Duty was a trendsetter in the multiplayer space but over the years, other developers have worked to hedge bets on the Brand New Thing. Yet Call of Duty has always had the budget and runway to experiment. What other franchise or property would be able to split its yearly product into multiple modes or develop a full-fledged spin-off?

Black Ops 4 was Call of Duty‘s first attempt to capture the flashpoint that was the battle royale genre. While “Blackout” was good enough in 2018, it wasn’t until months after the 2019 Modern Warfare reboot that Warzone dropped and made Call of Duty‘s take on a 100-person elimination fest a permanent fixture.

Warzone has proved it has the staying power for the foreseeable future but since then, another nascent genre became too irresistible for Call of Duty to take a stab at. When DMZ became available as a part of Modern Warfare II, extraction shooters were still finding a foothold in the gaming space. And honestly, it still is.

Few examples of true successful extraction shooters can be found in our exceptionally busy and competitive space. Much like the corpses of numerous studios and games that thought they could send a bunch of players into a map for a chicken dinner, extracting for loot is a similar pipe dream. Titles like Escape from Tarkov, Hunt: Showdown, and Delta Force have nestled themselves into the niche. Marathon, unfortunately, has struggled to retain relevance and is more or less on life support until a shot of adrenaline directly to the heart is hopefully administered by Bungie in December.

Arc Raiders proved that the extraction genre has mass appeal, that a wealth of success can be found when done right. When DMZ released for Modern Warfare II, I wonder if Activision and Infinity Ward knew how popular the genre could become. Or if they were just hoping to have their piece of the pie too and have lightning potentially strike twice, like with Warzone.

After all, if anything has the opportunity to prove something has mass appeal, it’s Call of Duty.

DMZ‘s original iteration attached to Modern Warfare II is one I barely remember. Because I wasn’t playing much online with others at the time, DMZ felt too lonely and too intense to enjoy by myself. I could see the appeal of going into larger maps and having enemy AI to kill in addition to other players. In fact, one of the reasons I’ve never enjoyed Warzone and the battle royale genre much is because their sole focus is on hunting down other players. Once you’re dead, that’s it. There’s nothing to work towards outside of that win. DMZ‘s contracts, objectives, and enemy AI gave me a separate purpose, one to fill the empty space. And knowing that fellow players could catch each other unaware and steal some glory was a delightful temptation.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 comes to me in a different period. One where I’ve experienced the thrill of other extraction shooters and one where I have an active group of friends who similarly wish to be dragged through hell. This chapter-closing entry in the Modern Warfare reboot saga is hoping to plant another flag, establish a foothold in another genre with hopes of domination.

Infinity Ward’s genuine attempt at a full-fledged extraction mode is a shocking adrenaline rush. In it, I had moments of tension, desperation, and awe that are normally reserved for the game’s campaign. Seemingly with all these years to refine the formula and watch how others have played out, DMZ might just be the next big thing for extraction shooters.

DMZ–and by extension, Warzone–play so well and feel so good because they are rooted in Call of Duty‘s phenomenal gameplay. Over the decades the series has been tinkered with by four main studios, all who have had differing ideas of how a gun shoots, how fast a player dies, and everything that happens between those two events. To me, the only competition Call of Duty has in terms of first-person shooting is Bungie and I truly thought that was one of the elements that would drive Marathon‘s success (oh well…). One of the main reasons Fortnite never clicked for me in its first year was because I never enjoyed the way its guns felt. The stakes were too high in battle royale and third-person wasn’t the way. “Blackout” felt significantly better but it was still very much an early stab.

Players waiting for Call of Duty to have its extraction moment are granted safe passage with DMZ. And as one of the three components of Modern Warfare 4 (and considering how feature-packed Black Ops 6 and 7 were), it was important that Infinity Ward nail DMZ out of the gate.

The unsurprising elements, the mechanics to get your foot through the door are here. DMZ very much plays like a Call of Duty game. Gun feedback is responsive and smooth. Sniper rifles crack over a distance in hopes players have properly lined up a shot. Shotguns explode with fury and can mow down AI fodder with a trigger pull. Accompanying that top-tier gunplay is a full arsenal of weapons that players will either find randomly or work towards building with cash. Have a weapon you love in MP? With enough cash you can craft it, attachments and all, and bring it into a round of DMZ. Of course, you’re clutching it for dear life hoping that no one pries it from your corpse.

Stripping the other human players out of DMZ, runs play similarly to campaign missions, just without most of the scripted moments. Enemies attack and hit as if they were tuned somewhere between Regular and Hardened difficulty. Players need to be mindful of constant patrols while they are looting and working towards completing missions. I watched vehicles drive past, fully stocked with soldiers. Helicopters flew overhead, threatening to land if too much commotion was going on. And most encounters can be mopped up with minimal effort, especially for a team of three competent players.

Twists in the formula begin to form with the more mayhem players unleash on the map of Hajin–DMZ‘s current playable space. Kill too many NPCs and the alert level will raise, causing enemies and eventually kill squads to converge on your location. Players can certainly take out pesky patrols that may cause problems during humble, routine looting. But this mechanic is in place to both encourage a bit of stealth and raise the stakes.

In one of DMZ‘s story missions, my team was required to infiltrate an enemy base, ultimately finding a key card that would provide us entry into a secure bunker. The base was surrounded by a tall concrete fence with watchtowers and minimal avenues for an unseen entrance. I pulled the trigger a bit too lackadaisically and plunged my two teammates into a bloodbath. Within minutes, alert ranks had risen and my closest ally and myself kept scrambling for safety while the other teammate was at the perimeter trying to work their way in. My HUD kept notifying me of impending support and soon enough, I could easily identify it by the fleet of blood-red vehicles populating the mini-map.

Scrambling through buildings, we were required to hold down a position momentarily to further hone in on the location of the key card. All the while, gun fire and grenades were tearing through windows with fanged accuracy, hoping to flush us out. Eventually we made it inside, facing dwindling ammunition as dead NPCs only drop barely enough bullets for half a magazine. Any and all containers I could loot for items and supplies while skirting around cover from gunfire were necessary though not often entirely helpful. And because we had spent so much time causing a ruckus, the timer ticking down to hazardous radiation flooding the map had already expired.

As the mission led us back outside, we had given up hope that we could exfiltrate but maybe we could defend the local SAM site and get credit. And in those final moments, the story concluded with a desperate, last-moment exfil only a few meters away, allowing us to fly out as radiation literally overtook us.

This single moment in DMZ provided one of the most thrilling sessions of Call of Duty I’ve ever played. My senses felt on fire as we surgically and often clumsily moved through the base trying to accomplish objectives and hoping against hope we would survive. And flying away in that chopper was a rush I never expected.

DMZ is absolutely going to go hard.

That thought has needled its way into my brain since I wrapped up my early access review period with Modern Warfare 4 a week before DMZ launched. I felt as if I was barely able to scratch the surface of what players will eventually witness when going through the mode. Because there is one thing my session couldn’t account for: a deluge of other players.

When DMZ fully launches, up to 20 squads for a total of 60 players will be on the same map at once. Imagine that bunker infiltration knowing that other players might have the same mission as me. Will they be friendly? Or will they wait for an opportune moment to come out of the shadows and mop up what the NPCs couldn’t?

The competitive nature of Call of Duty doesn’t need to be isolated to multiplayer and Warzone. But DMZ unites these fronts in a way that encourages competition and cooperation in whatever measure players deem necessary. Infinity Ward has found ways to prop up both types of player so that neither feel completely unwelcome.

Arc Raiders eventually ran into the problem of splitting its community into those who wanted to PvP and those who wanted to take on massive Arc robots and loot. Players were afraid of engaging in PvP or even defending themselves because it could alter the hidden algorithm that would put players in lobbies with others.

DMZ offers those wanting cooperation the ability to wave a literal white flag to signal to other players they don’t want combat. It’s the “Don’t Shoot!” of Call of Duty and, obviously, no one has to pay any heed to it. Roaming high value targets and lieutenants provide a significant challenge for players and a high payout if they extract with their dog tags. But other players around the map are also able to watch those dog tags move, enticing them for the challenge. Players who start killing others will be listed on a bounty board, knowing that the price on their heads might be too tempting, especially if it has come at the cost of killing others.

Incorporating these risks and rewards into the extraction formula is an essential part of the genre and we saw Infinity Ward tinkering with them years ago. But for Modern Warfare 4‘s DMZ, they are fully realized and fleshed out. It is equally exciting to imagine helping others complete their difficult challenges as it is to pick them off at the very end and take their loot.

Currently, there is room for growth and the biggest is the specter of one solitary map. While Hajin is a sprawling locale, will it be the only one? According to Infinity Ward the current plan is to incorporate Russia into the North and South Korean sections. At launch the player can see a red mist on their map indicating it will open up. But will that be enough?

Designing engaging and worthwhile maps for any mutiplayer game can be tricky. For an extraction shooter they have to feel different enough to justify their existence while also offering valuable spots for engagements and looting. Hajin has a bountiful amount of tucked away secrets, areas that require keys and effort to access, and hot zones for fighting. And for several months, I think it will be enough for the large portion of players who were also satisfied by Warzone‘s initial offering. Yet my hope is that Infinity Ward already has tricks up their sleeve to occupy players who may grow tired of fighting the same mil-sim enemies on the same mil-sim map day in, day out.

DMZ is packed with random missions that players can go around collecting and accomplishing for reward. These are relatively quick and simple tasks meant to move players around the map and grow their pool of equipment and crafting materials. Disabling SAM sites that will shoot enemy helicopters out of the skies, taking out a specific target, collecting intel, are all easy enough and sometimes feature multiple steps so as not to be over too quickly and potentially push teams into each other.

As DMZ picks up after the events of Modern Warfare 4, there are a handful of story missions meant to continue the plot of opportunists and soldiers coming to Hajin to scour for materials and potentially concerning weapons. My task at the enemy bunker was one of the harder missions. An easier one required my team to breach a casino, find data, drill through the casino vault, and eventually extract with bags of cash from the vault to an exfil. These multi-pronged missions have certain suggestions for the quality of the loadout, usually better armor plating and larger backpacks. Eventually players will be asked to go to the radioactive zone where the hardest enemies roost and a gas mask is absolutely required for survival.

Being an extraction shooter, make no mistake that loot is one of the most valuable parts of DMZ. Materials sourced through missions are taken back to the Forward Operating Base to be used at the 3D printer. Here players can spend money at the Gunsmith to make weapons, check out the bounty board, upgrade various stations, and mess around with their operators.

For DMZ, operators are essential to survival. Players level them up on a separate track to unlock a series of perks from three schools that will give the player an edge. Those operators can also prestige a few times to keep valuable perks. But if an operator falls, players will have to spend money to get them back, incentivizing careful play and consideration.

Witnessing all the parts of DMZ work in harmony with each other, I found myself to be having some of the most fun I’ve had in Call of Duty since the days of Black Ops 3 and Modern Warfare 2019 multiplayer. For some, it may not be evocative of those peak moments of multiplayer from the PlayStation 3/Xbox 360 era but it’s damn near close. Infinity Ward has dubbed DMZ the “action extraction shooter” and I can absolutely see why. This is pure Call of Duty married with the best parts of an extraction shooter. And this is the kind of high-risk thrill Call of Duty thrives on.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4‘s campaign is one of the franchise’s strongest in years. DMZ is just another cherry on top. This is Call of Duty at its best because Infinity Ward has put the time and effort into making this mode the best it can be. And as players start to flood in, I can’t imagine them being torn away from it for quite some time.

Since Infinity Ward rebooted Modern Warfare in 2019, Call of Duty‘s multiplayer has rigidly kept its action grounded. Minus a few key pieces of movement tech from Treyarch, the franchise sought to call players back after a “tumultuous” dalliance into the future. One where players could boost jump and run along walls and shoot guns in space.

Much like its stellar campaign, Modern Warfare 4‘s multiplayer feels like a bookend for the last generation of Call of Duty and serves as a callback to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, the moment where the franchise began to take over the world.

For the last two decades, Call of Duty has exerted an unprecedented amount of dominance in the multiplayer space. It cannot be denied that a number of foundational elements we recognize in online shooters found popularity with 2007’s perks, prestige, killstreaks, and general flow. Whether it be from unbridled nostalgia or the simple fact that countless Call of Dutys have met such a high bar, players have come to expect a lot, game after game.

The great question faced by Infinity Ward, Treyarch, Sledgehammer, and Raven has always been how far to take things. Campaign has always allowed for a degree of leniency, regardless of the era of war. But where can the formula go without being too familiar or too wacky? How do you give players what they want but also provide them something unique enough to justify a wholly new entry?

Stripping the hopeless argument from the mind that Call of Duty deserves at least a year off and that some entries would be better served as major DLC packs, there has been precedent that unlike sports games that often are roster swaps, each Call of Duty developer shoots for refinement and engaging additive content worthy of more than just map packs.

Modern Warfare 4, while representing a potential closing of a chapter for Infinity Ward and the franchise as a whole, explores what a relatively stripped down Call of Duty can look like this deep into constant, iterative change.

More than anything, Modern Warfare 4 works to solve problems that have been present for years. Unpredictable elements like hip fire spread and weapon recoil spreads have been tinkered with to give players a degree of comfort as they learn what weapons work best. Lighting and ray tracing have all made the battlefield thrive with the gritty beauty of a military shooter. It all feels realistic and mechanically sound, what players should expect after so many years of play.

I may be so bold as to call Modern Warfare 4 comforting. Its 18 perks are all variations of what has been on offer before, meant to help players thrive situationally depending on the mode being played or the weapon in hand. The list of lethals, tacticals, and field equipment all supplementing what might make a player more expertly deadly or a sneaky camper.

Weapons fall into those camps of cool, steely warmth. Over the years I’ve held dozens if not hundreds of weapons of Call of Duty death in my hands. To this day, I wouldn’t be able to name a single one outside of those which are commonly used across other forms of media. Rarely have I been a sniper rifle main, I’m just not accurate enough and often lack the patience. Assault rifles and SMGs have always been my flavor and that remains the same here.

But what has dazzled me most about Modern Warfare 4‘s weapons are the Apex attachments. Progressing through weapons to unlock attachments has been a staple for decades and unlocking camos has always been one way to further express mastery of a gun. But with Apex attachments, players unlock a modification to the gun that often changes its usage case or further benefits a playstyle. One of my favorites turned a burst-fire AR even deadlier by allowing players to keep the trigger held and have it continue to fire slowly. An SMG Apex attachment granted the ability to wield two of them akimbo. Perhaps a marksman rifle will get a set of throwing knives, giving players an emergency option if an enemy closes the distance. I turned an LMG basically into a sniper rifle as its belt was replaced by 10 powerful bullets.

At times, the Apex attachments will block out the traditional weapon attachment slots. But often, players are able to more or less produce a sinister version of a weapon they’ve come to understand and find a new use for it.

I think player agency and identity have always been one of the things Call of Duty struggles with outside of weapons. The thing players wield in their hands most is the most crucial factor in victory. It is an extension of a player’s preparedness, timing, and skill. Attachments are one of the ways to fine tune this expression. In the past, Call of Duty has tried to use borderline class systems. WWII, Black Ops 3 + 4, and Infinite Warfare had their concept of operators who had active skills or passive perks that made them work differently from others.

Modern Warfare 4 leans towards being a back-to-basics multiplayer experience for Call of Duty, one that doesn’t add too much to the pot to muddy the flavor of exhilarating moment-to-moment gameplay. The lack of busy complexity from perks and attachments allows players to use the weapon to dictate how they play best. So often I would take advantage of my Create A Class just so I could have one class for each weapon type to complete daily challenges. Now I want to make classes as extensions of Apex attachments and the most valuable perks for those weapons.

Maps have always been a sticking point for Call of Duty players. What makes a great map and what makes a mediocre one? I’ve always thought a distinct visual identity helped make certain maps soar where other ones faltered but that’s also because aesthetics are important to me. But Modern Warfare 4‘s 12 launch maps for 6v6 encounters are the expected parade of multi-lane shootouts with pockets of actions inside of buildings, corridors, streets, and open rooms with varying points of entry.

During the second weekend of the Modern Warfare 4 beta, me and my friends were getting tossed around in “Transit 213”, a small map where it is easy to pick off players from almost any point. But then I go to the crowded and colorful streets of “Silkworm” and “Mumbai” and trade off with players as they turn corners or hop through windows. “Nautical” is a call back to Black Ops 2 but I loved its long lines of sight and center chaos on both levels.

Ground War returns for big encounters and at launch, three maps allow for players to work towards dominating control points where vehicles and other players will spawn. It was interesting when Call of Duty first tried to take a bite of Battlefield‘s cake and I think the two primarily separate themselves through Battlefield‘s use of classes. Ground War is simply more of a long-form deathmatch where a lot of players are just going to constantly fling themselves into death and a handful of others will actually strategize and try to infiltrate points.

“Kill Block” is one of the more interesting of Modern Warfare 4‘s new offerings. Conceptualized as a space at the West Bridge Training Facility, “Kill Block” rotates three shifting spaces that borrows map segments from other Call of Duty maps, usually the smaller ones. With over 500 possible configurations, “Kill Block” will first be available for 3v3 and the new 10v10 Gunfight. For those who love Gunfight, “Kill Block” is an absolute treat. The shifting gun possibilities in tandem with the shifting maps keep both sides of players on their toes, even when they may recognize what part of the map they are playing on.

Inflation, Hijack, and Collateral are three new modes added to Modern Warfare 4 to push the game into familiar territory with a small flair of the unexpected. Hijack works similar to a Capture the Flag mode but here players fight for a Data Spike that can be carried, thrown, and passed around. Once the Spike is planted, a team must defend it, earning maximum points if it detonates. I enjoy Hijack as a more focused mode, similar to Hardpoint or Control, just with players constantly engaged in a tug of war. Inflation grants players cash as they kill others but once enough is collected, they are marked as a High Value Target, revealing their position. It’s up to a team to defend that player to prevent the opposing side from enriching themselves. Because I can’t handle the smoke, I would never go for too much cash in Inflation but absolutely loved rushing the map and trying to take out the HVT.

Collateral is basically Modern Warfare 4‘s spin on Counter-Strike. The rules are the same as Search and Destroy except players start with a basic weapon and a small amount of cash. Playing the objective and getting kills rewards cash that players can use to buy new weapons and perks to empower themselves for the next round. Staying alive means keeping those weapons. While death isn’t the end, the high stakes of Collateral offer just enough complexity to one of Call of Duty‘s most hardcore modes.

Laying all of Modern Warfare 4‘s modes, maps, and features bare, it doesn’t feel like a lot. And that’s because it isn’t. There is a kind of restraint Infinity Ward put into this game, a feeling that they wanted to deliver high quality but not spread themselves too thin.

Much of that is likely because the developer has now been entrenched with this Call of Duty subseries for several years and it is time to close this chapter and figure out what to do next. Modern Warfare 4 feels like the Call of Duty that I’ve been playing for years, just with the yearly differences I’ve come to expect. Gameplay flow is fluid, fast, and an extension of the player’s skill.

Call of Duty has so often felt excellent and while its campaigns can be bombastic and ridiculous and pure spectacle, multiplayer has always been the grounding rod. Zombies, DMZ, Warzone, and more have existed throughout the years to provide players with new approaches to the franchise. And each year they work to justify their existence and potential permanence. Though DMZ is likely going to be heralded as Call of Duty‘s Next Big Thing, Modern Warfare 4‘s multiplayer will likely be a standout because it hearkens back to different periods of the franchise, especially those players have grown to love the most.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is the Call of Duty game we deserve. As entries come and go, all with their own high and low points, Infinity Ward’s newest and most ambitious effort in years won’t go unnoticed and unappreciated. By paring down and expanding on what has made this franchise wonderful, fun, and permanent, players have a campaign that feels like a call back to years past. Multiplayer pulls no punches by not being overly busy, focusing on stellar gunplay and quality maps and weapons. And it is in DMZ that Call of Duty is likely to find new life and potentially make an impact like Warzone did. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is a stepping stone towards greatness and a definitive series best.