2007’s “Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare” was one of the most influential shooters of all time, a game that redefined expectations for a multiplayer experience and really put “CoD” on the map. It won a bunch of Game of the Year titles and was the top-selling game of 2007. As someone who is old enough to remember, it was the kind of game-changing title that really doesn’t happen as often anymore, and that certainly can’t happen in a franchise like “Call of Duty.” And yet a variation on this title may be lucky for Activision, because 2026’s “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4” is the best game in this franchise in years.
Part of the joy of “MW4” could be comparative. Last year’s “Call of Duty: Black Ops 7” was a stinker with one of the worst campaigns in the history of this series (never forget the plant monster) and lackluster map design and overall gameplay in the multiplayer portion of the experience.
“MW4” makes up for its predecessor’s missteps. First, the campaign is as cinematic and engaging as nearly any in the series, with impressive gameplay variants and even engaging mo-cap performances from actors including Young Mazino (“Beef”), Luke Tennie (“Shrinking”), and the singular Mads Mikkelsen.
It opens in present-day Hajin, South Korea, where Private First Class Park (Mazino) has to rescue survivors and flee enemies after a brutal attack by the North Korean Army. In a world that has shifted enemies a number of times, the North Koreans (and a few shots at the Russians) are the acceptable bad guys in 2026, although the writers of “Modern Warfare 4” are careful to emphasize that the real villains are the amoral people willing to sell anyone out for the right price.
A friend asked me recently if “CoD” was “kinda MAGA,” and there’s a definite throughline of tough-guy patriotism through many of the campaigns and an ethos that believes in might over negotiation, but the writers are most interested in corruption, the politicians and arms dealers who don’t consider the human cost of their actions, and that’s depressingly apolitical.
Reflecting the temperature of a world with never-ending wars, the writers of “MW4” are arguably more brutal than ever. In an early mission, you’re in a Korean village, forced to root out a defector by any means necessary. At almost every turn in this game, you are forced to take the most violent action, and the developers want to remind you that you’re doing it. For example, you will be ordered to shoot a defector in the head in Kora and given a button cue to do so. If you wait it out and don’t take action, you die.
This means there’s no real choice here, and yet the writers didn’t just make it into a cut scene, forcing you to do the tough work of “modern warfare”. Many missions share a similar bleakness, and several end in a remarkably misanthropic way. Sure, you can get object X through all these enemies to the endpoint, but it will just get taken, and you’ll just get shot anyway. The whole campaign has a “futility of war” theme that’s impressively oppressive.
Most importantly, it’s all so engagingly conceived and executed. The developers constantly shift the gameplay instead of just dropping waves of enemies behind well-placed cover. Some missions require stealth; some even emphasize melee. Of course, gunfire is still the main aesthetic, but even that feels more strongly considered than some outings with smarter enemy AI and loadout variation. There’s a lengthy mission in the final act of the game that’s almost open world, where you complete objectives across a big map, gather supplies to upgrade weapons, and return to a base between goals. While it’s a fun game-within-the-game, it should have come earlier, since it derails the momentum it builds now.
Of course, most “CoD” players don’t even start the campaign, spending all their time in the award-winning multiplayer portion of the game. Here’s where differences between each annual edition can feel minor on their own but add up to major variations in the overall experience.
First, the map design, something this old video game critic has always pointed out as the most important aspect of a game like this. You can give people 100 new toys and weapons, but if the maps suck, the game does too. The maps definitely do not suck here. There’s a bit of sameness, since a lot of them at launch look like abandoned Korean weapons facilities, but what really matters is the variation within the maps. Tight corridors give way to open spaces that shift their usage based on the mode (for the record, I’m a Domination and Kill Confirmed guy, with dashes of Hardpoint), and each map has inventive elements that keep it from getting stale. The loadouts and upgrades are also strong, although that can be hard to judge until the battle pass drops.
Second, the physics are top-notch. Nothing is more annoying than a shooter in which it feels like bullets aren’t connecting consistently, or weapons don’t perform as they should. That’s rarely the case here, as “MW4” has a chunkiness to movement that’s just right. Of course, it’s still a game based more on twitch response (especially in the fan-favorite, returning “Shipment”) than strategy, but it’s important that a game like this feels customizable and one that people can master across multiple play sessions, and that’s the case here.
The public response to “Call of Duty” in the 2020s has been interesting to watch. What was once one of the most beloved games in the world has lost some of its cultural cachet because annual updates felt like little more than map packs for $70, and because the developers seemed to take the fan base for granted.
There are certainly some annual games that have taken their insane popularity for granted and recycled instead of sought progress (looking at you “NBA2K,” even though I can’t stop playing), and I worried after the 2025 iteration of this game that the 2026 outing would do little more than provide a minor riff on the same. The irony of saying this about a game that’s so intensely nihilistic doesn’t escape me, but this “Call of Duty” actually gives me hope. [85/100]
The Publisher provided a review copy on PS5. It’s also on Xbox, Windows, and Switch 2.
