Reviews for the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 campaign are out, with IGN temporarily giving it an 8/10 and GameSpot scoring it 7/10.
IGN Score: 8/10
Modern Warfare 4 reignited my passion for the series. A series of exciting missions successfully managed a large cast of characters, saying goodbye to familiar faces while forging impressive bonds with new ones. The large-scale behind-enemy-lines missions were a highlight, largely inspired by the DMZ mode; whenever the game showed grand ambition and erupted into intense combat, it was equally spectacular. It may not rank among the best campaigns in the Call of Duty series, but if this truly is the series' finale, then at least Modern Warfare ended on a high note.
GameSpot Score: 7/10
In its campaign review, GameSpot believes that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 returns focus to the traditional linear single-player experience, providing a satisfying conclusion to the reboot series that began in 2019. Although the different perspectives and non-linear narrative are complex, the progression between missions remains smooth.
The campaign features two storylines: young South Korean soldier Park and his squad dealing with a North Korean invasion; on the other side, after Soap's death, Price goes rogue to continue hunting Makarov and his associates. These threads span South Korea, New York, Paris, and Mumbai, eventually converging. Reviewers believe that the pursuit and confrontation between Price and his former teammates Ghost and Gaz provide sufficient emotional weight to their long-built character relationships.
This title retains only one large-scale open mission, "Stranded." Players can gather supplies and solve puzzles to unlock crates in the snowy mountains of South Korea, deciding the order of objectives themselves, and can skip most exploration via fast travel. Reviewers found this design more appealing than previous open missions, but noted that the lack of penalty for skipping exploration undermines the necessity of the open area.
Traditional elements like night-vision room clearing, vehicle chases, slow-motion door breaches, and helicopter fire show no significant innovation but maintain tension. Optional dialogue and melee parry fights add variety to the flow, while the final two boss battles are considered too short and lacking in difficulty. Overall, reviewers view this title as the best campaign conclusion since the 2019 reboot.
Pros
Impressive visuals
Stories cleverly interwoven
A satisfying conclusion to the series
Cons
The final boss fight feels too short and weak
Nothing new
Full GameSpot Review:
In 2019, Infinity Ward rebooted the Call of Duty "Modern Warfare" series, delivering a gritty and polished campaign. Captain Price returned, and the game told the story of how the iconic Task Force 141 assembled. Despite a strong start, the series' sequels stumbled, with Modern Warfare 3 being particularly notable for its weak story and open-world missions that failed to meet expectations. But in Modern Warfare 4, Infinity Ward restored the campaign's quality, offering a satisfying narrative and well-designed missions for an epic conclusion to the rebooted series.
Modern Warfare 4's single-player mode returns to the traditional, linear-focused experience, which some recent entries had drifted away from. There is only one open-world mission, but it is far more engaging than previous attempts. Modern Warfare 4 doesn't bring anything novel or creative, but succeeds through consistently strong storytelling and excellent gameplay built on suffocating tension. Fortunately, you are never forced to complete objectives that feel like boring chores or seem out of place, disrupting the experience. Every mission in Modern Warfare 4 is filled with urgency and constantly drives the plot forward.
This storyline concludes the arc surrounding Price and Task Force 141, while also bringing the Call of Duty battlefield to the Korean Peninsula and introducing a batch of new characters. The campaign weaves together two seemingly unrelated stories into an exaggerated, globe-trotting adventure spanning New York, Paris, Mumbai, and various regions of the Korean Peninsula. This is exactly the explosive Hollywood-style action fans expect from a Call of Duty campaign, and its quality reaches levels the series hasn't seen in years—including recent Black Ops titles.
Half the game puts you in the boots of Private Park, a young South Korean soldier who has never seen combat. When North Korea launches its invasion, Private Park and his squad are forced to fight back to save their country.
The other half of the campaign picks up after the events of Modern Warfare 3 and the aftermath of John "Soap" MacTavish's death. In Modern Warfare 4, Captain Price finds himself in a much darker place than ever before. He operates independently, hunting Makarov while dealing with other lingering issues related to the villain's accomplices.
This new outlaw version of Price echoes one of the most defining lines from the 2019 Modern Warfare, where he articulated his creed on where the lines of war should be drawn: "You draw the line wherever you need to draw it, Sergeant. At the end of the day, someone has to make the enemy fear the dark. We get our hands dirty so the world stays clean. That's the mission."
Now, that line seems to have been drawn somewhere no one could have predicted. Price is furious and more willing than ever to get his hands dirty, making everyone allied with Makarov fear the dark. However, being on the run has left Price with almost no allies. To get close to another threat linked to Makarov—"Archer" (played by Mads Mikkelsen)—Price makes a desperate deal with Valeria Garza and her cartel.
Price hasn't completely turned into a monster, but the cartel doesn't hesitate to shoot civilians to get the job done. This alliance leads to a chaotic shootout across Paris and interesting banter between characters. Price constantly tries to protect civilians and minimize collateral damage; Valeria, whose rules are less strict, teasingly mocks him, calling him "Pops" and "Old Man." The stark contrast between Price and Valeria becomes a key part of the story. After committing an act of particularly brutal violence during a chase scene, Valeria tells Price, "You're still a good man." But she is a notorious cartel leader trying to get paid by shipping weapons to bad guys, so her assessment is questionable at best.
Teaming up with the cartel also made Price realize that the delivery of these weapons was dangerous enough to shift the balance of power, triggering a larger conflict. Worse still, Price himself became a target. Simon "Ghost" Riley and Kyle "Gaz" Garrick, the only remaining members of Task Force 141 under his command, were ordered to capture or kill him.
This hunt for Price leads to an excellent mission called "Into the Darkness." Your perspective shifts to Gaz, who hunts Price through a dimly lit hotel. At the start of the series, Captain Price was Gaz's mentor and moral compass. Therefore, when Gaz and the player see from a clearer third-person perspective just how far Price has fallen, the mission carries significant emotional weight. Some shocking moments and intense confrontations play out among the now-fragmented members of Task Force 141, fully leveraging the emotional foundation built over years of shared experiences. The entire mission is filled with intense emotional tension: Price begs Ghost and Gaz to stand down; and when he says he doesn't want to kill them but implies he will if necessary, the impact is particularly heavy. These moments clearly show that Price's moral code has collapsed. The events in "Into the Darkness" also set the stage for a shocking moment in a subsequent mission, bringing the series full circle in a way I greatly appreciated.
The story of the invasion of the Korean Peninsula intertwines with Price's epic quest for revenge, prompting this new South Korean squad to join forces with the US military. The shifting perspectives and non-linear narrative might sound overwhelming, but the story flows smoothly between missions. Stealth missions, foot and vehicle chases, slow-motion door breaches, and intense helicopter gunner battles keep the plot pacing tight and moving forward. Additionally, there is a night-vision mission similar to "Clearing House," where you must carefully control your firing timing to clear rooms without accidentally killing any civilians.
Although these missions mostly feature familiar content, they remain effective classic Call of Duty elements, keeping me on edge and fully engaged throughout the campaign. It may not surpass some of the most famous campaigns in the series, but in my view, it proves that the franchise doesn't need to reinvent the wheel to deliver a thrilling single-player experience. This time, strong storytelling and compelling characters carried me through every mission. Whether playing as Park or Price, I always felt the weight of my actions.
