Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is the 23rd installment in the Call of Duty series. Codenamed “Project Rex,” Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is a sequel to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III that released in 2023. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 has two marketing styles – a normal “4” and a Korean “사.” Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 at the core takes place in the Korean peninsula where both Korean countries are in in a flux of conflict. Modern Warfare 4 starts out in South Korea, with Park Hyun Jun – a South Korean recruit, and it also has a Captain John Price appearance to wrap up Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III. South Korea was then attacked, and an invasion ensues. What unfolds during the story is a mystery, but trailers show that it has expanded to become a World War 3 scenario.
I have reviewed Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. I have gotten my hands on impression of the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II Multiplayer Open Beta. I reviewed Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II. I went hands on with the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III Open Beta. I previewed Call of Duty: Black Ops 6’s Open Beta. I also previewed Call of Duty: Black Ops 7’s Open Beta. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is scheduled to be released for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC.
Today, I’ll talk about my first impressions of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 with my playthrough of the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Beta. I’m playing the PlayStation 5 version of the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Beta.
Before we begin: This Hands On preview will cover many facets of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4. Because, for the first time ever, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4’s Beta shipped with Campaign, no, you did not read that wrong. No, you did not mishear that. No. Modern Warfare 4 Beta had campaign …in a beta build. Obviously, it has multiplayer, but it also shipped with Ground War, and Warzone, known as “zodiac.” However, I’ll only touch a little bit on campaign, since it’s only about 30 to an hour’s gameplay – which is embedded below. Zodiac will only be touched upon a little bit, because the majority of the beta, I was trying to rank up, and learn about the gameplay.
Gameplay
For the most part, Modern Warfare 4 plays mostly like any Call of Duty title released so far, with subtle “innovations.” These innovations are not apparent to new players or long-time players, but they’re there. The Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 has campaign, so here, I was able to get the feel for what Infinity Ward is going for with Modern Warfare 4. The campaign mission that was in the beta is called “Entrenched.” You are now thrusted into a war. You start out as an infantry soldier, then you go into a tank, wrecking buildings, enemies, and whatnot. It has almost everything a Call of Duty title delivers. Entrenched then has this valley where you and your squad has to survive a collapsing building where you will drown if you don’t escape fast enough. Everything seems fine, until I got to the valve. There was a glitch where I got stuck into the between the pipes and the gate. Second playthrough of that section, I learned not to re-do the glitch, and saw the opening. The big innovation from this campaign, which will bleed into Multiplayer – is jumping into specific pipes. These pipes will allow you to maneuver the maps to flank enemies from a section. There are two types of pipes, one is vertical, and the other is horizontal. I’ll explain more in multiplayer portion. Once you do that mission, you have to escape the building, finally. There was one weird sequence, which is at the end where you escape. Many players know how to play escape sequences, but the last part of the escape sequence is where I was confused as to where to go, and I’m not alone in this. Many creators faced a similar situation as I.
In multiplayer, gameplay is largely the same. For example, the pipes that I mentioned in campaign? They’re here. They’re used for flanking enemies in rooms that you know is occupied. Along with being able to climb these ladders, you can strafe these ladders by maneuvering vertically or horizontally. You can go up, you can go down, you can go left, you can go right. That is, if the pipes have said position. Some of these pipes are separate, some of them are connected. Either one will allow you to maneuver these spots to flank enemies. Now, the other innovation, which has been implemented from other games is the ability to mantle these pipes. With this mantle feature, you can aim at your enemies – yes, from the pipes. So, if you see enemies in there, and you are finished maneuvering the pipes, you can aim your weapon, and eliminate them.
I’ll blend gameplay into most parts of this review, because it all connects.
Controls
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4’s controls are for the most part is similar to other games in the Call of Duty series, but there are some subtle improvements to controls. You can jump, you can go prone, and stand. You can crouch. You can switch weapons, interact, and reload magazines. You can throw equipment like grenades, flashbangs, and other similar equipment. You can aim down sights (ADS), you can melee, and attack enemies. There is a strafe in the game, but it’s now blended into the gameplay rather than a control. This idea was derived from mantling mechanics, which was originally a button press. Black Ops 6 brought “omnimovement” and it was fine for the most part, but there are some mechanics that broke the game.
Largely, Omnimovement is still in the game, just that the implementation is different. So, Omnimovement is NOT just sliding back and forth. No. It’s the idea of strafing around without going into a position. So, let’s say you want to go backwards – you press backwards. No problem. If you want to strafe to the left, then you just move – and here, it’s subtle, but it’s there. When you Aim Down Sights, and move to the left, you’re actually strafing now. Previously, you had to press a specific button to do this. This is now gone. This is actually what Omnimovement aimed to fix. With Modern Warfare 4, “Omnimovement” is gone as a mechanic, it’s now blended into the gameplay without a second thought. That’s the idea. A lot of people are not talking about this because they don’t want to talk about Omnimovement, and ruin the idea of controls. Mostly because people in Black Ops 6 and Black Ops 7 have ruined Omnimovement as a mechanic, because now – they can abuse the sliding mechanics in such a way, that when you try to maneuver the maps, you’re going up against movement junkies. The reason why people use sliding and jumping is to win matches. I call this in two ways: Bunny Hopping, and I’ll quote Thunder here: Booty sliding. Both are technically the same thing, but I like bunny hopping as a name because most people in Call of Duty starting with Modern Warfare II (2022) has been abusing the sliding mechanic to combine with jumping. Sometimes, abusing the mechanics to get yourself to jump higher than normal. Infinity Ward did not actually fix this. They emboldened them to do more, because the mechanic keeps coming back.
So, now, I’ll refer this mechanic as strafing now, because Call of Duty has solved the movement issues largely. I liked Omnimovement, because of the strafing freedom. I liked Omnimovement, because now I can lay down on MY back, and play as if I am Rambo. I can play dead, and they wouldn’t know. The only way they’d know is because my username is above my player character, which in the game is known as “operators.” What I don’t like about Omnimovement, is the sliding, constant sliding – and the unrealistic sliding backwards. I think a lot of people agree with me on this.
Leaning into walls have also been reworked during the development of Modern Warfare 4. Leaning and Strafing is now automatic, they behave very similarly. When you are strafing, and remember this is now automatic – when you move, the character moves. So, when you move to the wall, the strafing becomes a lean mechanic. No buttons required. This is gone. When you go to the flat wall, the strafe will now mount onto the wall. If you move forward to the next flat surface, it continues to move as if you are doing a cover mechanic. This makes stealth easier now.
Alright, introducing the “Create a Class” screen. For the most part, this User Interface – which I will discuss in its own section. This UI is similar to other Call of Duty games. You can select your weapons as per usual, you can go into your gunsmith as usual. Now, this is just beta, so bear with me when I say this: In the final game, this will be pronounced. Currently, operators do not provide a boost to your class. Currently, the class you select… or the class that you modify via Gunsmith will provide this boost to your overall character.
During beta, what you select for your class will be weighted against the actual weapon. Take the Rezi 12 above, I have 5 attachments on the weapon. Each attachment has a weighted subtracted value, and a weighted positive value. You can upgrade this weapon, and there are more or less 60 levels or more for each weapon. Some will be 66, some will be 67. Some will be lower.
If you don’t know what to select in Gunsmith, don’t worry, there is something called a “Gunny.” It appears on the lower right corner in blue colors. In there, a pre-selected class is shown. However, the Gunny has its own unlock system, too. If you get a new attachment in Modern Warfare 4, you unlock a new gunny “class.”
There is a “Firing Range” sandbox for you to test your weapon as you are getting ready in the lobby. You can do this without being in a lobby, or during the lobby screen. It does not matter. PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series consoles have SSD’s in them, so this is entirely possible, and the only thing stopping you is when the match is about to start. That’s it.
Graphics
The graphical fidelity in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is clean, crisp, and detailed. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is truly a “Next Generation” Call of Duty title, as it drops PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. This means the technology and visual prowess relies on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and PC’s technical specs. Xbox Series S, and Nintendo Switch 2 are stripped down ports of the same game. You will notice the downgrade on both Xbox Series S, and Nintendo Switch 2, but is still feature parity across all platforms. This means that no matter what platform you play Modern Warfare 4 on, you’re getting the same features as the Next Gen consoles.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and especially on PC looks like a realistic Video Game. You could advertise on TV, and nobody would know if it’s gameplay or not. Nobody would know if the scene is a campaign footage or gameplay. Unless you put black bars on the top and bottom of the screen like a film. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 takes full advantage of the current consoles (PS5, Xbox Series X), and runs at a silky smooth 60 frames per second. Modern Warfare 4 is using a lot of the tech that are in the PS5, Xbox Series X, and yes, PC. The attention to detail is staggering that most people don’t realize the detail is there. Most people don’t understand that the game is using a lot of Ray Tracing. I’m surprised that Infinity Ward was able to get Modern Warfare to run at 60fps without major frame drops even with Ray Tracing turned on. Look at the rain puddles – that’s Ray Tracing. The lighting is using a combination of “volumetric lighting,” and Ray Tracing. Those weapons have two things shining at it from a technical perspective – volumetric lighting, and Ray Tracing. You might be asking: How? Well, Ray Tracing is not just reflections, it’s not just water puddles. It’s about how the light hits the object or environment. So, where is the sun going to hit? Is it going to hit the wall? Is it going to hit the monitors. There’s many rhetorical questions. For example, where is the shadow going to land? Where is it going to go? Ray Tracing. So all that path tracing is giving a feeling of realism.
I’m not going to pretend I know everything, but I will give you the jist of what’s happening.
Online Connectivity
Alright, this section is going to be spicy. Let me start with the connectivity first then we’ll go through the gameplay feeling. When you select “Multiplayer,” you are met with the multiplayer User Interface where you can select “Create a Class.” And once you are ready, you can press “Play.” And, when you do, you are now sitting in the lobby screen. You don’t realize this, but you are being matchmaked with a new multiplayer lobby. Since Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2019, this is known as Skill Based Matchmaking (SBMM). In Modern Warfare 4, the matchmaking is quick and gets you into the game. But, make no mistake: Skill Based Matchmaking is back, and it’s ugly.
When you play the game, the online connectivity is somewhere in the middle of how good it is. Sometimes, you’re gonna get good connections, sometimes you’re gonna get a bad connection, and sometimes the server crashes. For the most part, the online connectivity is better than recent memory, and I attribute this to the new “Call of Duty” servers on Microsoft’s server stacks.
Why am I blending Skill Based Matchmaking with Online Connectivity? It’s because they literally said that SBMM and the servers are intertwined in a developer talk on Infinity Ward’s own YT channel. You can’t talk about Online Connectivity without talking about the netcode, which has SBMM baked into the system. Your gunplay is being predicted in real time. Your movements are being predicted in real time. Your bullet penetration is being predicted in real time. So, going back to what I said about server connections: Sometimes you’re gonna get bad connections, and sometimes you’re gonna get good connections. With bad connections, the server hallucinates where your bullet penetration is going. It was obvious when you were playing Modern Warfare 2019, and it showed its ugly head with Modern Warfare II (2022). And since then, players have had to tell Infinity Ward that this is not good. Crickets.
As of right now, SBMM is blended into the netcode, because PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series consoles use SSD’s. If you use WiFi directly, this doesn’t matter, either… because your packets are being delivered to the server and the server is delivered back to you quickly. PlayStation 5 has WiFi 6, and if you are a PlayStation 5 Pro owner, you have WiFi 7. You basically don’t notice that Skill Based Matchmaking is running in the background, but it is. How do I know? How do customers know that SBMM is running? Well, SBMM (and by extension, EOMM) deploys systems where the SBMM/EOMM calculates what your next match is going to be. If you have a good stroke of wins, then SBMM/EOMM takes that data, and twists it to make you lose. Some customers likens the idea to a casino. It is an algorithmic manipulation, so what then happens is the casual players feel like they’re in a Call of Duty league match.
If Call of Duty keeps this up, and I’ve been calling it out in my previews and/or reviews for years now, they’re gonna continue to lose customers. If Infinity Ward insists on keeping SBMM, then… one of two things is going to happen: Either Microsoft purges Activision, and Infinity Ward. Or Infinity Ward has to turn down SBMM. Either way, someone’s getting fired.
It’s really easy. It doesn’t have to be complicated, but Infinity Ward wants this to be complicated.
Part of the problem with SBMM/EOMM is also the game design. Each weapon has a weight system to it, right? Well, balancing in Modern Warfare 4 is atrocious. To counter red dots, you can’t have a stealth perk – because there isn’t one. First weekend of Beta brought Tac Sprint back, and people did not like it. So, in weekend two, they moved Tac Sprint into Blood Rush. The map designs don’t help, either. Transit 213 is such a poorly designed small map, that the spawns are ridiculous. If you go to flag A, for example, and you stay there, some players will spawn on the flip-side of the map, some players will be algorithmically positioned next to the flag to flunk his SBMM. In other words, EOMM is rewarding the enemy team to keep them on the game.
Spawn Trapping is strongly encouraged in Modern Warfare 4, and is why the maps are small, to approaching mid-sized maps.
Music & Sound
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4’s music is noticeably better, starting with starting main menu. The sounds are punchy, loud, and catchy. Call of Duty games has never floundered on sound. It’s the most important part of Call of Duty games. With Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, this is doubly, and especially true!
User Interface
Accompanied by images, the User Interface received a major overhaul over the last several games in the series. Since Modern Warfare II, players have complained about the User Interface being convoluted, and possibly complicated. Well, I’m happy to report that, with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, this has mostly been fixed. When you start Modern Warfare 4, you are greeted with a nice and simple main menu. Only 4 buttons on the first screen: Multiplayer, Campaign, Warzone, and the “pre-order now” button. There is a separate menu, by pressing the “options” button on the PlayStation 5 controller, for example. In this menu, you can access your various multiplayer options. First one is your friends list, the second one is your “lobby” (they call it the groups section) menu, the third one is your notifications, and the last one is your options menu.
As I mentioned before, the minute you press “Multiplayer” you are brought to a menu to select your lobby, you can also select “Create a Class.” In this menu, you can also check your profile. In this section, you can customize your sprays, your calling card, your loading screen, or whatever else Infinity Ward decides to bring into this menu. This is also where you can see your progression in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4.
Misc Feedback
Here is where I will put notable information that doesn’t really belong anywhere else in this preview. My most surprising, and my favorite part of the beta is the small stuff in gameplay that you don’t really notice, unless it happens to you. Once you shoot down helicopters, it goes down, right? Well, if you’re next to that downed helicopter, as if it’s happening in real time… You can actually be affected by the downed helicopter as if you got hit by the helicopter. It was surprising, because I’ve been playing Call of Duty since 2007, and most of the time, you down helicopters – the animation is one lane. Once it goes down, it goes down, and it disappears. Not so, here in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4. Nope. When you’re next to a helicopter’s impact… YOUR player character is also being impacted by it, too. When the impact does happen, your player character falls, or falls backwards and you are “hurt,” now, too.
My most sour-inducing part of the beta is the little stuff that hinders your gameplay. As you are playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, the entire lobby has an A.I. running in the background, as you’re playing. Both in the lobby, and as you are playing. I had an experience in MW4 Beta, where boosters/reverse boosters are in the lobby to tank the lobby in order to get better matches. Traditionally, and this goes back to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009), traditionally… You’re boosting with a friend to get more kills to pad your stats. In 2009, people were getting into friend’s lobbies to boost with a friend. This consists of killing one another. You get a kill from your friend, then your friend kills you, so it’s win-win. But, as SBMM got stronger as the years go by, this system became reverse boosting. In reverse boosting, you’re actually tanking your stats. Infinity Ward says that SBMM has been in Call of Duty since 2007 with Call of Duty 4, and we collectively said – NO. Not THIS system. Mark Rubin, former developer on Call of Duty 4 – he said the SBMM was light.
Anyway, back to my point: The lobby has A.I. to monitor everything in Call of Duty. This includes your chat. If you say something they don’t like, I put emphasis on – things THEY. Infinity Ward, or ANY developer on the Activision payroll. If you say certain words, and you trip it… This is what you’ll get…
All I said was “You are a retard” to someone who was boosting and/or reverse boosting in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4’s new Kill Block mode. You don’t really need to boost or reverse boost in Kill Block, because the mode is intentionally designed to be a randomly chosen 3 slab match – where the slabs are being randomly chosen for you before you start the match. This made for interesting gunplay. Out of all the modes, I found Kill Block to be the best matchtype for Call of Duty. However, the way Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4’s multiplayer was revealed was not the best choice.
I enjoyed the 10 vs 10 Kill Block matchtype than the 6 vs 6 matchtype. I don’t even know why Infinity Ward removed it from the rotation.
One last thing I’ll say about the User Interface: My favorite user interface is actually the user progression. The image is embedded above is when you unlock something in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4. I quite like all the effects that go with the unlocks, skips, and they even put Korean language on the right side to connotate that you skipped a “level.” I like it. If anything, this menu gives you satisfaction that you reached a level in the progression of either the weapon, or the rank that you’re on. I got to level 30 maximum for the MW4 Beta.
Replay Value
Replay Value is subjective. Especially in multiplayer. In multiplayer, everyone is playing a different game. Let me repeat that for everyone in the back: Everyone is playing a different game in Call of Duty games now. Everyone. So, opinions will be very subjective.
The actual core of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 has a high replay value, but the elephant in the room in Modern Warfare 4 is SBMM/EOMM. And the reason why the replay value is high is because the game is actually playable. It is right up there with Modern Warfare 2019. Many people don’t like Modern Warfare 2019, and it is a Infinity Ward problem. For every one good feature, Infinity Ward screws up somewhere else. Movement in Modern Warfare 2019 is realistic, but then there’s red dots on the mini-map, with no balancing done to it. It’s similar to the complaint I have about not there being stealth in Modern Warfare 4. But if you customize your attachment(s) in Gunsmith, you can use your suppressor and that will eliminate your red dot(s) on your operator.
CarlosX360’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Gameplay Playlist
In Conclusion
As the overall game, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is a playable Call of Duty title. At the very core, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 plays like a real Call of Duty game. Not like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (2022). I can enjoy Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, if only either Infinity Ward removed SBMM, and/or turned down SBMM/EOMM drastically to make it a casual Call of Duty title. Call of Duty has always attracted the casual gamer. And I don’t know why Activision and their subsidiaries have targeted and marketed to sweats – to the type of player that wants to be better than everyone else.
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