I would be lying if I didn’t admit that there are chapters in the campaign for “Modern Warfare” that are very entertaining and well-designed. The map design is top-notch, the weapon customization is as deep as ever, and the variety of games allows for hours of entertainment.īack to the campaign, here’s where a longtime “Call of Duty” fan who is also an occasional critic finds himself conflicted. The multiplayer is the main reason people return to this franchise, and I found this one to be the most entertaining in years. Along with fan favorites like Kill Confirmed and Domination, the developers have added an array of new game styles, including ones that go for realism, reducing on-screen graphics like HUD displays and make it much harder to survive a single shot. And, to be fair, most people play the “Call of Duty” games for the multiplayer mode, which is robust and excellent in this iteration. Waterboarding, torture, mass shootings-these are all things of which we don’t necessarily want to be reminded when we’re playing a video game. And don’t get me started on being waterboarded in first-person, something I never thought I’d see in a video game.
It’s just too real, especially in the context of a game that’s so often not real at all.
If there’s one thing that a series like this should arguably avoid, child soldiers would arguably be one. As you try to hide from the man who will likely kill you, you search your home for a weapon, eventually stabbing him, taking his gun, and killing him. There’s an even more striking sequence later in which you play a young girl whose father has just been killed by an enemy soldier. The terrorists and collateral damage fall in the same way and have the same impact on you as a player, and the game ultimately becomes so exaggerated-you will kill literally hundreds of people over the course of the campaign-that one has to wonder why edge so close to reality at all. Some will praise the realism of this effort, but the human cost never feels genuine. Now, the graphics are not super-realistic, likely to make it easier to divest reality from escapism, but trying to shoot around innocent people to get a clear shot at terrorists in Piccadilly Circus feels like something someone could actually have to do someday. It’s easy to miss and hit a fleeing pedestrian yourself. This scene is startling, as you take aim at heavily armed men opening fire into crowds of people in a famous public place. When a shipment headed for Urzikstan is stolen, the very familiar face of SAS Captain John Price leads the effort to get it back, but not before a terrorist attack unfolds in Piccadilly Circus in London. “Modern Warfare” drops you into the middle of a covert operation involving biochemical warfare.