With a new release every year, Call of Duty is staple of the current video game market. However, not every release is equal, and Call of Duty's last few titles haven't been met with as many overwhelmingly positive reviews as classics like Black Ops and Modern Warfare 2. Perhaps it's the short development time that's led to the last few entries in the series feeling stale, but both Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and Call of Duty: Vanguard have been met with mixed reception upon release. Despite a few interesting mechanics, most fans seem to agree that these last two games have seemed more like a regression rather than an advancement, especially when compared to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare brought some excellent quality of life upgrades along with some of the tightest shooting mechanics in any modern FPS, with some stunning graphics to boot. As such, it felt like a return to form for the franchise in a number of ways. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare impressed long-time fans so much, in fact, that many still consider it to be the best modern entry in the series, pointing to some key aspects of the game that make it stand out.
Nostalgia, But Not Just For The Sake Of It
It's no secret that established IPs make much more money than new ones, even when those new IPs are excellent (like Sony's first-party lineup of games). You'll often see modern games try to capitalize on nostalgia as much as possible to draw in old fans. This can either be a very good thing, or a very bad thing, coming across as exploitative or even soulless. However, there are exceptions, and in the case of Call of Duty, the Modern Warfare series is one of them.
At launch, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare had a healthy selection of maps. There were ten maps in the base game's core multiplayer playlists, each with their own unique environments, obstacles and scenery. The tactics players used in each of these maps would vary quite dynamically between play sessions. Developers Infinity Ward then gave players a range of free DLC maps over the course of the subsequent two years. These gave players some original maps, but also included a handful of maps from previous Call of Duty titles.
Fan favorite maps like "Rust," "Scrapyard," and "Killhouse" were masterfully remade to fit within the Modern Warfare engine. For most players, they hadn't seen these maps for a decade, so that initial nostalgia hit was a strong one. These remake maps were added entirely for free, giving every player the opportunity to revisit classic multiplayer maps. The visual quality of each of these maps is also very impressive compared to their original counterparts, with painstaking detail going into every minute aspect of the arena.
However, the most interesting aspect of these remade maps was just how differently some of them played. With Modern Warfare's new mechanics, even the most veteran Call of Duty players found themselves having to adapt their old playstyle to fit with these new versions. For some maps strategy remained relatively the same, such as "Rust," which very much remained a battle of attrition for the central tower and the various hiding spots on the ground.
However, maps like "Killhouse" had players using these new mechanics to their advantage, in particular the "Lean" mechanic, which allowed players to peek out from cover. "Killhouse" went from a map where Akimbo Model 1887s were king, to a careful game of darting around cover and keeping yourself as low as possible. Regardless of personal preference or gameplay style, the uniqueness of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare's mechanics makes these old maps feel new again. While Black Ops Cold War may have some old Black Ops maps, the lack of new and unique features renders their inclusion neat, but not groundbreaking.
A Viable Selection Of Weapons
Call of Duty multiplayer has a bad habit of forcing players to use one type of weapon if they want any chance of getting kills. It seems like every week there's a new meta in Call of Duty: Warzone, and those who don't keep up on the latest trends will be at an inherent disadvantage.
For the most part, Modern Warfare managed to avoid this unfortunate trend. With a good number of guns in each category, players had quite a few options to choose from, each one with genuinely unique advantages and disadvantages. The vast array of unlockable weapon attachments also added to this already-high level of variety. Pair this with a decent selection of secondary weapons, tacticals, lethals, and perks, and players get one of the most diverse Call of Duty games ever made. For the first time in a while, many players felt as though their custom class was wholly their own.
Unparalleled Graphics and Sound Design
When it released in 2019, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare was widely praised for, among other things, its graphics. Two years later and Modern Warfare still looks incredible, some would argue even more so than Black Ops Cold War and Vanguard.
Modern Warfare went for a distinctive, realistic style. Naturalistic lighting was used, maps felt lived in, and the environment often reacted to your actions. Weapon models are also, arguably, the best in the series, with individual scratches being observable on the gun's metallic sights and exterior.
The sound design in Modern Warfare is also first-class, being some of the best audio design in not only the Call of Duty series, but some of the best in the industry, even winning a Game Award for Audio Design in 2019's ceremony. Every gunshot sounds fittingly punchy, every explosion sounds suitably devastating, and killstreak audio like the VTOL's low but persistent rumble gives players a sense of intimidation that should be core to the Call of Duty multiplayer experience.
While fans of the series can hope that the next installment harkens back to some of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare's best features, or is potentially a sequel, the 2019 game's servers are still full to the brim. There's never been a better time for players to dip their toes back into the game.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.