Call of Duty: Modern Warfare - the great return of Infinity Ward

Recent videogame history has taught us how much, net of the inevitable evolution that took place in the hearts and minds of gamers, the past and the origins of any operation are two fundamental values. Woe to forget where it started, therefore, since one could inexorably lose that creative or at least character flair which, over time and over time, can decide the success or otherwise of an entire ecosystem. This is a bit like what happened to the historic Call of Duty brand, a glorious first-person shooter saga that, over the years, has inexorably started to lose what are then the two fundamental characteristics to be able to define itself as a commercial success: production quality and - above all - general interest on the part of the public, inexorably diverted to other shores. For this reason, an important position on the part of Activision Blizzard was absolutely urgent. Fortunately, the time has come and, in all honesty, it was already clear from the very first cries of this (old) new operation.



Call of Duty: Modern Warfare - the great return of Infinity Ward

What better way to face the frightening future than to abandon the nefarious recent past and forcefully re-embrace one's origins? Probably none, and they had a good reason. The new Call of Duty course starts from that masterful chapter that corresponds to the name of Modern Warfare which, in 2007, was able to bewitch the whole world thanks to the creation not only of a sensational game, but also to the genesis of a lively and characteristic imagination in which an exceptional cast also and above all stood out. It is absolutely no coincidence that much of the recent misfortunes of the brand have passed from abandonment or the lack of care offered to the single campaign, accessory for many in such a game but essential to offer a concrete contextualization of what is being done and why. and, for this reason, it was decided to go big. At the helm of the operation was called Infinty Ward, creator not only of the iconic chapter we were talking about a moment ago, but also of the less fortunate Call of Duty: Ghosts and Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, which therefore found itself for the hands an operation that is anything but simple, but potentially winning. It must be said that the developers themselves immediately clarified that yes the maneuver would have given life to a remake of the chapter released in 2007, but it would also have represented a real point of total restart for the saga.



Facing the future starting from the past, therefore, is the mantra at the base and we want to immediately give you a big spoiler on how this "story" will evolve: the choice is more than apt. Clearly not everything is perfect, but if the direction taken by Infinity Ward e Activision for his own - historical - creature is this, all lovers of (virtual, of course) shootings can sleep more than peacefully.

Videogame terrorism

Such a delicate operation could only start from where it had - probably - left its mark most, namely the single-handed campaign. The exploits of the iconic characters created over twelve years ago are like the Captain Price, the indomitable Nikolai and more, however, have been reworked and modernized, to offer players a crackling, frenetic and above all well-written story. The password, in reality, is probably another: discounting. The general story, in fact, takes its foundations from a current topic which, for several years now, has been monopolizing the media attention of a large part of the news and politics: terrorism. The narrative that moves the single player adventures of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare revolves around a handful of soldiers who, for different reasons and motivations, come into contact to thwart what risks becoming a threat on a global scale.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare - the great return of Infinity Ward

And let us say that if really not original, as it is heavily influenced by a papabile cinematic attitude and by a few clichés too many, the story remains very interesting to follow and above all to "live" up to the final stages, reachable in - as in the tradition of series and a little bit of the genre to belong to - in a few hours (five or six). This happens clearly thanks to the splendid characterization of the protagonists in the field: the beautiful and ruthless Farah, for example, who with his leadership and determination is impossible not to love, a bit like what happens with the other two main protagonists, Alex and Kyle, differently characterized but still fundamental in the economy of the story. To make the fortunes of the main plot of the campaign is in truth the ability to convey in the best way all the horror of war, which is breathed in deeply from the first to the last minute of the game. This is also enhanced by the skilful management of the sequences, which in some cases even span different temporal levels, which have the ability to be able to replicate - sometimes even in a rather direct way - the naked fear that can be found in the eyes of a child. who have just murdered their mother or a group of unsuspecting passers-by who find themselves involved in a kamikaze attack. On the other hand, the events start just like this: a kamikaze attack raises the alarm in the US military troops, called to quell what will soon become a real geo-political intertwining of a "classic" matrix., in which the enemy forces are represented by the Russian army and a group of Middle Eastern terrorists. What is surprising is that here, a bit like it happens in reality, it is clear how much the border between right and wrong is all in all very thin. Although winking at the "faction" of the protagonists, who all in all always appear to be the least "deplorable" ones, in the story spelled out by Infinity Ward, in essence, there are neither good nor bad and all, with different proportions, yes they stain in some way with bloody and ruthless acts and choices. The Call of Duty Modern Warfare single-player campaign works also and above all pad in hand.



Call of Duty: Modern Warfare - the great return of Infinity Ward

The (few, but right) hours needed to complete everything offer the right amount of variety and satisfaction to the player, thanks to an increasingly rhythmic and frenetic pace of the tasks to be completed. Without ignoring some excessively dead and decidedly less successful passages, we can say that this is probably the best campaign the series has ever had and certainly one of the most appropriate in general for a product of its kind. The variety, but above all the beauty, of some assignments, embellished by an equally splendid differentiation of the settings, ranging from urban centers to St. Petersburg to the desert of the fictitious state ofUrzikistan, also accompanied by an excellent acting and digitization of the actors, it is certainly commendable and is well supported by a clean and multifaceted background game play and a level of challenge that is all in all pleasant and never frustrating. It must be said that the enemies represent a threat more and more because of the number rather than their "shotgun in hand" ability, but it is still something decidedly negligible in the face of a very accurate writing and a playful solidity all in all of the first level. A solid story, therefore, which does not miss the opportunity to wink at fans with references and quotes to iconic characters and situations for the brand, which definitely explodes during the final sequences of the campaign itself in which unforgettable characters are brought out. and iconic for anyone with a minimum of familiarity with the series.

Special Ops & Survival: the end-game you don't expect

The single-player campaign is also important for another issue, of a purely playful nature. In fact, it is strongly linked to one of the most anticipated game modes of this new Modern Warfare, and that is to say the Special ops, which in fact are unlocked only after having seen the credits of the aforementioned. These undoubtedly represent a fundamental part in the general economy of production, in particular as regards the online game and - therefore - passable as a sort of end-game. In fact, these are real missions related to the plot, which in essence carry on the work of the military troops engaged in quelling the revolts within the events narrated in the main story. In truth, the references to the plot are still quite mild, but all in all they work and manage to return that feeling of general immersion necessary to contextualize the various activities. Infinty Ward, in no uncertain terms, has made it clear to focus a lot on Special Ops, and has promised continuous support made up of new missions and various activities over the next few months. For the moment, everything is "limited" to four missions, altogether well diversified but which essentially aim at a common goal. These activities, at first, seem very promising, thanks also to the idea of ​​introducing the various "Roles" in order to better balance the approach to them, but they are still the victim of a sort of constraint in making some "tactical choices" "In some cases certainly obvious.



Call of Duty: Modern Warfare - the great return of Infinity Ward

It should also be said that these missions, which usually result in a simple going from point A to point B, suffer from a fairly impressive imbalance in terms of difficulty. In fact, carrying them out without an organized team seemed almost impossible, due to the high number of enemies that continue to pop up without interruption, surrounding and exterminating the four ill-fated in a few moments. Without too many words, we feel we can point out the Spec Ops as the weakest link of the entire production and, although supported by a potentially intriguing basic idea, they fail to keep faith with the good premises of the eve. Clearly, the whole thing is almost an experiment, and therefore we do not feel we can demonize too much the poor result, but we certainly expected more and we expect some kind of tweak to the formula, perhaps with future updates. Much more successful, however, are the missions of the mode Survival, the Call of Duty equivalent of the "Horde" mode of the various Gears, etc. In essence, it is a matter of resisting different waves of increasingly numerous and aggressive enemies who, over time, are also accompanied by armored soldiers, helicopters and means of destruction gradually more and more effective and which for this reason require a lot of foresight to be completed. , without ever becoming frustrating or unbalanced. During the waves it is also possible to accumulate money (simply by killing enemies) and then spend it to enhance your arsenal and offer a contribution to the ever greater cause. We certainly enjoyed and enjoyed much more in this activity than the Spec Ops, of course, but the flagship of the Infinity Ward title, and it could not be otherwise, certainly remains the competitive multiplayer.

Playful solidity

Anyone who has followed the genesis and continuation of this project immediately understood one thing: change was in the air. And in the end it was, because just a few minutes of play are enough to ascertain everything. Rest assured: killing an opponent is always super exciting and freaking frantic, but here you can feel the change of course so desired in the past. Moving is always a perpetual and lightning-fast attitude, but is accompanied with greater parsimony by elements such as positioning and cohesion, which acquire a greater value also due to a new lifeblood offered to the level design of the maps, now clearly superior and well thought out. Although not many, the proposed maps or portions of them (depending on the mode) seem well organized and designed, offering an overall gaming experience that is much better than in the past. Without super jumps and various "unnatural" things, it therefore becomes essential to play your cards by relying on a much more tactical programming of the approaches, thus giving the players a higher variety of action. This greater push on programming and on the careful choice of the attitude to be used, as well as the weapons to carry around, fits perfectly with Infinity Ward's desire to look to the future, but starting from the past. The addition of theArmeria, which allows you to unlock (through the classic leveling system of your character) a large amount of guns, divided by types and various parameters, to which it is possible to add and modify as many parameters, thanks to the aid of a customization system truly impressive. For each weapon you can change the sight, handle and so on, thus offering the player a very substantial list of playful possibilities.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare - the great return of Infinity Ward

Each change increases some parameters, but also lowers others, and therefore it is up to the player to find the right balance. The introduction of a sort of passive skill (for three slots) to be equipped during matches is also very popular, which are unlocked as you progress through the player's levels. They offer bonuses that are sometimes very useful and certainly contribute to the greater playful depth that Infinity Ward has been able to give to its child. The whole is accompanied, let me tell you, by a truly sumptuous gunplay, in which the feeling of the many weapons present is felt all and gives the player an exciting feedback. All the more reason the choice of weapons becomes fundamental but also of the equipment (customizable as always or entrusted to the "predefined classes"), the choice of which becomes of primary importance from the very first bars. If we add to all this the total absence of "favoritism" mechanisms such as prize funds or in-game purchases with real currency, it is clear how Modern Warfare is able to stand up with great ease as one of the reference points of the current competitive choice for what concerns first person shooters. Finally, the icing on the cake is the future programming that Infinity Ward has already expressed well: all post-launch content will be totally free and will arrive at the same time, thus continuing to fully support that splendid reality that corresponds to the name of Cross-play (which we will learn more about later).

Variety and quality: the multiplayer sector

As we have had the opportunity to tell you several times, one of the most evident strengths of the new course set up by Infinity Ward with its Call of Duty Modern Warfare is certainly the multiplayer sector. Alongside the usual great variety of "classic" modes such as Team Deathmatch, Dominion and so on, Modern Warfare brings with it several novelties in terms of original content, which correspond to the name of Gunfight e Ground War, which represent two faces completely at the antithesis of the videogame experience itself.The first of the two is, simply, a two-on-two clash in maps of contained dimensions but embellished by a wise and satisfying level design, which can offer to every clash that pace at the same time frenetic but tactical and which requires a strong organizational quality on the part of the players on the pitch. It is certainly not a revolutionary mode, of course, but it still offers a breath of fresh air all in all tangible. Quite different speech for the other big news of the multiplayer package, what we know as "Terrestrial War". This is an oversized version of "Dominion", in the Battlefield style to put it briefly, in which two teams of 32 players they compete on a large-scale map for the conquest and control of different strategic areas.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare - the great return of Infinity Ward

Obviously, the use of means such as armored vehicles, helicopters and various upgrades, which provides the definitive assist to categorize the mode in question as the clearly more extroverted and characteristic one of the series and which distances itself further from what is the iconic style of a brand like Call of Duty. Overall, everything works well, but we do not feel like promoting this modality with flying colors. In fact, some maps offer excessive advantages to those who, for example, prefer to wait almost madly for their opponents, taking advantage of the enormous structural loopholes of the surrounding environment, and therefore give life to potentially less interesting games. In general we would like to say that perhaps the decidedly more frenetic and dynamic gameplay typical of the saga perhaps does not go exactly the best with the peculiarities of a similar mode, but at the end of the race we cannot but admit that we still had a lot of fun in the various matches played. Clearly different speech for the other "minor" additions of the loaner sector, that is Cyberattack e "Realism". Both visions of the game, in fact, suffer from a lack of charm, since the fun rate generated by the clashes runs out quite quickly after the very first attempts. However, it must be said that everything always works properly, and complaining about the variety of the playful offer of the Infinty Ward title would be something really difficult to explain.

Beautiful and possible

The playful beauty of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare goes perfectly with a small miracle of a technical nature performed by the development team. In addition to a masterful level design in many cases, a clear sign of an imposing change of course, in which many maps really give the feeling of being in a completely different game for various solutions and situations, it is certainly the technical sector that will leave you speechless. -graphic, another historical Achilles heel of the series (at least in recent years).

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare - the great return of Infinity Ward

The work done by Infinity Ward is simply amazing, and you can feel it from the very first bars, perhaps in the company of Alex, Farah and Kyle in the single-player campaign. The face modeling is amazing and the facial animations verging on photorealism, but luckily it doesn't end there. Even "on the field" the gigantic steps forward can all be seen very easily. General modeling, the texture, the polygonal models and everything related to the visual part of the title appears to us almost unassailable, both online and offline, and we are really excited to be able to say it. The management, for example, is also splendid lighting especially in the darker maps, which gives its best at night. The effects on the various particles are also very positive, even if the scarce left a bit of a bitter taste in the mouth environmental destructibility and the very little interaction with the objects present in the maps, rigorously placed just by design and nothing else. Very good is also the sound compartment: The feedback of the various weapons is incredibly accurate and varied and for a more attentive ear it is very easy to distinguish one gun from another simply by listening to the noises of the shots. The game is then completely localized in Italian, with excellent results. All this is accompanied by a solidity and stability of a granite frame-rate up PlayStation 4 Pro, which only rarely gave some very small - and almost imperceptible - signs of failure.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare - the great return of Infinity Ward

And the presence of someone does not matter texture in low resolution or late loading of the latter. On a technical level, as well as on that of stability, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare works very well, as well as the stability of the servers. Finding matches is very simple and fast and the matches never experience slowdowns or problems of any kind. The real "miracle", however, was accomplished with the introduction of cross-play: for the first time in the saga, PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One players can play together, as long as you use the same input for the commands. It is undoubtedly a super intelligent choice which, together with the choice of totally free distribution of post-launch content, can only benefit a product that already manages to satisfy all palates in this way.

USEFUL INFO

I played Call of Duty: Modern Warfare on PlayStation 4 Pro, connected to a Samsung 43 "4K HDR 10 TV, with the help of a 350 watt soundbar, for a general immersion rather than galvanizing. It took me about six hours to complete the Campaign, on Normal difficulty, and only on occasion did I encounter difficulties. Despite all the premises of the eve, I was partially disappointed by the Spec Ops, at the moment far from what they should have offered. I tried the game thanks to a code provided by the developer.

Duration
  • Double-sided single player experience: the Campaign, although excellent, is still very short and can be completed in a few hours.
  • The Spec Ops are directly linked to the campaign and act as a sort of end-game; at the moment they do not seem sufficiently valid in terms of longevity and general interest.
  • The usual sumptuous multiplayer compartment, which guarantees practically infinite longevity.
Collectibles and Extras
  • Few unlockable Trophies / Achievements, all (more or less) fairly complex to obtain. There are no collectibles in the Campaign.
Game Card
  • Game Name: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
  • Release date: October 25, 2019
  • Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
  • Dubbing language: Italian
  • Texts language: Italian
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare - the great return of Infinity Ward

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is a more than successful experiment. The guys at Infinity Ward have put their hand to what we could define as a "safe used", but in a wise and diligent way, thus bringing to the market a product that is simply essential for all lovers of the saga or in any case of the genre. A solid single-player campaign, a multi-player compartment full of possibilities and a general review of weapon feedback and character abilities are the flagship of a near-perfect production, accompanied by the perfect decision to offer free post-launch support. . If you add to this an impressive graphics sector and the possibility of playing with all friends thanks to cross-play then it is clear that we are faced with an impressive product. Too bad for some level design choices of some maps and for some clearly less interesting passages in history, but above all for the Spec-Ops, decidedly insipid and in need of a strong revisitation in order to really offer something interesting to the player. The overall picture is, however, more than positive, and we challenge anyone to say otherwise: Call of Duty is back, perhaps accompanied by the exciting mustache of good old Captain Price!

Review by Salvatore Cardone
Graphics

Great work on the graphic plane by Infinity Ward, capable of giving life to an artistically and technically very inspired and exquisite imagery. This is noticeable in particular in the single-player campaign in which the various protagonists of the story are very faithful to the real counterpart, thanks to a top-level digitization. The facial expressions are very valid, for one thing, and we also let ourselves be enchanted by a completely revised and now much more impressive lighting system. Great work also done in the creation of multiplayer maps, in particular as regards the level design.

90
SOUNDTRACK AND DOUBLE ROOM

The audio sector of the game is excellent, both as regards the feedback of the weapons, and as regards the general environmental sounds. With a good surround system or good headphones it is easy to get carried away into the shootings. The dubbing of the protagonists is excellent, even the Italian one.

88
GAMEPLAY

Few but functional changes to the basic formula, which can be found above all in a slower general pace, in a greater attention to elements such as the level design of the maps and in the importance of choosing the right equipment depending on the game mode. From the veterans of the series, this could be seen as a forced simplification of some mechanics, and all in all they would not even be too far from reality, which is combined with the will of the software house to start almost from scratch with this new chapter.

85
Total Rating scale
87
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