You Wanted Gloves Off? They’re Off

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019).

byKenneth Ang (GameAxis)

As a reboot-cum-prequel of one of the most widely-acclaimed shooter franchises in history, call of Duty: Modern Warfare certainly has its work cut out for it.

Right from the get-go, the game paints you a grim, brutal picture of the world, which is actually something I’m not very used to seeing outside of zombie titles such as The Last of us.

Simply put, it’s not about who’s the good or the bad guy - it’s about doing whatever it takes to win a war. Be prepared to cross any and all ethical lines in your book. In this game, YOu decide where they’re drawn.

Toss out all notions of being a one-man-army like in previous titles. MW ditches the first and third words you’re just a “man”, and the game treats you as such. You die much faster than before, and the pace is slower too.

From climbing ladders to aiming down sights, even the very act of moving has been dialed down several notches. It hit me that perhaps MW isn’t meant to be merely “immersive”, but borderline frightening “real”.

Of course, essentials such as the minimap, blurring when you’re injured, muzzle flashes, ammo and magazine counts are all where they should be. Cutscenes and animations though, are on anotherlevel. It’s one of those games where if you stitched the cutscenes together, it could actually pass for a decent movie.

Now, no Modern Warfare review would be complete without talking about the man himself: captain John price. previously introduced as the leader of Task Force 141, the reimagined captain price has already seen his fair share of combat here.

The decisions that he makes and the lines he draws are on a whole new level from those of the man we thought we knew. Of course, he isn’t without a shred of humanity. There are several points where he offers the player an “out” from an ethically challenging situation, and this degree of compassion sets him apart from being a cold-blooded killer.

By the end of the campaign, I developed a whole new tier of respect for the character. I would amusingly suggest that he’s the real protagonist of the game, not the player.

Now let’s talk about the other end of the gameplay spectrum: Multiplayer. For players like me who haven’t really “hunkered down” since Modern Warfare 3, it might be difficult to adapt to the medley of new customisation options, although this can be remedied with some (read: a lot of) practice. More specifically, the interface is now called the Gunsmith.

Apart from the name, this bit hasn’t change much from Black Ops 4, with one exception. The game will actually make you sweat the small stuff like “time to AimDown-Sights (ADS)”. Equipping attachments can sometimes mean you take that little smidge longer to ADS.

The lower ADS speed makes the game more punishing if you mistime it, but it also means players can’t really cheese out kills by quickscoping anymore.

There’s a lot more focus on picking your battles properly, and that’s more tactical, instead of just barging into random houses and massacring enemies with janky shots. There’s still a predominant “camping” problem though, where people hole up in one corner for the entire match and just prey on passing players.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare has very few flaws, and even the ones that we can identify, like the slow, time-consuming movement are there on purpose. As far as I’m concerned, it has well earned its right to be called a prequel to the masterpiece that was the original Modern Warfare.