Review of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare

There is really one word I can think to describe the campaign of this game. Intense. The game takes place in the fictional country of Urzikstan, but it is rather apparent that the real life parallel is that of Syria. There are many instances of "morally grey" choices that appear throughout the game, that add depth, but at times seems to beat you over the head. The lack of a soundtrack in many integral parts of the campaign, mainly the mission "Clean House" really dials up the immersion and intensity factor. This rarely gets credit in all media, but the sound design is absolutely exceptional in this game! Playing the game on veteran or realistic difficulty also cranks up the intensity. It's honestly a breath of fresh air from previous COD titles that the campaign isn't just a constant run and gun fueled Micheal Bay movie. What I respect most about this title is their ability to capture the toll that civilians take during a conflict. It's something that war games rarely touch on and it was an important aspect I was glad to see. The mission "Hometown" exemplifies this with playing as a little girl in a city being bombed and attacked by the Russians, although the encounter with the roided out Russian in farah's house seemed rather hokey and took away from this feeling. On this topic there is a sort of tragic irony that is very apparent in this game. Other reviews pointed out the blatant Russophobia that is constant in this game. I find it ironic how Barkov labels all the Urzikstani as terrorists when it is clearly not the case and yet in the same game we see the Russian forces committing war crime after war crime without a single soldier questioning their morality. The game is already out and there's nothing infinity ward can do about it now but it would have been interesting to have defectors from Barkov's forces fighting alongside farah and Alex to address this element of Russophobia in the game, rather than labeling the all Russian soldiers as mindless killers. All that being said, I thoroughly enjoyed the campaign and was happy to see infinity ward making a more gritty game and challenging themselves rather than adhering to the generic FPS mold.