Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Campaign Reviews Are In

Early campaign reviews for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 are arriving, and multiple major outlets are pointing to a single-player mode worth your time, with critics highlighting grounded characters, spectacular set pieces, and a deliberate return to the series’ roots after years of globe-trotting excess.

A Campaign Built on Familiar Faces Done Right

PC Gamer calls the campaign one you should not skip, noting that more than half of the roughly six-hour runtime follows a crew of young South Korean marines caught off guard by a North Korean invasion. The reviewer describes the soldiers as familiar archetypes, including a serious type, a quiet audience-insert character, and a joke-cracking American, but finds them charming enough to actually care about. The outlet frames this as Infinity Ward making a deliberate push back toward the grounded, relatable energy of the series’ early installments, a shift away from the superhuman operatives who have dominated the franchise for years.

PC Gamer does flag that the game’s ripped-from-the-headlines premise continues a pattern of flattening complex geopolitical conflicts through a conventionally American lens, a critique worth keeping in mind even as the moment-to-moment experience lands well.

Set Pieces and Story Drive Positive Scores

GamesRadar describes the campaign as hard to put down, specifically crediting spectacular set pieces for keeping momentum high throughout. IGN also filed a campaign review, adding its voice to the broader critical consensus that Infinity Ward has delivered a single-player experience that stands on its own merits.

GameSpot takes the angle that Modern Warfare 4 goes back to basics to properly finish its story, suggesting the game functions as a satisfying narrative conclusion for the Modern Warfare sub-series. The outlet also published a video review framing the campaign around the theme of a high price for revenge, hinting at a story with some emotional weight behind its action.

Full Verdicts Still Pending

It is worth noting that several of these reviews are specifically scoped to the campaign. PC Gamer confirmed its review was conducted at a press event in Los Angeles and that a final score will not be assigned until after public launch, with multiplayer and DMZ impressions still to come. Readers looking for complete scores covering all modes should expect those in the days following the game’s release.

Sources: PC Gamer, GamesRadar, IGN, GameSpot, GameSpot Video