Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is a return to one of the franchise's most iconic settings. Developed by Infinity Ward, the creators of the original Modern Warfare in 2007, this reboot follows a.
- Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is a breath of fresh air in the world of first-person shooters. CoD 4 is a very linear game, which runs counter to the current push in the industry for more open.
- Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® engulfs fans in an incredibly raw, gritty, provocative narrative that brings unrivaled intensity and shines a light on the changing nature of modern war. Developed by the studio that started it all, Infinity Ward delivers an epic reimagining of the iconic Modern Warfare.
Published on November 6th, 2019 | by Sean Warhurst
Summary: Although not quite the return to greatness that many fans were hoping for, this reboot of the Modern Warfare series manages to hold its own against the glut of online shooters currently available and offers enough tweaks and revisions to the core gameplay to justify dipping into yet another annual instalment.
Despite what appears to be the general consensus amongst fans, I actually enjoyed Infinity Ward's previous Call of Duty title Infinite Warfare; although I felt that the multiplayer component didn't do quite enough to differentiate itself from that of the previous entry, Black Ops III, the strength of the campaign and the charming Zombies mode inspired by different eras of film all worked together to create a cohesive package that served to ensure that it became one of the more recent CoD titles that I poured the most hours into, second only to Black Ops IV's Blackout mode.
As such, I was eagerly anticipating Infinity Ward's latest effort, hoping that they'd recapture the magic of their previous release's campaign in particular, as I felt that the exclusion of such a mode in last year's entry was one of the few areas where Treyarch dropped the ball.
Out of all of the different sub-series' in the franchise, I'd wager that the Modern Warfare entries are the ones that generally carry the most weight and reverence from a large portion of the fanbase, with both CoD 4: Modern Warfare and MW2 often topping the lists of best overall Call of Duty games.
This means that the latest iteration, simply title Modern Warfare, has fairly lofty standards to reach if it has any chance of being mentioned in the same sentence as these perceived pinnacles of the genre.
So, the question is, has Infinity Ward managed to reach expectations or does this reboot of the series land with all of the impact of a wet squib?
Firstly, let's address the giant pink Elephant in the room – The lack of both a dedicated Battle Royale mode and the removal of Zombies, a series staple for many years. Rumours abound that the former will be coming to the game at some point in the future after dataminers found files with BR attached to them, but removing the dedicated Zombies mode seems to be a permanent thing, at least for this year's entry.
This is a bit of a shame, as the horde mode littered with esoteric quests to complete were where myself and many of my online friends frittered away our hours; for those looking for the thrill of holding off wave based attacks there is the new Special Operations mode but, in all honesty, it feels a little uninspired and, more importantly, lacks the balance and character that the Zombie modes offered up.
Survival Mode is the Horde mode equivalent on offer here, but, and this is a major BUT, it's a PlayStation exclusive for an entire year, so unless you're the proud owner of the little black parallelogram, you're shite out of luck.
There are four missions currently available in Special Ops, each offering up a series of objectives to complete, such as taking out jammers and destroying ground forces using aerial attacks; the variety of things to complete for each mission offers up enough to keep players engaged, but the difficulty really needs to be tweaked as it stands in its current incarnation. You'll often find yourself and your teammates quickly overran by enemy forces and the spawns seem to be kind of all over the place and never in favour of the player.
The campaign, which was by far the mode I was most looking forward to sinking my teeth into, was honestly a little bit of a letdown. It's solid enough from a gameplay perspective but far too short and lacking in the kind of flashy setpieces that have become the norm in this series.
Walking moustache Captain Price makes a return here but the rest of the cast is comprised of new characters that all come off as bland and dry as plain white toast; freedom fighter Farah accompanies the player controlled character Alex as he completes missions in the fictional Middle-Eastern country of Urzikstan and comes the closest to having a compelling character arc but overall both Alex and the SAS Sergeant Kyle are completely interchangeable and lack the personality of someone like Soap MacTavish.
The narrative follows two distinct storylines that coalesce as the game goes on – In an attempt to put a halt to the machinations of a Russian dictator, Alex and militia leader Farah undertake a series of covert missions while Kyle and ‘he of the impeccable cookie crumb catcher' get caught up in a terrorist attack in London's Piccadilly Circus and then attempt to hunt down the remaining members of the terrorist cell, eventually leading them to the very same enemies that Farah and her fighters are attempting to wipe out.
The narrative honestly just comes off as overly earnest at times and feels secondary to the more grounded and realistic take on the action, which is admittedly fairly solid throughout even without all of the whizz bang, gung ho nonsense that has become de rigueur for the series.
The gunplay is top notch here, offering satisfactory weight and impact to your shots, and this element is easily what will keep you playing through the story even if the characters and plot fail to hook you in; shooting bad guys in the face is always fun and never has that been more evident than when enjoying the refined combat of this entry's new gameplay engine, narrative be damned.
This leads into the meat and gristle of the package, the multiplayer; after all, who needs a compelling three act structure narrative when you're shooting your online buddies in the dick from the opposite side of the map?
The multiplayer generally treads familiar ground in terms of whats on offer in the classic modes such as Team Deathmatch, Kill Confirmed, Domination and the like, with the old adage 'If it ain't broke then why fix it?' seemingly the credo in the Infinity Ward offices. New additions, such as Cyber attack and Gunfight are much more measured approaches to online combat, with smaller teams and limited lives making for some super intense battles.
On the other end of the spectrum we have Ground War, which is Call of Duty's take on Battlefield's Conquest mode; allowing for up to 64 players and a bevy of vehicles, it's a chaotic experience that doesn't exactly fit the standard CoD template but makes for some fast-paced fun nonetheless. For a more in-depth look at the multiplayer, scope out our Beta impressions here.
The selection of maps on offer are all well constructed and easy to memorise, something I found the last few titles weren't as accommodating with, and progression paths and upgrades make sense and don't feel like too much of a grind; of course, as has become the norm with titles like this, there are currently no live microtransactions but you can bet your bottom dollar that they'll be coming at some point in the future.
I've criticised this practise before, as publishers wait for the glowing reviews to come out before they start nickel and diming their fanbase as they know that adding them in during the initial reviewing period would likely negatively affect their final score as the implementation becomes more and more predatory and the backlash becomes more pronounced; they also know that most reviewers won't retroactively amend their reviews once the hype bubble has burst, and even if they did it wouldn't affect their precious metacritic score anyway.
Call Of Duty Modern Warfare Mac Review Cnet
It's an incredibly shady way to go about things and is something I'll continue to call out whenever it's obvious that this is route that the publisher is taking. Activision are to be commended to a degree for removing the season pass from this year's entry, but to me all that means is that MTX's are a definite eventuality as they're going to be even more desperate to recoup the revenue lost through making that decision… Sigh.
Graphics and Audio
As is the norm, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is an absolutely gorgeous beast of a game, especially when it comes to the campaign. Multiplayer and Ground War in particular look a little more rough around the edges but it's nonetheless obvious that a lot of care to attention and detail has gone into making this one of the best looking releases of the year and providing a visual spectacle worthy of being one of the publisher's tentpole franchises.
Sound design is also stellar, offering up an almost uncomfortable level of realism in both the sound of the weapons and the resulting wails from your downed enemies and citizens caught up in the gunfire. Directionality is also on point here, making it easy for anybody with a decent set of headphones to identify the points of attack and approaching enemies merely on the sound of their footsteps alone.
Final Thought
Although not quite the return to greatness that many fans were hoping for, this reboot of the Modern Warfare series manages to hold its own against the glut of online shooters currently available and offers enough tweaks and revisions to the core gameplay to justify dipping into yet another annual instalment.
I say this almost every year, but the gunplay seriously feels the best it ever has with this iteration, and the new multiplayer modes offer up some variation on the tried and true formula; the campaign was weaker than expected from a narrative standpoint but the missions themselves are engaging enough from a gameplay perspective to justify a playthrough. Cyberlink mac download.
It's a shame that Zombies and, for now at least, Battle Royale have been excised from the modes on offer, and to be honest neither the handful of new modes or Ground War really make up for their exclusion, but ultimately if you're a fan of the series, you're likely going to enjoy much of what's on offer here, whilst undoubtedly lamenting what's missing this time around.
Game Details
Primary Format – PlayStation 4 (Reviewed), Xbox One, PC
Game Genre – First Person Shooter
Rating – MA15+
Game Developer – Infinity Ward
Game Publisher – Activision
Reviewer – Sean Warhurst
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Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory Review →There is a reason why Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare on PC and consoles has remained so popular for nearly a year since release – it is an excellent game. Often by the time a game is ported to the Mac players on other platforms have moved on to other games, making multiplayer matchups difficult and sharing the single player experience irrelevant. This was certainly the case with the recent release of Fable: The Lost Chapters, which hit the XBOX in fall 2004 and PC a year later in fall 2005. Three years is a very long time to move to the Mac from the PC, and that was reflected by the interest shown by Mac gamers slowly waning to the point that the actual release was met with a collective yawn. Three years is too long, but one year is not too bad at all – again witness the huge outpouring of excitement of Mac gaming forums.
The single player campaign remains something I feel conflicted about: in my original PC review I said 'regardless of how good the game is, I am still stuck with a criticism I always seem to make of these games – they are too short. You will complete it in 4 – 5 hours if you have any experience with first person shooters. And since the games are extremely scripted, replaying them means encountering the same battles fought the same way time and again – in other words there is little inherent replay value outside of multiplayer.' Yet a year later I worked my way through those 4 – 5 hours with the same excitement and joy and fear I experienced the first time.
The game's subtitle 'Modern Warfare' is truth in advertising: gone is the tired feeling World War II shooter series that seemed to be degrading with each entry, replaced with a game encompassing two scenarios of unrest that look and feel very realistic in today's world. This is a game that has upped the ante on a number of levels from previous shooters – it looks, feels and plays better and more intense than just about any other war shooter ever made.
In our review of Call of Duty 2 we noted that it was 'an extremely intense and violent first-person shooter that uses scripting and a new graphics engine very effectively to make you feel immersed in World War II.' Call of Duty 4 is even more intense, more realistic, more brutal in every way – and therefore it is rated M. It isn't just about blood and guts, not just about the amount of strong language – it is about taking you into the depths of brutal engagements that mirror some of the problems happening in the world right now. It connects you to current events and takes it a step further – no longer are you the hero who can live to save the say and win the battle. In this game you truly are just one of a larger force who can die at any moment. It is a subtle change, as it is scripted and not a game-ending event, but that doesn't lessen the impact.
Technically the game is superb, as is the Mac port: action is fast-paced but not arcade-like; weapons look, feel and sound realistic; the chatter between soldiers and orders from officers put you right in the middle of the action. Specific to the Mac port, both the DVD and download versions install easily, though there have been reports of some people having problems getting the download from GameAgent working for them. Personally my download was pegged at 500kB/sec and the whole game came down in under four hours, at which point I backed up the download file and proceeded to install using the code I had been emailed. Everything went smoothly and I was quickly up and playing the game.
Of course there is an immediate irony that struck me while typing that last paragraph: I spent about four hours downloading a game that only takes about five hours to complete. That brings me back to my main point of contention with the game: it is a really short single player game. Which, of course, is why it is a very good thing that the multiplayer game is excellent. As I mentioned at the beginning, the game remains extremely popular on the PC, XBOX 360 and PS3 based on the multiplayer game, and now Mac gamers get to join the fun. As initially released the Mac client wasn't compatible with the PC servers, which was good in a way … I am a decent FPS player, but never put in the time to become more than a middling player on multiplayer maps. So when the PC game came out there was a short period where I could compete on equal terms with others just getting the lay of the land. A year later it is a much different world, much more difficult for new players. So a short period of Mac only gaming gave us a bit of time before jumping into the cold cruel world of multiplatform multiplayer. Fortunately the game is every bit as excellent for multiplayer on the Mac as it is everywhere else. The only complaint I have is that there is no Mac XFire client so you can't find games through that service … but that is out of Aspyr's hands. Too often the Mac release of a game comes too late to benefit from being able to join with a community of diverse talents, so this is a very refreshing change that will give Mac gamers loads of extra value.
The final thing I want to discuss is the DRM scheme if you buy the game online through Aspyr's GameAgent service. DRM stands for ‘digital rights management' and is a form of copy protection aimed at preventing piracy. If you buy the retail disk you simply install, enter your serial number and get to playing. Aspyr's new GameAgent offers online purchase and secure download of select Aspyr games, with Call of Duty 4 being the first. The Mac forums caught fire when the game was released with complaints about download speed, failed downloads, failed installs and so on. This is to be expected for such a highly anticipated game on a new service. Anyone who bought Half-Life 2 through Steam right at release remembers this sort of thing well.
The concern for many users was that they would be chewing through their limited number of activations and downloads. This is because GameAgent uses a DRM system that limits the number of downloads, the time between purchase and download, the number of computers you can install the game on, and the number of activations. In detail, you can install the game on up to two computers, and activate up to ten times. There is no deauthorization method, so when you're done you're done. GameAgent offers an optional (i.e. costs additional money) ‘protection plan' that allows for more downloads over a two-year time period. This system – download-limits, hardware-limits, and activation-limits – is the most … um … limited in the industry: Steam would still download and install a fresh copy of Half-Life 2 for me on my new laptop last week despite having installed and uninstalled it countless times on perhaps a dozen laptops over the last four years. Similarly Direct2Drive and GamersGate allow you to redownload games you bought once you have your account set up. Even EA games, which has similar limits for some things, allowed me to reinstall Crysis again despite having bought it last year and not added download protection.
Am I saying that GameAgent is anti-consumer? Yes. Buying the retail copy will allow you to install and uninstall without limit for all eternity so long as you have compatible hardware. We all know that this game is either already pirated or will be soon enough. Therefore this draconian system punishes one group: those who choose to buy it through GameAgent. That is really unfortunate – especially since shelf space for Mac games is almost non-existent. When I heard about GameAgent I was thrilled – Mac games need no longer be limited to a few online channels, but could be easily grabbed in digital form. Then I discovered that what was offered cost more than the retail copy and had a very short expiration period. Sadly, in this state I have to strongly recommend avoiding GameAgent at all possible costs. Forget convenience, buy from somewhere else.
Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 4
OK, enough negativity – let's get back to the awesome game that is Call of Duty 4 and the wonderful job Aspyr did bringing it to the Mac. It is pretty simple math here: if you are a FPS fan of any sort, and if you have a Mac that will play this game (need either a Macbook Pro or other recent Mac with discrete graphics), then you owe it to yourself to buy this game. The game itself is excellent, and Aspyr did a fantastic porting job. There are retail channels or Amazon available to get your physical copy of the game and completely remove my rant about GameAgent from the equation. But regardless of whether you buy the digital download or physical copy, you will be getting an excellent value for your money and a game that is sure to keep you busy for many, many hours.
Call Of Duty Games
Pros:
+ Excellent technical presentation.
+ Superb port of a superb game.
+ Intense action with realistic sights and sounds.
+ Lively multiplayer community between Mac & PC versions.
Cons:
– Very short single player game
– Demanding system requirements
– Lack of third-party matchmaking options (e.g. XFire)
Game Info:
Platform: Reviewed for Mac, previously released for XBOX 360, PS3 and PC
Publisher: Aspyr
Developer: Infinity Ward (Aspyr responsible for port)
Release Date: 9/30/08
Genre: FPS
ESRB Rating: Mature
Players: 1 – 32
Source: Review code provided by publisher
