Modern Warfare 4 Campaign Review: A Brutal, Must-Play Ride

What if the next Call of Duty campaign made you question your own morality while you're blasting your way through Seoul? That's exactly what Modern Warfare 4 pulls off, and honestly, it's one of the best the series has seen in years.

The game opens with Wu-Tang Clan's C.R.E.A.M. playing as you wander through the streets of Seoul. Convenience stores are stocked, people are living their lives, and the city feels genuinely alive. Then North Korean forces attack, and Modern Warfare 4 gets down to business. It's a confident opener that echoes the small-town America vibe of 2009's Modern Warfare 2, giving you a real sense of place before all hell breaks loose.

Right now, we can only talk about the campaign, but that campaign is something special. It somehow takes almost a decade of storylines and characters and ties them into a consistent ending to the arc that started with 2019's Modern Warfare. You know, the whole question of who gets to decide what's right when special forces are free to draw the line. It also cleans up most of the lingering threads from the disappointing Modern Warfare 3, largely by killing off a bunch of beloved characters. Brutally. Without warning. The camera even lingers on the bodies to make sure you know they're really gone.

Filling that void are new faces you'll quickly gel with. Mads Mikkelsen is a lot of fun as the big bad, but Lanny Joon's Ko is the standout. You might also squeak with delight when you recognize Luke Tennie from Apple TV's Shrinking. Most of these characters are lightly sketched, but the pace is so relentless you won't mind. Exposition gets whispered in quiet moments as you scurry around hoovering up ammo and armor plates.

This is one of the most morally challenging Call of Duty campaigns in recent years. One level has you playing as a North Korean soldier terrorizing a small village while looking for a dissident. How brutal you want to be is up to you, though the fact you're also hunting for collectibles does undercut the tension a bit. John Price, now on the run after assassinating General Shepherd, has grown a full beard and has to reckon with his own morality. He's kind of a dick here, but that's part of the point. You'll beat someone to death in an alleyway, face off against "good guys" in Paris, and even shoot at former squadmates.

My one real frustration? The game's strict stance against civilian casualties. Innocents are in the middle of most firefights, and clipping one means instant game over while enemies are unbothered. Have you ever tried to fire an assault rifle in fully automatic while hanging from the passenger seat of a speeding car without hitting civilians? I have, and it's pretty difficult. But these moments are rare in a campaign packed with some of the series' most bombastic sequences. The highlight for many will be Stranded, an expansive mission where you drop in with just a pistol and slowly gather gear across the North Korean countryside. You can skip it and fast travel, but you really, really shouldn't. That's followed by an amphibious assault on Seoul that feels like a full-circle moment for Call of Duty, looking back to its D-Day origins.

Modern Warfare 4's campaign is confident, brutal, and unforgettable. It looks superb, moves at a relentless pace, and brings years of storytelling to a satisfying close. Will you be picking this up when it launches on October 23, 2026? Let us know in the comments!