Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) – Video Game Review

Introduction. Heroes also need rest. Even the great ones will once hang a combat boot on a nail and give way to the young, and stories about their deeds will be stored only in dusty archives with the label “top secret”. Once, but certainly not today. Tremble, large and small, wooden and armored – not a single door will survive. For Captain Price is back!

COD: Modern Warfare (2019) – Video Game Review

What else has returned, what has disappeared, and what remains unchanged, you will learn from our review of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. The series has remained in the shadows for a long time, and where else to wait for changes, if not in restarting the very game that turned the genre of interactive “Hollywood” action movies twelve years ago?

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After so many ups and downs, new parts are difficult to consider critically, so this time as part of the experiment I’ll try to get as far as possible from value judgments and just tell you what Modern Warfare is rich in what finds were in store for the campaign, what other modes are. And in this situation, it’s even better to start with an “intelligence operation”.

The project came out on three platforms – PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4. You probably heard the story of the mystical disappearance of the game from the local PS Store, I only add that it’s about inaccessibility in the Russian store, and not in Russia – no one forbids to create an account US record, purchase the game for $ 60, upload it to the console, and then use it on the main account.

For the second year in a row, Call of Duty was placed on Battle.Net in the neighborhood of Diablo III, Overwatch, and other Blizzard creations. There are three editions to choose from: in those that are more expensive, they will put on “skins” of the character and other cosmetics, and another 3,000 points for a more confident start in multiplayer. Alas, they do not offer a separate campaign – the minimum equipment will cost the usual 2,000 rubles.

The size requirements on the disk turned out to be exaggerated – after downloading the distribution kit and installing shaders the first time the game takes up “only” 117 GB out of the declared 175. The remaining “fat”, according to Activision, will increase due to content updates.

It’s not so easy to get to funny post-shootings. First line: creating an Activision account – even without it, they won’t be allowed to go into single-user mode. Second: permanent Internet connection – if the connection is lost for at least ten seconds, the action is interrupted, including in the campaign. Most likely, this is only an anti-piracy measure, since there is no noticeable traffic during the passage.

But the game pleases with an abundance of settings. The counter can display the frame rate and temperature of the video card; there are clear explanations of what the change in one or other sliders leads to, as well as tips on which graphic effects are better combined with each other. Everything works very smartly: stable 60 fps available, only the video sequence in the videos hangs during the downloads and lags behind the sound.

The price for performance was an unpretentious appearance – the old engine, what to take from it. Even the Infinite Warfare three-year exposure generated more picturesque shots, and in the new part, fossil technologies mask radically – darkness. You will spend most of the time in the campaign at dusk and at night, where it’s not enough to see the enemies, but at least it’s difficult to navigate somehow.

Localization this time turned out … funny. Since in the story we are again forced to kill bloodthirsty Russians, they decided to “fix” our version: the white helmets on the soldiers were repainted in green, and the references to Russia in some scenes were simply erased: the whole world is at war with the “Russian army”, and we with the “army Barkova. ” Not that these differences affect anything, but it’s better to know about them.

Not a word about the Russians

Around the plot of Modern Warfare (2019), passion is already boiling on the network. Bloggers refuse to promote the game, Activision turns off the CoD Challenge event under the pretext of a tragedy in Transbaikalia, and the advertising of the news disappears from the sites of large media. Is it fair? Yes and no.

I can’t blame the developers for anti-Russian propaganda – they are hostages to their audience, and it is understandable that they are primarily focused on the Americans. For the same reason, even in completely apolitical racing arcades and truck driving simulations, we often travel across the United States. But I can blame them for their complete inability to tell any intelligible story. She is not here.

A new conflict will throw us into the fictitious country of Urzykstan, where Russian General Barkov has been fighting zealously for decades with terrorist rebels by reducing the civilian population. The methods used by the Russian army are used (according to Infinity Ward, of course): hangings and mass gas baiting. At some point, the oppressed lose their patience and steal chemical weapons from the general.

Here the young captain Price enters the stage – at the time of the events he had already acquired a beard and connections in the CIA but had not yet created the famous special squad 141. And his role in the background is this story more about his brother and sister, Kadyr and Farah, who through the fault of Barkov, lost their parents and went to hard labor. Now they want revenge, and we, in the role of faithful Western friends, help them in this.

The trouble with the script is that his message does not go beyond personal revenge. There is no moral: neither gray, nor white, nor violet speckled. The Americans here have to, it is sometimes necessary to be “bad”: sacrifice a hostage with a bomb, or point a gun at a child in order to “split” the prisoner during interrogation. Well, the Russian general is evil because he is evil: he has not prescribed a character, he was not endowed with history.

Moreover, the topic of war crimes is beneficial. The old Spec Ops: The Line talked about the burden of commanders and the consequences of reckless orders. And the recent Ace Combat 7 shows the horrors of war as a result of ideological misconceptions. There really was morality, an attempt to convey that people are only tools of war, and everyone can face a choice between duty and conscience.

However, nothing new

Drop the cranberries with hints of morality, and there will remain the usual story in military scenery with expensive cinematic accents, in which there is nothing to highlight. It’s bitter to admit, but Call of Duty completely got rid of the “Hollywood” – everything that is in this restart has either been in the series before or has long been the norm for the genre. Only one episode from Farah’s childhood stands apart.

But the tasks themselves were pleasantly surprised by the variety and originality. Either you storm the airbase, hitting opponents with mined drones, then in the spirit of SWAT, you clean the lair of terrorists, trying to distinguish militants from civilians. There is an excellent sniper mission, there is a night operation behind enemy lines on an extensive map, there is an episode with “social stealth”. Game designers squeezed the maximum out of the concept.

But after such a game, you cannot say that you satisfied your inner shooter. The campaign takes six hours to complete, and if you do not twist the complexity, then even faster. And this with videos, script scenes, conversational dashes and special actions such as covering up ground forces from a helicopter – a purely firing reaction will hardly reach two full hours without any impurities.
For the supplement, you can go to the “Special Operations” mode, wherein the company of three more people to perform very routine tasks, fighting off crowds of often endless opponents. Here you’ll shoot yourself in plenty, and everything would be great if it weren’t for the overwhelming complexity – the strength and number of enemies cannot be regulated, and only those who play with experienced personnel and clearly coordinate actions will succeed.

This time the zombies and the battle royale were not included in the deal, which is for the best, otherwise, there would be no difference between last year’s Black Ops IIII and the new product. And here is the traditional multiplayer in place. In Modern Warfare (2019), you can even play with the owners of the consoles, but with a separation of the controls: a keyboard and a mouse with a gamepad will not get into one match, and you won’t get around the restriction.

The principles of pumping have slightly changed. Now, upon reaching the last, 55th level, you will earn officer ranks – they give access to special tests and cosmetic items, and at the end of the season, they are reset. Experience can be earned not only in PvP but also in joint mode, as well as completing daily tasks. There are also chains of operations – they unlock weapons and various cosmetics.

Of the new modes, the most interesting is the “Ground War”. This is a 64-person battlefield acquaintance from Battlefield with the participation of equipment (tanks, armored personnel carriers, helicopters) that can be either captured or called up (rewards for a series of killings – yes, they also returned). There is no sense in all of this, for the maps, although voluminous, are moderately chamber and with a large number of shelters, although still a long-awaited variety.

Of course, a classic like “Team Battle” and “Excellence” has not gone away, but there is nothing to say about them. Of the exotics, the “Realism” mode deserves attention – it simply turns off the entire interface, including the crosshairs of the sight and cartridge indicators. This is interesting if it will, then only the first time, until you study the cards along and across.

Official Call of Duty: Modern Warfare – Reveal Trailer

Conclusion

The new Modern Warfare evokes feelings … hmm, no, actually. Standard multiplayer, standard cooperative, standard campaign – everything the project has to offer, you have probably already seen in the series before, and then due to the novelty, it was perceived brighter, more lively. And then the question is whether you are satisfied with the current state of affairs and whether you are ready to put up with the creative stagnation of developers.

The plot can be run once, provided that you have a generous or hospitable friend with a game already purchased – despite the unpleasant political overtones, the campaign can entertain. But still, I can’t get rid of the sad thought that it’s better than in the distant 2007 for the series will be gone. And not because good rides have forgotten how to do it. It’s just that the world has ceased to need them.