War. War never changes... Well, at least Modern Warfare doesn’t. Eight years after the last entry in the original MW series, Call of Duty has breathed life back into the classic sub-series with a mediocre cash-in that hits all the right feels.

When this game was announced, I was pumped as someone who became a “gamer” during the MW2 era, but I also recognized the cash-grabbiness of the move. In short, both feelings were validated by my play time with this new entry.

This new entry (MW19) excels at everything the original games did well—sharp gunplay and a compelling campaign. The game truly shines in its reintepretation of familiar elements from the original MW trilogy! The game capitalizes on gunplay in its new online “Gunfight” mode—a 2v2 mode that provides the perfect, fast-paced gameplay for quick rounds in spare time.

However, the most last impression from the game was disappointment at the changes. First and most jarring, Captain Price is back in likeness, but with a new voice actor. Second, the Special Ops mode that once held my favorite split-screen memories has become online-only, with far less compelling objectives.

For fans of the classic MW trilogy, MW19 will surely please, but don’t expect it to exceed expectations or surprise you.

Was rebooting the Modern Warfare franchise necessary? No, but I do welcome this more realistic version. It feels more serious as opposed to other Call of Duty games, as it feels more adult and dark for this franchise. Other than its amazing campaign, its multiplayer mode is decent enough. In fact, I've been better at this version than other COD games.

The major negative I have is that it's a GB hog. It takes more than 100 GB to play the game and all of its features already, and they update by taking more GB. It's good, just not worth all the space i'm wasting for this one game.

“War has changed."

A icônica frase de Metal Gear Solid 4 é trucidada pela existência de Modern Warfare. Guerras em jogos eletrônicos são quase imutáveis. Os estímulos, principalmente no cenário mainstream, são sempre os mesmos. Andar, atirar, e matar. Alguns jogos conseguem uma certa eficiência em contornar com elementos narrativos uma possível glamourização de violência, mas são poucos. Geralmente se perdem ao ignorar que a jogabilidade faz parte da narrativa em um vídeo game. Exemplo, em The Last of Us você precisa se importar com a violência do jogo mesmo quando mecanicamente o mesmo estrutura o jogador como um homicida. Não se deve analisar um jogo pensando apenas no que ele diz em texto, o coração da narrativa existe no gameplay.

O último Modern Warfare sabe disso. O jogo é um espetáculo de violência. Honesto e direto. Não existe qualquer tentativa de mediação moral na estória, ele é um produto refinado para ter a mais estimulante experiência de guerra, estruturada em ritmo de filme de ação. Tudo é rápido e visualmente instigante. O peso moral do conflito não existe em cutscenes, ele é reflexo da ação desenfreada e ágil. No meio de um tiroteio com inimigos o jogador pode acabar atirando em um civil por acidente, o peso existe, mas é preciso esquecer dele rapidamente e continuar a “robótica” atividade de andar, mirar e matar. Remete a Fervura Máxima do John Woo, na cena do plano-sequência com uma absurda troca de tiros dentro de um hospital, quando o personagem do Tony Leung atira em um policial sem querer e o protagonista interpretado por Chow Yun Fat tenta o convencer que isso não aconteceu. Quando a vida está em jogo, a discussão moral acontece em segundos e a luta pela sobrevivência precisa continuar. Impossível ser mais honesto como proposta.


Para o bem e para o mal, Call Of Duty Modern Warfare é uma bela experiência de fps em combate urbano, inconsequente e mecanicamente refinado. Longe das nuances mais complexas dos primeiros Modern Warfare, o jogo abraça inconsequência em busca de unidade e alcança, mas falta um nível na profundidade de No Russian para realmente ter um debate mais instigante sobre formato.

As someone who was lukewarm about the sequels to the original Modern Warfare because of their heavy emphasis on Michael Bay action and less on grounded military escapades, Modern Warfare 2019 had me hooked from the get-go. In a way, this is exactly what I wanted from Battlefield 3's campaign or the Medal of Honor reboots, it fully delivers where those ones failed. If I'm completely honest, this Call of Duty did the whole "controversial" material presentation right without feeling unnecessarily contrived (see "No Russian"), and I'm glad it handled the material well without overstepping its reach, albeit they really drove home how bad a group of Rogue Russians can be.

This is a solid title that has some incredibly memorable levels alongside some bombastic moments that hold your attention, but not enough to sigh in disbelief. In fact, the entire game was quite memorable from a design standpoint and was done extremely well with plenty of open missions, and some great stealth ones as well. There is plenty of intense action as you go through hallways executing some CQC. It's moments like Clean House that had me really astounded that this was even considered within the realm of a Call of Duty game because it seemed so distant to what it's current identity had become.

I guess that's where some of my problems with the game are that something feels missing from the entire package as if there isn't this magic touch or flare that Call of Duty 4 had with its characters or even cutscene moments (Nuke scene comes to mind). The focus on such hard realism might be the cause of the game feeling underwhelming in certain places. On top of this, there are still tiny strands of Call of Duty DNA lingering from the previous decade of the old games (like MW2) where it prevents the 2019 iteration from reaching entirely new heights whenever it tries to go full-on tactical realism.

Speaking of characters we should talk about the ones we know. I actually love Captain Price's reintroduction and the new Gaz, yet Alex and Farrah didn't do much for me. On one hand, I get their key role in the story, while on the other they just felt fairly okay characters in a game like Modern Warfare. Farah might've felt half-baked but at least she had a backstory and some memorable moments. The same could not be said about Alex who I really can't remember all too well at all because his character just fades into the background for a majority of the game even though you play as him for some levels. In general, characters often felt shallow and much of their development was one note. Although the game left me fulfilled, at the back of my mind I just kind of wanted more from its a stupidly short story that's par for the course for most CoD campaigns which had me craving for more, especially in the character department. The levels are really well-paced with the only exception being The Embassy that dragged on way too long near the end. So having such well-paced levels in tandem with this short campaign might be the tradeoff.

All criticisms aside, the reboot is really good and I enjoyed it a lot, especially compared to MW2 and MW3, however at the back of my mind it's almost a tie between this and the original. Infinity Ward has sewn the seeds have for an amazing sequel that I'm highly expecting to surpass the original Modern Warfare 2, and the post-credits scene cemented my faith in their new direction. Modern Warfare 2019 is an extremely polished package with plenty of content that doesn't feel stagnant, and offers plenty of value, especially with Warzone being a free to play homerun. I really love this game and it does so much right. Suffice to say this is the best the series has been in ages.

Modern Warfare’s campaign is a triumph. The incredibly realistic graphics and top-notch sound design really helps immerse you in the experience. Though I would’ve liked to have seen a more diverse colour palette, with more location variety. The story had me engaged more than any other game in the series with fantastic performances from the likes of Captain Price, Farah and Alex. I particularly enjoyed the flashback missions which really helps paint a picture of why Farah and Hadir’s are fighting for freedom. However, the villains aren’t quite as engaging and are a bit more one dimensional. Moreover, the cliff-hanger ending which so blatantly sets up a sequel was a major anti-climax.

The gameplay itself is fantastic. Very rarely will you be put in the endless shooting galleries of old. There is always something to mix up gunfights, whether it be suicide bombers charging at you, enemies bursting out of doorways or environmental hazards contend with. This variety extends to the mission design, where one minute you’ll be defending a village from mortar fire and suicide vehicles with a sniper, and the next you’ll be sneaking through a cave full of traps and hazards. One particular highlight is a night-time stealth mission where you are dropped into an environment and given the freedom to complete your objectives in whatever way you choose, taking advantage of lighting to conceal your movements. Infinity Ward’s decision to be more experimental with mission design, though not executed perfectly all the time, is an out and out success and I hope the franchise continues to innovate like this in the future.

Unfortunately, the uninspired spec ops mode drags the package down slightly. Missions drag with endless waves of enemies and little of the variety present in the campaign making it too frustrating to be worth your time. Multiplayer on the other hand is pretty good, with frequent updates meaning there are a tonne of maps, guns and game modes to try. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel but it’s a solid package with enough here to engage multiplayer fans.

Modern Warfare is the best COD in years. It has a stellar campaign and a robust multiplayer offering which easily make up for the disappointing spec ops mode.

Campaign was solid, better than WW2, but worse than IW. Spec Ops are terrible, don't know how they failed this badly on it after how amazing it was in MW2 and MW3. Multiplayer has the best actual shooting mechanics of any CoD, but I have serious problems with how it's designed to cater toward campers. Elephant footsteps with no Dead Silence perk (it's a field upgrade instead), low TTK, bad maps with worse spawns, kill streaks instead of score streaks, ect. It's a solid game, but it easily could have been the best CoD game if they actually catered the game to, well, people who like CoD instead of BF defectors.

Free content is amazing though, even if they destroyed some classic maps like Scrapyard and Vacant. Also Warzone is amazing, I'd rate that 4 or 4 and half stars separately.