Call of Duty: Modern Warfare brings back new solo campaign

The rumors are true. Activision and Infinity Ward are taking Call of Duty back into the world of Modern Warfare. But rather than continue the series with a Modern Warfare 4, Infinity Ward is going the soft reboot route and starting the series somewhat fresh. The next game in the Call of Duty series is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.

While Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 made headlines by focusing on battle royale over a traditional single-player campaign, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare will go in the other direction. Activision and Infinity Ward have not only confirmed that there will be a single-player story, the two parties are going all-in on the game's narrative experience. Campaign Gameplay Director Jacob Minkoff and Studio Narrative Director Taylor Kurosaki, formerly of Naughty Dog, are returning from Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare to pen another CoD narrative, one that goes down a slightly different road.

Modern Warfare will feature two simultaneous storylines. One will follow the Tier 1 Operators that series veterans are used to seeing. Characters like Captain Price will return, as they investigate a terrorist attack in England. This set the tone for a stage that took place inside a Townhouse, where intel pointed to terrorist operatives. Plainclothes foreigners filled the house and despite the townhouse's normal appearance, they had heavy weaponry at the ready as soon as they spotted military personnel. Stealth tactics were the name of the game, where the idea was to utilize tools like night vision goggles and smoke. However, firefights would occasionally unfold from floor to floor.

Another thing to note is that enemies were not obvious throughout this mission. Again, these were plainclothes character. While the mission made it apparent that the idea was to shoot at male perpetrators, women would frequently reach for weapons and force the player's hand. This is all part of what Infinity Ward is referring to as a more mature tone, with enemies and allies not simply defined, comparing Modern Warfare to Hollywood movies like The Hurt Locker. The tone definitely seems mature, however it also felt unsettling to watch. While Infinity Ward is aiming for unsettling in order to convey the uncomfortable realities of war, this has the potential to raise controversy, a conversation that we'll table for a little later.

The T1 Operators won't be the only story in Modern Warfare, however. Players will also jump into a separate narrative that unfolds from the perspective of rebel fighters. These are the insurgent civilians of Middle Eastern nations that find their lives upended by military invasions and now take up arms to defend their way of life.

The stage for the rebel fighter scenario was set when players were introduced to a young team of siblings named Farrah and Hadir. They witness a deadly attack from a Russian military group, which claims the lives of their father and countless civilians. They must learn to take up arms and escape their harrowing situation before regrouping with other survivors. From there, they'll create a band of rebels to combat the Russian invasion.

Infinity Ward will seek to create two distinctly different campaign expereinces. T1 Operators will focus on superior tech, while the rebel fighter campaign will take advantage of superior numbers. To that end, Modern Warfare will also feature a number of co-op scenarios, in which more than one player can take on certain missions.

Beyond the campaign, Modern Warfare is aiming to be the best-looking out of Infinity Ward's Call of Duty efforts. The latest game will utilize an entirely new engine, built in-house. It will utilize photogrammetry and Raytraced objects to build its environments and effects. It'll also utilize spectral rendering to enhance gameplay when using thermal and night vision tools.

Modern Warfare looks to be a new beginning for Call of Duty and it'll be interesting to see how the community receives the new campaign. No details about the game's multiplayer were revealed, but expect those to pop up in the weeks ahead. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare will release on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on October 25.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?