Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2007) Review

It has been announced that we are set to get Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 this winter, in preparation I thought I would go back and replay some of the other Call of Duty games and I started with Call of Duty Modern Warfare which was first released in 2007 and then remastered in 2016 which is the version I played. The premise of the game sees a group of soldiers from different countries working together in order to stop Nuclear War. 

Characters

In this game you play as two characters Soap Mactavish and Private Jackson. These characters have no dialogue and they are just vessels to what we play as which makes them not that interesting. I have never been a big fan of voiceless characters and COD will do a better job with this in future games. But I will say, the way the game is filmed and made, did a good job in making me care about these characters and build some emotional scenes. 

This game introduces the iconic Captain Price, voiced by Billy Murray, Price became the poster child of this franchise and he is an awesome companion here. He is a cool leader and has some of the most iconic lines in the franchise and is easily the best character here. 

You have quite a few characters that work with you such as Gaz, Lt Vasquez and Sgt Griggs and they are all well done. Gaz is a fun Englishman that has some great one liners whereas Vasquez & Griggs are your pumped up American marines which is a nice change of pace for sure. 

But there is an issue with the villains and the fact that they just aren't interesting. They set up a backstory between Price and main villain Imran Zakhaev but they don't go far enough with it and they don't even really share a scene together in the entire game. Zakheav is just a pretty generic villain and they would get better at writing villains later on in the franchise. 

Story 

The story is really well done here. You alternate between the two main characters and the missions feel completely different and unique. The characters you are with are given a personality and I liked how the story raises the stakes to a ridiculous and over the top level which made it feel like I was playing to save the world. Yes, the villain isn't great but it doesn't hold back too much here and I really enjoyed the ending of the story, it isn't a long story but it is really effective. 

Side Content

To be fair to this game, because of its release date there is basically nobody on the online anymore. But I have played a bit and it is really fun, updated for the modern game and has great action. The maps were all fun and different with plenty of different game modes such as Team Deathmatch, Search & Destroy and Free For All. But there is pretty much no single player side content, this is a shame as it does feel like this game is a bit light on its overall content. 

Gameplay

The gameplay is fantastic, the gun play is exciting and it feels like your character is stuck in these massive battles. This game also has one of the most iconic missions in COD history All Ghillied Up, which is a major stealth mission which would inspire so many missions following. Whether single player or multiplayer this game is always exciting and challenging which is great to see. 

Graphics

As I stated at the beginning, I played this game on my PS5 with the remastered edition, thus the game looks really good. Every character model looks fantastic and the maps are detailed and planned out really well. 

Overall

Overall, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is a great game with that real feeling of COD magic. It was the first game they made that wasn't set in the past and was in modern times so it was a great success and a worthy addition to the franchise. 

Rating - 8/10