Campaign early access has been live since Friday, and people seem pretty impressed so far.
No campaign spoilers below. Please keep the replies spoiler-free too.
DMZ early access starts Tuesday, then the full game and multiplayer go live Friday, 23 October. A lot of the bigger outlets are holding their final MW4 scores until then, so I’ll do another roundup once those full-game reviews are in.
Reviews so far
Insider Gaming — 9/10
GamesBeat — 4.5/5
But Why Tho? — 8.5/10
GameSpot — 7/10
PC Gamer — Full review pending, campaign impressions below
GamesRadar+ — Full review pending, campaign impressions below
Windows Central — Unscored campaign impressions, more below
What critics are saying
đź‘Ť Most praised
The big takeaway is that MW4 feels like a proper COD campaign again. People like the big set pieces, strong gunplay, mission variety, and the fact that there's way less of the Warzone stuff that MW3 had. The new South Korean-led squad is getting a lot of praise too.
🤔 Mixed
The biggest split is probably “Stranded”. Supposedly a big open-ended mission where you have much more freedom over how you complete it. Some critics think MW4 finally makes this kind of mission work... Others still seem to prefer the classic tighter and more linear COD experience.
đź‘Ž Most criticised
The six-ish hour runtime comes up a fair bit. Some characters and villains don’t really get enough time, and the final stretch apparently rushes through a few big ideas.
A few of the bigger reviews
GameSpot — 7/10
They call it the best Modern Warfare campaign since 2019. They like how the two sides of the story eventually come together, even if some of the later encounters don’t quite work for them.
PC Gamer — Full review pending
They really like the new South Korean squad. Stranded is a big highlight for them too, especially after how badly MW3’s open missions went down.
GamesRadar+ — Full review pending
They’re pretty hyped about Stranded too, along with the mission variety in general. Their main issue is when the campaign gives you freedom, then suddenly takes it away again.Â
GamesBeat — 4.5/5
Really positive overall, but they go completely the other way on Stranded. They’d have happily swapped some of that open-world stuff for more story and close-quarters missions.
Windows Central — Unscored
They’re very into the campaign overall, especially the performances, story and mission variety. Basically, it sounds like this is the big cinematic COD campaign they were hoping for.
If you’ve finished it, feel free to add your own spoiler-free verdict below. I haven’t played it yet, but I'd love to know how people feel about the whole "Stranded" divide.