So I played and finished it. As a primarily single player person, I like CoD games for the roller coasters they provide. Made with top prodcution values and amazing art teams, the series has been the best at creating the feeling of being in a battlefield. A highly scripted one, but still fun for what it is. Infinite Warfare to me being one of the best games this gen.
Anyway, I've always prefer Infinity Ward's games as I feel like they are the best at capturing that sense of war and usually are a bit more serious and less edgy then the BLOPS games.
So I was excited about Modern Warfare because I mean Infinite Was top class, but I've also really wanted a modern setting game.
I got to say Modern Warfare is a pretty weird game. It feels at odds with what I expect from CoD.
Now I'm no expert on military shit or history. I will not say the game is propaganda or whatever. I'm sure it is in that it is a western military game. I will say that like a lot of video games when they try to get serious, I feel they kind of suffer. The game wants to be a so much, but in the end is pretty afraid to do that.
So Modern Warfare is pretty serious and really wants to depecit what modern conflict is. I'd say it really does with the London breaching mission and the one in the middle east later. While mechanically pretty whatever, like it's the definition of scripted. But it's presented and atmospheric that you can't help but feel the tension. You know this is how these things go down in real life and the game does try to not clean it up. Women and children are here and sometimes you are forced to shoot women. It's pretty "hardcore stuff". It's the moments that feel like yeah this is modern war.
But then you have the terrorist attack in London. Which does not feel real. The imagery does, but not the game itself. I'm no terrorists expert and while I can sure believe a terrorist shooter could do such a thing. I doubt 50 of them would appear and turn London into a big gunfight. But CoD is Cod and taking on 5 terrorists would be boring.
The game further goes off the rails when in Russia where one of the most intense chases that if it would happen in real life would be pretty much one of the biggest events in the decade, just kind of casually happens.
So it takes me out of this game that seemingly wants to be even more serious then previous games.
It takes me out even more when the game shys away from depicting the actual real evil in war. I don't know how games would depict rape, pedophillia, and so on. I don't want them too maybe, but while water torture was pretty effective I am a bit tired that the only thing games can do to really show how evil war is, is have the bad guy to violent things. It's a prison full of women, I'm sorry more is going to happen beyond just an evil general slapping and denying food to them.
So my come away from this game that in the end it is kind of engrossing, though not as engaging as Infinite. Mostly because Infinite I think had a stronger main character with a defined arc. There Reyes has an easily followable arc. The noble choice of "everyone goes home" is unrealistic and a Captain in war must make flawed and human choices. There the cast was more engaging in thier optimism, and the little character interactions that progressed as the game went on. But it also had a pretty 1 dimensional bad guy. Which sucked, but also kind of meant with it's gritty sci-fi military setting that I wasn't going to be as hard on it if it got silly. Modern Warfare is not silly. And I don't know I feel like that may be at odds with the game.
