With high production values and an understanding of what made - and makes - Call of Duty great, Modern Warfare 4 is a much-anticipated, and much-needed, return to form.

It's easy to dislike Call of Duty. Aside from the annual cycle of development, marketing, and controversy that has defined the series identity for the past 22 years, the series has become an integral part of how video games prop up the military-industrial complex . Whilst some of the stories - especially 2025's Black Ops 7 - have deteriorated into the realms of science-fiction absurdity, many of the narratives you'll find in the Modern Warfare splinter of the series are more grounded in reality. When you're playing as semi-fictional UK and US troopers, taking part in illegal operations in foreign territory, wantonly executing people over differences in ideology, Call of Duty can feel gross: paper-thin propaganda designed to glorify war and reinforce lines between 'them' and 'us'.

But Modern Warfare 4 shies away from this. A little.…