Call of Duty: Modern Warfare’s attempts to be thought-provoking drowned out by guns and explosions

The 16th instalment in the beloved first person shooter franchise is now trying to make its players think, but not for very long.

The Call of Duty games still haven’t worked out if they’re a big-budget action movie or some sort of serious commentary on warfare, and the latest instalment hasn’t changed that.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, is the latest release in the popular series, continuing the “ripped from the headlines” approach to things.

The plot careens wildly between thought provoking and all-out action blockbuster spectacle.

Following a prologue mission about poison gas getting stolen in Russia, the main game opens with a terrorist attack on Piccadilly Square in London, involving the detonation of a van full of explosives and lots of people getting machinegunned by a terrorist organisation.

Subsequently, the SAS, CIA and a group of Middle Eastern freedom fighters go looking for the terrorists responsible — which makes for a good action movie set-up but falls apart under the sort of scrutiny the game seems to invite.

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There is a story in Modern Warfare somewhere about the dynamic and ever-changing face of war, how traditional rules don’t apply and how someone can change from a friend to an enemy with the stroke of a pen, but it’s drowned out by all the automatic weapon fire and explosions.

Boomy explosions and fiery battle are still central to the gameplay experience.

While the production values are high and the graphics very good, the campaign isn’t very long at all — six to eight hours or so — which was ultimately unsatisfying, although some of the individual set pieces were really well done and a lot of fun.

There’s also some pretty confronting stuff in the game — terrorist attacks, executions of civilians, murdering wounded attack victims, dead children, torture, and general war crimes.

But the game doesn’t give you much of a chance to reflect on any of this, because pretty much as soon as you encounter one of these atrocities you’re then booting some door in and declaring yourself to be a lead farmer as you unload a hail of bullets into anyone who looks even vaguely like a terrorist or Russian soldier on the other side of it.

On that note, I wasn’t impressed with the cartoonishly evil Russian villains either — it’s not the 1980s anymore, the Cold War is over (spoiler alert: we won) and I found the game going out of its way to show the Russians being extremely horrible was excessive and unnecessary, to say the least.

But when Modern Warfare does take some time to really explore the themes it raises — such as a level where you play as a child caught up in a Russian attack on your town — it’s extremely effective and thought-provoking.

Modern Warfareexcels when it turns up the tension beyond simple explosions and gunplay.

One of the early missions involves a joint counter-terrorism raid on a house in London, and it is very well done — you play mostly in night vision, cramped, and uncertain whether someone is hostile or not, and it was a great contrast to the “safety off, weapons free” approach which features prominently elsewhere in the game.

The controls and weapons handling worked well and can be remapped to suit your personal preferences.

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I really didn’t like how “on rails” the campaign was, however — you were basically forced to take one particular route, with unpleasant and frustrating instant-death situations if you deviated from that.

You don’t get to make any big choices, and I thought a particularly poignant scene at a key point later in the game was mishandled too, with its ramifications and outcome just sort of shrugged off.

Modern Warfareputs players in some interesting places but doesn’t reward exploration.

I also encountered a number of graphical and audio issues in cut scenes on the PC version — particularly lag and audio out of synch with the visuals.

In one mission, the graphics glitched out spectacularly and I had to exit and restart the game to fix it.

The multiplayer maps are fun but pretty standard fare — there’s only so many ways you can shoot at people in camouflage combat gear with an M4, FN-SCAR or AK-47 rifle, after all.

The co-op element is a bit more interesting, continuing the main story where you and three friends (or random internet players) undertake a series of objectives aimed at dismantling a terrorist organisation, but it still came down to enemies swarming you everywhere.

I have to be honest and say I’m not particularly good at multiplayer online shooters, and find constantly getting shot by opponents I didn’t see or who have a lot of time free to master everything to be fun or rewarding.

In this regard, Modern Warfare didn’t seem any worse than any other shooter I’ve played, and the way the maps were laid out meant I finished every match I played with at least some points on the board.

Multiplayer and co-op gives players an opportunity to team up and compete.

Don’t get this game for the story — it’ll take you longer to download it than it will to finish the campaign — but if you like competitive first-person shooter games there’s plenty of modes here and the gun mechanics work well.

The game looks amazing and plays well for the most part, so is worth loading up if you are a fan of modern military shooting games — as long as you’re not expecting a huge campaign and are prepared for a game that doesn’t pull its punches in some areas.

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Originally published as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare’s attempts to be thought-provoking drowned out by guns and explosions