Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019 video game)

• 1. Introduction

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  Call of Duty: Modern Warfare earned more than 600 million dollars in its first three days on sale. Infinity Ward developed the first-person shooter and Activision published it. It reached PlayStation 4, Windows and Xbox One on the 25th of October 2019. The game was the sixteenth installment in the Call of Duty series and a reboot of its Modern Warfare sub-series. That success came with fierce arguments before and after launch. Critics, players and a console maker all objected to different parts of the game. How did one studio build a new engine and rewrite a famous sub-series? What did it want to say about war today? And why did so many people disagree about whether it got the balance right?

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• 2. Building a New War

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  Infinity Ward began work on Modern Warfare soon after finishing its 2016 title, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. The studio kept to the franchise tradition of a three-year development cycle. At the center sat an entirely new engine for the series. That engine had been in development for five years before launch. It was built jointly by the main Infinity Ward studio in California and a new studio in Poland. It allowed more detailed environments, better volumetric lighting and ray tracing, a technique for simulating how light behaves. It also used advanced photogrammetry, a method of building models from photographs. High Moon Studios, Beenox, Raven Software and Sledgehammer Games all provided additional development.

  Ninety microphones went into a desert with Infinity Ward's audio team. They recorded the sound of each weapon in the game.

  On the 30th of May, the official trailer and the release date were unveiled. Narrative director Taylor Kurosaki then explained that Captain Price would appear in a retconned story. A retcon rewrites history, and here it meant a narrative "where the events in the previous Modern Warfare timeline have not occurred."

  The Syrian Civil War, the 2012 Benghazi attack, the raid on Osama Bin Laden's compound and terrorist incidents in London all shaped the campaign. The story also drew on the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the Iraq War and the Arab Spring. Studio art director Joel Emslie described the narrative as "much more grown-up." He wanted a more intimate and emotional response than the original trilogy, which leaned on bombastic set pieces.

  Campaign gameplay director Jacob Minkoff wanted games to explore topics that the medium usually treats as taboo. He pointed to Homeland, American Sniper and Sicario, which told "relatable, realistic, relevant, and provocative stories that really touch people."

  Consultants from multiple cultures helped the team avoid handling these subjects carelessly. Conflict related to the Middle East takes place in the fictional country of Urzikstan rather than in any real location. Retired U.S. Navy SEALs Mitch Hall and Steve Sanders also served as consultants. Half of the game has been described as morally complex, and the narrative made several playtesters cry.

  The developers still pulled back from some material before release, unsure how much emotional discomfort they wanted to cause. One cut line had a Russian soldier considering whether to hand a captured girl to his commanding officer.

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• 3. Campaign Choices

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  A civilian woman appears to be reaching for a gun, but she is only picking up her baby from a crib. Moments like this define the single-player campaign, where players must quickly judge whether a character is a threat. At the end of each level, a score called the threat assessment grades collateral damage. It counts the civilians the player injures or kills and runs from rank A to F. Higher scores earn rewards.

  Character dialogue shifts with the choices a player makes. A sniper rifle in a large environment lets players approach objectives in a non-linear order. During breaching and clearing, players can shoot out lights instead of relying on night-vision goggles.

  Three protagonists carry the story. British SAS Sergeant Kyle "Gaz" Garrick is played by Elliot Knight. Alex Keller, a former Delta Force operator turned CIA officer, is played by Chad Michael Collins. Urzikstan Liberation Force leader Farah Karim is played by Claudia Doumit. SAS Captain John Price, played by Barry Sloane, and CIA Station Chief Kate Laswell, played by Rya Kihlstedt, work alongside them. The campaign unfolds over several days in late 2019.

  In Verdansk, Kastovia, unknown hostiles kill the Marine Raiders escorting Alex and escape with a shipment of chemical weapons. A day later, suicide bombers tied to the Urzik terrorist group Al-Qatala attack Piccadilly Circus in London. Gaz and Metropolitan Police officers are sent in, with help from Price. Alex then travels to Urzikstan, where Farah agrees to help hunt the gas. In exchange, he must help her overthrow the occupying Russian forces led by General Roman Barkov.

  SAS forces raid a townhouse in Bideford, Devon, and learn where to find Al-Qatala leader Omar "The Wolf" Sulaman. Alex and Sergeant Marcus Griggs's Demon Dogs capture him at Ramaza Hospital. Jamal "The Butcher" Rahar then attacks the United States Embassy to free him, and the team fails to hold on to its prisoner.

  On the "Highway of Death," Farah's planned ambush collapses when Barkov's soldiers attack both her forces and Al-Qatala. Her brother Hadir, the man who stole the chemicals in Verdansk, sets them off to drive the Russians away. The gas kills Barkov's men and the Al-Qatala fighters, and Farah and Alex barely survive.

  Hadir's reasons reach back to 1999, when Barkov invaded Urzikstan and left Farah and Hadir orphans. Barkov captured them as they tried to flee and imprisoned them for ten years. In captivity, Farah took leadership of the ULF, and she later broke out of the prison camp with Price's help.

  After the gas attack, the US government declares Farah's army a terrorist threat. Alex defects from the CIA and joins the ULF. Price and Gaz travel to Saint Petersburg and meet Nikolai, an old contact of Price's. They capture Rahar, and when he refuses to talk, Price kidnaps his family and threatens them. Gaz is then given the choice to execute Rahar or leave him for the police.

  Rahar reveals that Hadir plans to attack Barkov at his estate in Baurci. Price and Gaz rescue Barkov's family and capture Hadir. Laswell then tells Price that Russia demands Hadir. Price agrees, on the condition that the team keeps its intelligence on Barkov's gas factory in Borjomi.

  The team attacks the factory with explosives provided by Nikolai. The detonator is damaged in the fight, so Alex volunteers to set it off by hand, seemingly sacrificing himself. As Barkov tries to flee by helicopter, Farah ambushes and kills him. Afterward, Price and Laswell discuss creating Task Force 141 to stop a Russian ultranationalist named Victor Zakhaev. They review files on three recruits: Gaz, John "Soap" MacTavish and Simon "Ghost" Riley.

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• 4. Multiplayer Tactics

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  Forty seconds is all a round of Gunfight lasts. This new mode pits two teams of two players against each other in small-scale matches.

  Modern Warfare was the first game in the series to offer cross-platform multiplayer and cross-platform progression. Infinity Ward reworked the mode toward a more tactical style, with a focus on map exploration and door breaching. A Hardcore "Realism" mode removes the HUD, the on-screen display of health and other information. Shared screen multiplayer is supported too, along with bots, custom maps and custom game modes.

  The mini-map was first removed in favor of a compass-style marker, with visual cues to tell friends from opponents. After feedback from the multiplayer beta test, Infinity Ward brought the mini-map back. It dropped the red dots for enemy players, except when the UAV killstreak is used.

  Killstreaks, rewards based on kills, make a return here. More recent Call of Duty titles had used Scorestreaks, which are rewards based on score. A perk called "Pointman" converts Killstreaks into Scorestreaks. The online modes also allow a larger range of players on a map than earlier installments.

  Earlier titles left players motionless on the map while a timer counted down to zero before a match. Here, various animations carry players into the battle zone instead.

  Weapon customization is extensive. Most guns offer a range of up to 60 attachments, and five can be equipped at any one time.

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• 5. The Armistice Story

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  Modern Warfare is the first game since 2013's Call of Duty: Ghosts to ship without a Zombies mode. In its place stands the cooperative Special Ops mode, which earlier appeared in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. At launch it offered four Operations, which are multi-objective missions on a large open map that require four players. It also offered Classic Special Ops, with smaller missions like the original mode. A Survival mode was a timed exclusive to the PlayStation 4 release until October 2020.

  Special Ops shares a narrative with both the campaign and multiplayer, and that story begins after Sulaman is dead. Al-Qatala re-emerges under a new leader, Khaled Al-Asad, who threatens Kastovian forces in Verdansk. Laswell and FSB Sergeant Kamarov authorize a joint operation called the Armistice. Price, Laswell, General Lyons and Kamarov lead it. Its operators split into two factions: Coalition, made up of Western forces, and Allegiance, made up of Eastern forces.

  The Armistice removes three key figures in Al-Qatala: Almalik, the Landlord; "El Traficanté," the Smuggler; and the Banker, who heads financial operations. After a hostage rescue, the alliance learns that Al-Qatala has been trading arms with Zakhaev. He turns out to be the benefactor behind the group's resurgence.

  The alliance begins to fracture when operators from both factions clash while intercepting an Al-Qatala chemical shipment in Urzikstan. Some time later, Al-Qatala unleashes chemical attacks across Verdansk. Toxic gas surrounds the city, and the factions fight each other and among themselves for survival. Ghost asks Price for reliable reinforcements, and Alex returns, now with a prosthetic leg.

  An intercepted phone call between Al-Asad and Zakhaev reveals weapons shipped to bunkers throughout Verdansk, from experimental prototypes to nuclear warheads. Frustrated with the Armistice, a private military company called Shadow Company sends a squad led by Marcus "Lerch" Ortega into the city's stadium. They believe Zakhaev is hiding there. Price sends Farah and Nikolai to reclaim the subway tunnels that Zakhaev uses to move unseen and to restore power to the metro.

  Task Force 141 hacks into Zakhaev's communications and finds him at a nuclear silo in Bunker 10. He has armed the nuke and is preparing to launch. Price shoots him and throws him down the silo, seemingly killing him. With Nikolai's help, Price stops the launch just in time. Then Soap calls, asking for backup "half a kilometer off the coast."

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• 6. Warzone and Seasons

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  One hundred and fifty players drop into Warzone, the battle royale mode introduced during Season 2. They fight in teams of four, three or two, or alone. It is also released as a free standalone game that can be downloaded independently. Its map combines several locations from Multiplayer and Special Ops. Weapon balancing matches the multiplayer modes, with one exception: higher headshot damage to reward good aim.

  Looting is simpler than in other battle royale games, including the Blackout mode of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4. Instead of browsing an inventory, players see all loot items placed across the map and pick them up. Weapon customization is limited because guns only come as variants with preset attachments. Players can carry up to five armor plates to increase protection and repair them at any point.

  A defeated player does not die permanently. Instead, they are sent to the "Gulag," a prison area where they compete in 1v1 duels for a second chance at the main map. Cash gathered from loot is spent at buy stations on load out drops, killstreaks, equipment and revive tokens for downed teammates.

  Roughly eight weeks is the length of each "Season" of free post-launch material. For the first time in the franchise, the game drops the paid map packs and season passes of earlier years. Infinity Ward also removed loot boxes. All new maps and modes arrive free, while Activision focuses on microtransactions.

  The in-game Store sells bundles of cosmetic items such as Operator characters, outfits and weapon blueprints. Everything is bought with COD Points, the currency from earlier Call of Duty titles. The battle pass offers 100 tiers of cosmetic items earned just by playing. New weapons arrive through the battle pass, in-game challenges and store bundles.

  Season 6 brought the "Haunting of Verdansk" for Halloween. It added new game modes and operator bundles based on the films Saw and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. A "Trick or Treat" loot system let players earn personalization rewards. The event ran from the 20th of October to the 3rd of November.

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• 7. Backlash

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  "Fifteen minutes of cold intense ruthless killing" was how Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw, a former affiliate of Escapist Magazine, described the E3 2019 gameplay demonstration. IGN felt it was the most divisive game of the event. Previews had shown child soldiers and the ability to shoot civilians, including infants.

  Emma Kent of Eurogamer criticized a level in which the player apparently controls a child soldier. She felt it merged sensitive subject matter with over-dramatized violence in a boss fight, creating "a Frankensteinian, dissonant mess." She also called another stealth level "heavy-handed" about avoiding civilian collateral damage. Even so, she praised it as "a good exploration of the way terrorists are embedded within civilian communities."

  Cade Onder of GameZone noted that the civilian collateral damage level had only one civilian present, which gave the illusion of choice. He compared the game to Spec Ops: The Line and asked whether killing too many civilians would simply end in a game over. That would create ludonarrative dissonance, a clash between what a story says and what the gameplay rewards.

  The multiplayer beta in September 2019 was withdrawn from the PlayStation Store in Russia for unknown reasons. A prominent theory points to Russian media criticism of the campaign's reportedly favorable portrayal of the White Helmets. That group is a volunteer organisation operating in parts of opposition-controlled and Turkish-occupied Syria. In October 2019, Sony announced that the game would not be sold on the PlayStation Store in Russia.

  The Metacritic user score became the target of review bombing from people who accused Infinity Ward of being Russophobic. The PlayStation 4 user score fell to 3.0/10 and the Windows score to 2.4/10. Players focused on a campaign level revealing that Russian forces had once attacked the "highway of death," killing many civilians leaving a besieged town.

  The real Highway of Death lies between Kuwait and Iraq. In 1991, during the Gulf War, an attack led by American forces there killed 1000 soldiers and civilians. Some players felt Infinity Ward was rewriting history by shifting the blame to Russia. The studio had said the campaign was fiction, and it noted that one Special Ops mission has the player ally with Russian forces. Kurosaki had previously said the story was inspired by real events, including the Soviet-Afghan War.

  A flashback level drew further complaints. Farah Karim, inspired by female Kurdish fighters who battled Islamic State in northern Syria, has her childhood home invaded by a Russian soldier, and she disarms and kills him. Charlie Hall of Polygon later called the soldier a "grotesque caricature." Emslie took the blame for his look, explaining that he imagined the children being chased by "a monster in a maze" and kept thinking of "a Minotaur."

  The multiplayer drew a different objection over white phosphorus strikes offered as a killstreak. The Protocol on Incendiary Weapons, under the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, prohibits using incendiary weapons against or near civilian areas. Former U.S. Marine John Phipps told IGN the killstreak was a "nearsighted glorification" of a violation of the laws of armed conflict. Kallie Plagge of GameSpot listed it among the game's negatives, saying it "goes against everything the campaign stands for."

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• 8. Reception and Legacy

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  "Generally favorable reviews" was the verdict on all platforms, according to the review aggregator Metacritic. Critics praised the gameplay, the multiplayer, the graphics and the overall improvements to the Call of Duty formula. Many considered the campaign one of the best in the franchise. Criticism targeted the handling of the campaign's subject matter and minor balancing issues in some online modes.

  On the 18th of December 2019, Activision confirmed that the game had earned over one billion dollars in revenue. It was the highest-selling game in the franchise during the current console generation. It also set records, including the best digital opening in Activision's history, the most digital units sold in three days on PlayStation 4, and the best Call of Duty launch on PC.

  In Japan, the game entered the top 20 chart with 117,670 units sold in its first week. By September 2020 it had sold over 30 million units. As of 2025 the figure stands above 41 million, which places it among the best-selling video games of all time.

  Awards lists came in large numbers. The game appeared in categories at the Game Critics Awards, the Golden Joystick Awards, The Game Awards, the D.I.C.E. Awards, the British Academy Games Awards and the Webby Awards. Barry Sloane's performance as Price was listed in the British Academy category for a leading role.

  Modern Warfare II followed in 2022, and Modern Warfare III arrived in 2023. The original game reached Steam on the 8th of March 2023. On the 17th of April 2026, it joined Xbox Game Pass across the Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium and PC Game Pass tiers.

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