COD MW Remastered review

On November 7th 2007, online multiplayer changed. The fourth installment of Call of Duty was released dubbed “Modern Warfare”. Scheduled to be a big release during it’s build up, no one saw the true extent of the game but as time passed it broke all the records. Selling over 7 million copies by the end of January 2008 (less than 3 months after release) and totalling over 15 million copies sold through it’s history it’s no wonder the average metacritic score on each platform was a jaw dropping 94% for Xbox, 93% for playstation and 92% for PC

But what made it so great that has caused so much hype over the years and so much excitement for the remastered version.

I can go into loads of detail but that would ruin the game for you so I’ll sum it up in a  few sentences but one important one; It has it all!

Call of Duty Modern Warfare brought an intense campaign with drama, action, varied scenarios and most importantly a story people believed in. I’m not saying we all were in a war, far from it, but it was believable for the most part, the issues faced by our beloved Captain Price.

In 2011, a civil war has broken out in Russia between its government and ultranationalists who seek to restore Russia to its Soviet-era glamor. Meanwhile, a separatist group led by Khaled Al-Asad seizes power in a “small but oil-rich” country in the Middle East through a coup d’état. Al-Asad is ruthless and has extreme anti-Western views, which prompts the United States to invade the country. In the afternoon of the second day of invasion, a platoon of USMC 1st Force Recon is sent to capture Al-Asad. The platoon attacks a TV station in which Al-Asad was thought to be broadcasting live and then engages in urban combat in an unnamed city south of the capital. In the meantime, a British Special Air Service (SAS) squad led by Captain Price conducts two important operations, one on a ship in the Bering Strait and one in Russia. Intelligence gathered from the two missions indicates that Al-Asad may be in possession of a Russian nuclear device.

In evening of the third day, the U.S. launches a full-scale assault on Al-Asad’s presidential palace in spite of the SAS warning about the possible nuclear device. As U.S. Navy SEALs invade the palace, the Marines engage Al-Asad’s ground forces. The assault, however, ends in catastrophe when the nuclear device suddenly detonates, wiping out most of the city along with everyone in it.

Refusing to assume Al-Asad dead, Price’s strike team supported by Russian loyalists attacks a potential safe house in a village in Azerbaijan to eradicate the occupying Russian forces and capture Al-Asad. Shortly into the interrogation, Al-Asad’s phone rings. After hearing the voice of the caller, Price executes Al-Asad and reveals that the caller was the leader of the ultranationalists: Imran Zakhaev.

Price tells the story of a mission in Pripyat, Ukraine in 1996. In the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster and the collapse of the Soviet Union, Zakhaev took advantage of the turmoil to profit from nuclear proliferation and used his new wealth to lure soldiers from the Soviet Army to form his ultranationalist party. Price and MacMillan were sent on a black operation to assassinate Zakhaev. From their vantage point on the top floor of an abandoned hotel, Price fired upon Zakhaev with a Barrett M82 sniper rifle, but the shot only severed Zakhaev’s arm. Price’s team barely escaped Zakhaev’s henchmen.

A joint task force composed of the SAS, Force Recon, and the Loyalists attempt to capture Zakhaev’s son, Victor, to learn Zakhaev’s whereabouts but as they corner him on the roof of an apartment building, Victor commits suicide. Enraged, Zakhaev retaliates by launching nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles at the U.S. Eastern Seaboard, which could kill 41 million people. The SAS and Force Recon, however, manage to seize the launch facility‘s command room and remotely destroy the missiles over the Atlantic Ocean. They escape the facility in military trucks with Zakhaev’s forces in hot pursuit.

An ultranationalist Mi-24 Hind helicopter destroys a vital bridge and traps the joint force. The ensuing fight with ultra nationalists leaves everyone in the joint force either dead or severely wounded. Zakhaev himself arrives and begins killing wounded soldiers when loyalists suddenly destroy his Mi-24 Hind and join the fray. Zakhaev is shot dead. Loyalist forces start tending to the wounded immediately.

In the outro, the missiles incident and the ultra nationalists’ support of Al-Asad are hushed up, thus causing the events of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

But that wasn’t all, the online multiplayer broke new ground in it’s perfect execution of not just weapons, perks and killstreaks but also map size, action points in the map, sniping vs close combat and to boot once again it’s all in believable scenarios.

There is no doubt people like myself took advantage of this and after hundreds of hours knew the maps so well I knew based on our team’s location, where you would spawn, then inevitably where you would come from and I’d meet you there unsuspecting and drop you for your tenth respawn.

What I also enjoyed greatly was the ease of weapons, anyone could pick up and use the sniper, a SMG, or my personal favourite the assault rifle. Win a few games, add a red dot sight, stick a grip on it and you were a winner. This game had so many of us hooked on for months all because of simple yet perfect execution of a few elements of gaming.

But there was always one point many of us detested, despised, angered over for days and threw controllers out of windows because of. The Mile High Club achievement.

In essence a simple achievement run from the cargo hold of a plane, up through e3 main deck onto the top floor and assassinate the captor. Easy right, NO on veteran you only have less than a minute to do it all, without dying and it’s the last bloody thing on the game with many gamers still stuck on 980 gamerscore searching for that perfect path, shots and speed to earn this accolade.