By assassinating General Ghorbrani in the middle of the United Republic of Adal, Ghost did not necessarily expect to trigger the ire of his second in command, Major Hassan Zyani. Determined to take revenge on the Americans, the latter has missiles whose location and destination are unknown to Task Force 141, on the contrary of their origin: the country of Uncle Sam itself! Then follows a scenario mixing Russia, Iran, terrorist organizations and fictitious Arab countries, and even Mexican cartels. As usual, this global context is a pretext for missions taking place in the four corners of the globe, and for regular changes of protagonists. For the player who has traveled through the Modern Warfare campaign of 2019 (or even the oldest parts), it is obviously a real pleasure to find Ghost, Soap, Price and Gaz. Other well-known names are also in the game (Kate Laswell, General Shepherd, etc.), while newcomers are appearing: notably Colonel Alejandro Vargas of the Mexican special forces, and Commander Philip Graves, who leads the mercenaries of the Shadow Company. Whether it's the faces of the actors or their voices (including French) the casting is perfectly successful, while the cutscenes are no longer far from leaving the disturbing valley completely. As for the graphics themselves, they progress quite clearly. The advances are particularly visible in the aquatic scenes, because the water has benefited from a special care on the part of the developers. Credible movements, precise colors and realistic reflections make their small effect. But it's arguably the level set in the streets of Amsterdam that sets the bar the highest. The city is teeming with detail, the textures are detailed, the lighting convincing, the reflections numerous, and getting as close as possible to a passer-by is enough for the depth of field to be automatically modified in an adequate manner. Very nice work!
COLLATERAL DAMAGES
Does this mean that the single-player campaign is among one of the best ever and, more specifically, surpasses that of the 2019 reboot? Well no, not really. First of all, players loyal to the saga will not be able to help but feel a little best-of / deja-vu side. Mission in night vision, overflight and attack in thermal vision, collision of oil platform, or fights on a cargo ship, at night and in the rain, we have already done all this in the previous sections. The essential sequence of snipers in camouflage uniforms even goes so far as to ask us to remain lying down and motionless while guards pass only a few centimeters from us. Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare's "All Ghillied Up" mission homage is a bit too conventional and obvious. Paradoxically, the game really tries to innovate in other missions. Sometimes happily, as in this level where we go from one surveillance camera to another in order to give movement and attack orders to Ghost. And sometimes with less success, like the "survival" sequence where a Soap who is much too slow because he is injured must pick up objects in the scenery in order to tinker with different pieces of equipment.
Does this mean that the single-player campaign is among one of the best ever and, more specifically, surpasses that of the 2019 reboot? Well no, not really. First of all, players loyal to the saga will not be able to help but feel a little best-of / deja-vu side.
But the most annoying remains the presence of a significant number of bugs, and this on PC as on consoles. We have seen characters move by sliding, or others change their face too abruptly when we approach. It also had to deal with outright crashes, and one hell of a bug in the “Violence and Speed” mission. This one, very nice and impressive in absolute terms, asks us to reassemble a convoy by passing from one vehicle to another. Bad luck, a script that refused to start made us loop in the sets, generated ad infinitum without anything happening after a few minutes. We tried several times to reload the last checkpoint… to systematically end up with the same result. In the end, we had to restart the mission from the beginning so that the culprit script would eventually trigger and victory could be achieved. In the memory of players who have gone through all the episodes of the saga, we have never seen such an imperfect level of finish. Nothing truly catastrophic compared to some other games, of course, but Call of Duty had gotten us used to better.
THE MULTI FIRST
On the other hand, we did not encounter any problems of this type during our multiplayer games. This aspect therefore remains more than ever central to the gaming experience. The confrontations benefit in particular from proven gameplay providing excellent sensations weapon in hand. It's smooth, fast, and all controls respond well. The customization of weapons is more advanced than ever, thanks to numerous accessories (barrel, laser, scope, stock, muzzle, rear handle, etc.) which influence various parameters (damage rate, range, precision, recoil, mobility, handling...). If some interesting little novelties answer the call, like the inflatable lure, the tactical camera, the diving dodge movement, or the possibility of clinging to certain edges, it is finally the abundance and variety of modes which seem to us the most remarkable. Thus appear on the menu: Control, Domination, Free-for-all, Elimination confirmed, KO, Release of prisoners, Search and destruction or even Team deathmatch. From capturing objectives to simple every man for himself, the different titles give good clues about the nature and variety of the different game rules. theirs on the Battlefield side since they offer a few vehicles and vast playgrounds. There are even bots in the Invasion mode to reinforce its massive aspect.
In addition, players who prefer camaraderie to competition will enjoy the cooperative mode. Again the maps are extremely large, while the objectives vary significantly from one mission to another. "Low Profile" offers two players to remain discreet and infiltrate an enemy base at night in order to recover radioactive objects. "Defended Zone" asks us to destroy air defense turrets several hundred meters apart from each other. "Defender: Mount Zaya" requires us to hold out against several waves of enemies while defusing bombs. And… that's all for now, alas! Indeed, only three co-op missions are available when the game is launched. mod skins for players). Thus, the appearances of Ghost, Price, Soap and Farah seem currently reserved for owners of the Red Team 141 pack present in the Vault Edition of the game, while the Oni samurai is reserved for PlayStation players.
