《使命召唤：现代战争4》| 评论界共识

Activision has a lot riding on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4. Last year's entry, Black Ops 7, was poorly received by critics and players, and third-party tracking data suggested the game significantly underperformed compared to other entries in the series.

Early reviews suggest Infinity Ward has regained its momentum with MW4, which currently holds a generally favourable Metacritic score of 84 and has been praised as a return to form.

IGN's Simon Cardy noted that Infinity Ward has "handled this challenge well" in his review-in-progress for the game's story campaign, resulting in "a genuinely exciting string of missions that are great when they focus on what is new, rather than getting bogged down in the past."

Game Informer's Michael Murphy, who rated it 8.5/10, agreed: "MW4 arrives at a crossroads for the series, thanks in large part to the inconsistent quality of recent entries. With a shaky predecessor, Infinity Ward had a lot to repair and conclude, especially with 4 set to bookend the rebooted Modern Warfare series."

MW4 is also the first CoD to launch on a Nintendo console since 2013, and Nintendo Life's Gavin Lane said the title does not disappoint in his 9/10 review, calling it "impressive".

"On Switch 2, you're getting the entire package, presented well, with crossplay and cross-progression," he said, noting that although the campaign runs at 30fps on Nintendo's console (multiplayer aims for 60fps), MW4 "feels smooth in the hands."

"Some fizzy hair and occasionally fuzzy presentation aside, I came away feeling I'd had the full-fat CoD experience. Digital Legends, who handled this version, have made the right compromises to deploy on handheld."

Story campaign

MW4's campaign follows on after its 2023 predecessor, this time centred around a fictitious invasion of South Korea by North Korea.

The Guardian's Keith Stuart describes MW4's story as "a bombastic, thrilling airport novel of a game, crammed with classic CoD set pieces, including but not limited to parkour over Manhattan rooftops, a car chase in Paris and a shootout in a train yard that somehow feels like a cross between Frogger and Time Crisis."

"Throughout the six-hour campaign, bullets fly and buildings collapse, friends become enemies, enemies become friends, and a breathless story of geopolitical skullduggery emerges," Stuart wrote in his 4/5 review.

IGN's Cardy also enjoyed the game's narrative trajectory. He said that while "the general direction of the story may not surprise you, there are some engaging character moments that the past couple of Modern Warfare instalments have desperately lacked."

The story follows Captain Price, who is on the run after the events of MW3. Cardy said his chapters "play like a Bond movie, packed full of parkour escapes, car chases, and stealthy infiltrations."

Nintendo Life's Lane agreed with the set-piece sentiment, adding that the game "cherry-picks and CoD-ifies scenarios from Hollywood blockbusters with panache. Visceral, compelling, satisfying; all the positive yet vague adjectives apply to this romping thriller."

"Funnelled relentlessly between calamitous missions, there's no room to step off the narrative path or catch your breath, but it's a hell of a ride."

Cardy found that while Price's chapters were fun, these ended up being the "weaker half" of the game for him. "Infinity Ward clearly wants Price to be the strongest emotional bond to the player and for his personal vendettas to feel like our own, but, in truth, many more of the missions are dedicated to the Korean conflict. Incidentally, this is also where I found a lot more of the engaging storytelling to be found."

Game Informer's Murphy noted that "the majority of MW4's attempt at wrapping up the overarching plot of the rebooted series works, but it rushes through some character arcs and story beats in uneven fashion."

Gameplay

Most critics were impressed by the open-world segment, which The Guardian's Stuart described as a "nice break from corridor shooting" that "somehow doesn't stall the game's momentum."

IGN's Cardy also enjoyed this section, which he described as an "evolution of Black Ops 6's Phantom Pain-inspired open zone mission." He noted that MW4's take on the open-world formula "elegantly folded into the campaign, making each of its chosen mechanics make narrative sense while also being very fun to play through." These mechanics include foraging, rebuilding outposts, and crafting new equipment.

Cardy criticised the campaign for its "unforgiving stealth segments or asking you to engage in its imprecise counter-based melee system." He also noted that the "first-person thumping can be disorientating at the best of times, and it's not done particularly well here."

"This is made even more frustrating by the fact that it often rears its head during some of the story's key moments, meaning having to retry these brawls lessens the impact of what should feel like emotional hammer blows."

However, Cardy did commend the gunplay, which he found was "refined [and] packing the sort of punch we've come to expect from Infinity Ward, but still shouldn't be taken for granted."

"Movement is slick, being able to transition from a sprint into a slide, before mounting onto a pillar and peeking around the corner to pop a head peeking out of cover [...] Enemy variety may be limited, but a few heavily armoured brutes caused me quite a bit of trouble when trying to stay out of the blast of their shotguns in some tight underground tunnels. Nothing a few stolen explosive shells of my own couldn't eventually sort out, though."

Multiplayer modes

As for MW4's multiplayer modes, Game Informer's Murphy said, "CoD's bread and butter still delivers," and praised the variety that kept "things fresh on the battlefield."

"While it doesn't have the fluidity of Black Ops' newer entries, the customisation and design of weapons and maps make it worth digging into. From small, intimate shooting galleries with Mumbai and Nautical to wide free-for-alls like Coal and Reactor U92, the range helps maintain excitement, even if it gets repetitive over time."

MW4's multiplayer is a "refinement of the turbo-paced, ultra lethal experience of Black Ops 7"

Keith Stuart, The Guardian

"Returning modes like standard Team Deathmatch and Kill Confirmed continue that enjoyable competitive flair that made them the stars that they are. However, new modes like Combat Outpost and Hijack fit right into the already great lineup."

The Guardian's Stuart found MW4's multiplayer to be a "refinement of the turbo-paced, ultra lethal experience of Black Ops 7."

"Players are still extremely agile, able to vault over obstacles and skid around corners, blasting their guns like John Wick on a recently polished vinyl floor. But movement is a touch more naturalistic here, and weapons have a heft to them that makes you feel deadly, even if you’re getting shot in the face every five seconds."

Stuart specifically highlighted Kill Block mode, which "takes place in a modular training centre where three landscape types are randomly selected from dozens of possibilities, then slotted in to a play space at the start of the round so you're never sure how everything will fit together. You might have to move from a train yard to a storage depot to a trench network, and weapons are randomised too, so you could all be fighting with pistols or sniper rifles, adding to the unpredictable challenge."

Nintendo Life's Lane preferred Frontline, "primarily because I could employ my preferred close-quarters shotgun playstyle. Playing on ship-bound Nautical, two teams spawn at their bases either end of the map, running at each other to dominate the middle zone. Nothing revolutionary, but good old-fashioned fragging."

But Lane was critical of Ground War: Combat Outpost, the game's 32v32 mode, which "felt a little repetitive as you pinball between outposts."

"With good team comms or different maps, maybe there's a better time to be had, but with this many players you end up feeling like a small cog in a mindless machine, cycling between losing and winning the same three outposts for 20 minutes. I preferred the more intimate modes."

DMZ

Critics agree that the new extraction shooter mode, DMZ, is a strong addition to the multiplayer lineup, even in early access.

"Exploring the world and gambling on just one final side quest before extraction promises to offer the sort of tension and excitement this genre thrives on," said The Guardian's Stuart. "However, its success will depend on how many players Activision can attract and retain, and to survive it’ll surely have to tempt people over from established rivals such as Arc Raiders and Escape from Tarkov. That could be the toughest mission of all."

Game Informer's Murphy gave similar praise, adding that this mode "impresses out of the gate" and that "fans of Arc Raiders and Marathon should feel right at home as the gameplay borrows from the typical extraction shooter experience."

"Fans of Arc Raiders and Marathon should feel right at home as the gameplay borrows from the typical extraction shooter experience

Game Informer's Michael Murphy

"After a few flat attempts in the past, this is the definitive CoD extraction shooter, whether you play solo, or in duos or trios [...] Fans of Arc Raiders and Marathon should feel right at home as the gameplay borrows from the typical extraction shooter experience."

"Intense, action-packed moments keep you coming back after every win or loss. And the excellent gunplay and level design elevate it into something worthwhile, no matter how you play [...] The unpredictability of it all keeps you on your toes, making for an exciting addition to the already strong multiplayer suite."

Nintendo Life's Lane found DMZ "overwhelming at first," but noted that "conceptually, it's the polar opposite of the stringent, on-rails campaign, and hints at the franchise's future. Whether Infinity Ward can ever integrate the two approaches — or would even want to — is another question, but that's a can to kick down the road once more while they see what sticks here."

Overall consensus

Critics were pleasantly surprised by MW4, calling it a return to form for the series. IGN's Cardy said the game "made [him] feel something for the series again," while The Guardian's Stuart noted, "Infinity Ward and its co-developers have thrown everything they have at this game, and it shows."

"The campaign is short but polished, the multiplayer still grabs you by the neck and DMZ is richly detailed and exhaustive. It's all rendered in incredible audiovisual detail, delivering the spectacle we expect from the series. I’m not sure it'll bring in a vast new audience, especially with GTA 6 on the way – CoD remains a gung-ho Hollywood fantasy of armed conflict that glorifies the military-industrial complex."

Game Informer's Murphy was also enthusiastic. "While the plot execution is a bit shaky," he said, "engaging multiplayer options, including DMZ, aptly demonstrate that Infinity Ward can still deliver compelling military-FPS experiences. MW4 is a strong return to form that serves as a solid sendoff for the rebooted subseries."