Far Cry 6 – Guerrilla Warfare in a Dictatorship

FPS

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Estimated reading time: 0 minutes

Another island cut off from the outside world, another new main character, and another fool leading a nation that was promised prosperity but instead brought only instability, poverty, and war. In other words, another installment in the Far Cry series. The latest addition to this two-year-old brand is indeed similar in many ways to the previous installments, and once again relies on gameplay that doesn’t put too many limits on dealing with situations in a vast open world, but in some ways, it’s different and even better. In what? Find out in our review.

The Dictatorship of Yara

An island state located in a tropical zone where the rule of one communist party is entrenched in the constitution, and all enemies of the regime end up in jail or even dead. At the head is a despotic leader who first promised freedom to the people, but shortly after assuming the presidency, he surrounded the island with an invisible wall. A poor country with a rich and all-powerful tyrant at its head, which, from our point of view, is stuck in time. We’re not talking about Cuba here, but the primary setting of Far Cry 6. The fictional island of Yara and its president, Antón Castillo, are modeled mainly on Fidel Castro and the Cuban Republic, giving the game a more serious note.

Serious Story or Just an Illusion?

If there’s one thing I want to see in the next installment of the Far Cry series, it would be a more serious story. After all, Far Cry 6 doesn’t offer anything new in that regard either… or so I thought at first. Far Cry 6 feels far more serious in the first few hours than previous installments, and after the game’s opening, I saw Castillo as a very negative character who deserved a bullet to the head for all the crimes he’s committed against his people. No previous installment has ever evoked such emotions in me. Unfortunately, the game quickly reverts to the old ways, where the authors subtly comment on the dictatorial regime in Cuba in the story’s background but throw in side characters competing for the prize of the “funniest” person on the island.

Non-Linear Progression Returns

What Far Cry 2 meant to the franchise in terms of transitioning to the open world, Far Cry 5 later meant non-linear storytelling. So even now, the sixth installment is divided into three large areas, the goal of which is always to take down one of Castillo’s henchmen, no matter what order you choose, which section you go to first, or whether you skip around throughout. So, it’s nice to know that whatever you decide doesn’t disrupt the narrative flow. At the same time, it does show that the story isn’t very sophisticated, but that’s what we’re used to with the series.

A World Full of Activities That Matter

At first glance, Far Cry 6 might not seem that different from previous installments, but there’s no wonder. The game is so gigantic, detailed, and full of activities that the many smaller or larger innovations are lost at first glance. After all, anyone who has played an open-world game by Ubisoft lately will understand me. I would divide the aforementioned new features into two parts, the first of which I have already introduced. Often, familiar activities from previous installments align better with the gameplay and story, making everything feel more natural.

Tactical Combat and Customization

Weapon upgrades are now handled through a robust system where you can use the resources you collect to upgrade your ammo type, sight, and various barrel-mounted accessories and assign multiple perks to each weapon. Many customizations (up to 6 ammo types alone) significantly affect how you play. Armor-piercing rounds are good against armor, while standard ammo with a higher cadence is sufficient for regular soldiers. However, with this, you can hardly kill more vigorous opponents with armor on their heads and chests.

The Supremos backpacks are also a significant new addition to the arsenal. Here, the variability is even wider than in the case of homemade weapons because, on the back, you can carry everything from a mobile launcher of guided missiles to a device capable of disabling all electronics in the vicinity. Even Supremos backpacks can be retrofitted and still have unique perks assigned to them, so you’ll quickly find that upgrading your gear is a bit of a game in itself, and I was pretty surprised at how much time I spent thinking about choosing gear and modifying it to fit my play style perfectly.

A Living, Breathing Guerrilla War

However, it’s not just the homemade weapons that tell you that there’s a guerrilla war going on in Far Cry 6. The game’s theme is also reflected in the gameplay and design of the world itself. We’ve indeed been guerrilla to some extent in previous installments, but it wasn’t until Far Cry 6 that this idea was brought to life. Bribery of guards or making contacts with regime opportunists are now part of the everyday agenda. Guerrilla warfare is not about direct clashes with an enemy with an entire army but targeted raids on strategic locations, sabotage, kidnapping, and subtle assassinations that cause the regime to disintegrate from within.

The Beauty and Chaos of Yara

The prominent landmark of the island is the town of Esperanza, where President Antón Castillo resides. It’s a welcome diversification for the series, where you must think more about verticality. The authors certainly weren’t lying when they promised fights across the rooftops of tall buildings, but also the ability to hide in the old sewer system. Ubisoft has many developers on hand to turn Esperanza into a significant gem of an island that looks great and is also functional. At the same time, the town of Esperanza sets the game’s intense atmosphere with its barricades, gunfire audible from the outlying streets, and residents looking out in fear from their balconies.

Conclusion on Latest Far Cry Franchise Game

Far Cry 6 isn’t without its flaws, which is what you’d expect from an open-world game. The game even carries some problems from previous installments, led by the sometimes confused AI. Indeed, it’s better at hiding behind obstacles, but sometimes, it will do something comically stupid without your input. Right off the edge of the game, for example, while watching the sunset, I saw a boat with two soldiers stopped at the shore by hitting a rock. The result was that the whole ship almost exploded, whereupon one soldier panicked and jumped out of the boat and drowned after a while, while the other walked off down the beach as if nothing had happened. There are also some minor flaws: when selling resources, for example, you can’t see how much money you currently have, and when moving between areas, the GUI, including the minimap, sometimes disappears again for a while, so you can’t see where to go. However, these are minor flaws in the beauty of the best Far Cry installment to date for me personally.

About Far Cry 6

Type of Game: First-Person Shooter, Open-World
Developer: Ubisoft Toronto
Publisher: Ubisoft
Release Date: October 7, 2021
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
Platform Reviewed: PlayStation 5

Where to Purchase

PC: Available on Ubisoft Store, Epic Games Store
PlayStation: Buy on the PlayStation Store
Xbox: Get it on the Microsoft Store

What Remains of Edith Finch – A Haunting Family Legacy

Adventure

By

Petko

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What Remains of Edith Finch - What Remains of Edith Finch - Feature Picture

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

In 2017, the gaming scene was enriched by a big indie surprise in the form of a fantastic adventure game called What Remains of Edith Finch. According to the official website, the game won 29 awards, and the development studio Giant Sparrow was immediately catapulted into the ranks of the most respected developers.

A House of Memories and Secrets

The unforgettable story revolves around the Finch family and their extraordinary house. Many years later, we visit the home of Edith, a young girl who used to live there with her family. Yet she has never been in half the rooms because her mother has sealed them up. The Finches have lived in this house for generations and have long suspected that a mysterious curse lurks around them. It is this that seems to be responsible for the untimely deaths of most of the family, who live in various ways, often in childhood. This is also why the main character’s mother hides the preserved rooms of the deceased and tells Edith nothing. She thinks that there is quite possibly no curse and that people unwittingly induce death simply by anticipating some lousy event. On the threshold of life, however, Edith’s mother hands over the key that unlocks the first door of the hidden room. Thus, one by one, we will explore the secrets of the rooms, and in each of them, we will experience part of the life and the end of the life of its owner, i.e., one of our relatives.

Echoes of the Past

The stories take us back to the 19th century, looking, for example, at the life story of a young film star named Barbara, Walter hiding for many years from the war, and Lewis, who spent his days at work chopping off fish heads while his thoughts drifted into a colorful and vivid imagination. It’s incredible how you experience each story, and, for example, with the latter character, you actually monotonously move the lever on the controller for the decapitation routine while controlling the doll in front of you, representing our imaginations. You start in a 2D world, march ever forward until you reach a 3D world, and eventually experience the imaginary world straight through a first-person perspective. This corresponds to getting more and more into the imaginings, and it’s far from the only convenient analogy. You eventually settle in the top room and write up all your past experiences in a journal. And who is the diary for? I’ll leave that as a surprise…

From Strangers to Family

From almost unknown relatives, you get closer and closer to the present until you reach your closest relatives, such as your grandmother, brother, or mother. Each story you experience is recorded in a diary using a drawn avatar, including something that characterizes the story. This way, there is no need to remember names, which would undoubtedly lead to confusion between some characters. In the notebook, you have a list of names to research beforehand, which also serves as a checklist. It may be that, like me, you accidentally bypass a character, and it would be a shame to miss one of the stories.

A House That Breathes Emotion

Words can hardly describe the game’s atmosphere and how easily it engulfs the player. The title gave me goosebumps on several occasions, whether it was watching the impending death of a toddler or visiting the cemetery next door. While memorable scenes are relatively rare in other games, you encounter one extraordinary scene after another here. One room, for example, is completely covered in pink, another towers over the house and offers a spectacular view of the ocean, while another, on the other hand, is an underground dark hideaway. I would never have believed a house could evoke many different impressions.

Engagement Through Interaction

Empathy is further supported by the controls. Instead of sporadic clicks, everything here is controlled by moving a lever on the controller (if you play on PlayStation like I do). So, you must pull the lever in the appropriate direction when you want to open a door. The same goes for turning the handle, lifting anything, and other movements. The game marks where interaction is possible, and it’s hard to miss what it offers you.

A Narrative Gem Without Barriers

Adventure games are my favorite type of video game, so What Remains of Edith Finch pleased me with its flowing experience. The events build on each other beautifully without the player being relegated to the spectator position, as with games from Telltale Games, for example. At the same time, the game is not spoiled by any complex puzzles or other interactions that would allow one to get stuck and thus disrupt the experience. However, there are moments when a more attentive player will notice the below-average graphics, which can disturb the experience. However, most players won’t notice this in the whirlwind of the extraordinary atmosphere and story. On the other hand, the music, dubbing, and overall sound system is outstanding.

Conclusion

Therefore, I recommend getting straight into the game. It will take you about two, maybe three hours, and while many would have liked a longer game, it is questionable whether this would have been at the expense of quality. You’d better find another game if you expect a cheerful story, smiling faces, and valley sunlight. Here, we experience the end-of-life theme, and the death dates are clearly indicated.

About the Game

Title: What Remains of Edith Finch
Type of Game: Adventure, Walking Simulator
Developer: Giant Sparrow
Publisher: Annapurna Interactive
Release Date: April 25, 2017
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, iOS

Where to Purchase

What Remains of Edith Finch you can buy it digitally on theser platforms:

PC players can grab the game on Steam, Epic Games Store, or GOG.
PlayStation users can find it on the PlayStation Store for both PS4 and PS5.
Xbox players can purchase it through the Microsoft Store for Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.
Nintendo Switch owners can download the game from the Nintendo eShop.
iOS users can play the game on mobile by getting it from the App Store.

Telling Lies – An Intriguing Digital Detective Interactive Film

Interactive Film

By

Petko

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Telling Lies - Interactive Film feature picture

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

An intrinsic curiosity draws us to look into the private lives of others. This burgeoning, guilty draw pulls humans to tell stories, gossip, and spy on one another. The psychology of that feeling is central to Telling Lies. This game isn’t about much more than watching other people’s close, private conversations, sometimes very intimate ones. The game leverages a human desire to pry into others’ lives. That feeling that we’re doing something wrong helps to make the draw even more powerful.

A Game That Barely Feels Like a Game

That feeling is how Telling Lies gets away with being a video game that doesn’t really contain much of a “game,” per se. As with its predecessor, Her Story, director, and writer Sam Barlow, uncovering the sordid details of someone else’s life will lead you through the experience.

Her Story was an experiment that used the concept of skimming through a database of unordered full-motion video clips that slowly expose a mystery concerning a woman questioned by police. There are more characters, more videos, and more details to uncover. The question of how much you’ll enjoy Telling Lies is linked to how far your curiosity will carry you.

The Mysterious Database and Its Secrets

To that end, there’s no good way to explain what Telling Lies is about without ruining it. The game starts with a clip of a woman returning to her apartment and plugging a hard drive into a computer, which gives her access to a secret National Security Agency database of videos snaked from the Internet; essentially, a series of Skype or FaceTime calls made or received by a man named David.

As with Her Story Game, the reason those videos are worth perusing and why the privacy of these people is worth invading is something you have to glean for yourself. As the title suggests, not everybody is fully honest with each other, and much of the game is a meditation on the deceptions humans employ every day in all their interactions. The face we show one person is different from the one we wear for another–and even what we tell ourselves is potentially suspect.

Exploring Truths Through Conversations

Uncovering the lies and their reasoning will likely keep you well-enraptured through the game’s eight hours of video, especially in the early and middle portions when plenty of revelations await you to unearth them. Nuanced performances also help in that regard, even though the actors are mostly just staring into cameras and emoting. You’ll probably recognize the members of the strong cast, led by Logan Marshall-Green (Prometheus), Alexandra Shipp (Dark Phoenix), Kerry Bishé (Narcos), and Angela Sarafyan (American Horror Story). It’s not hard to imagine Telling Lies as a Netflix show if it were presented a little differently. The game part of watching all those videos, and there are a lot of them, upwards of 160, usually is found in figuring out what you’re not seeing or hearing in each one.

The Power of Performance and Storytelling

All of Telling Lies takes place on a computer screen, where you can dig around on the stolen hard drive for additional context (or even play Solitaire), and poking around a bit gives some handy facts about what you’re viewing. The videos can’t be watched chronologically to ensure this particular NSA Big Brother program passes Constitutional muster. You can only search for a clip using keywords, and when you uncover a conversation, you can only see one side of it at a time. Watching each clip is a chance to learn more about the people in it. Still, you’ll also need to pay close enough attention to figure out what words to try next that will help you uncover more of the Story or what words the other person might be using so you can track down their side of the interaction.

Navigating the Search for Hidden Meanings

That system is nearly identical to the one in Her Story Game, with a few improvements. In Telling Lies, you can scrub through videos at various speeds by dragging your mouse to the sides of the screen. You’ll start each video with the keyword you found, so discovering context requires you to dig further into every video. Each selection also includes subtitles, and you can click any subtitled word while watching to use it as a keyword, making searching around easier or allowing you to chase down a thread as soon as you see it.

A Spiritual Successor to Her Way

As noted, Telling Lies expands the ideas inherent to Her Story, which includes many of the same high points and drawbacks. It’s a title in which you need to make your own fun. Uncovering interesting information about the characters or finally drawing a connection between one event and another is satisfying, but that also means that the “game” part of Telling Lies primarily exists in your mind. There’s little to push you forward other than your desire to know more, and you’ll essentially create your own objectives and climaxes in the form of “Aha!” moments along the way.

The Challenge of Creating Your Own Story

The disjointed nature of the Story also means that it’s up to you to impose your own structure on it. Telling Lies doesn’t have easy-to-follow traditional storytelling elements like a rising or climax. It’s possible (although really unlikely) to spot the final video in the sequence immediately after watching the first. Filling in the gaps is part of solving the mystery, but at the same time, Telling Lies ends when you get bored of searching or hit a wall and can’t come up with any fresh keywords.

A Timed Investigation Without Real Pressure

A timer on the screen lets you know how much of the in-game night you’ve wiled away with your inquiries. The game implies you’ve only got until dawn to find everything you can before you’re inevitably snapped up by the authorities for stealing the database.

But come 5:45 a.m., the timer stalls (or at least, it did after I hit the button ending the Story once and then loaded an earlier save to dig around some more). That allows you infinite opportunities to keep searching. Still, the ticking clock is more a contrivance than an actual system, so again, you’re not working toward anything other than your satisfaction.

The Ending – A Question Left Unanswered

That’s never more true than when you trigger Telling Lies’ ending by clicking an “I’m done” button as dawn approaches. Though you’ve dug through what is an illegal NSA database. Your arrest is likely imminent; you get only a vague sense of what the information is for and what you’re doing with it now that you have it.

A final report that gives you a sense of how much of the game you completed and what most often drew your interest gives some suggestions of your character’s final actions. Still, you’re not compiling the raw data into a straightforward story, nor are you leveraging it against the powers hunting you.

Conclusion

The mechanics, writing, and performances create a real feeling of peering into someone else’s private world all the way through. Still, the game doesn’t give you much in the way of agency. Telling Lies allows you to delve into the intimate connections between people, to uncover who they are, possibly to a deeper extent than even they realize.

The production values and performances, in particular, make Telling Lies feel accurate and immediate, elevating the game’s conceit that you’re taking part in something forbidden and possibly sinister, even as you work as a digital detective.

About the Game

Title: Telling Lies
Developer: Sam Barlow, Half Mermaid, Furious Bee Limited
Publisher: Annapurna Interactive
Released: August 23, 2019
Platforms Available: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC, Mac, iOS
Platform Reviewed: PlayStation 5

Where to Buy Telling Lies

Steam (PC, Mac): Available for $19.99 (currently on sale for $4.99). You can purchase the game directly from the Steam Store)
GOG (PC, Mac): The game is priced at $19.99 (currently on sale for $4.99). Purchase it from GOG.com
Epic Games Store (PC): Available for $19.99. You can buy it from the Epic Games Store
PlayStation Store (PS4): The game is priced at $19.99. Check it out on the PlayStation Store
Xbox Store (Xbox One): The game is available for $19.99. You can find it on the Xbox.com
Apple App Store (iOS): Available for $6.99. Purchase it from the App Store

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered – The Best Possible Refresh to Excellent Game

Call of Duty

By

Petko

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered - On a Mission with Task Force 141 COD MW2

Estimated reading time: 9 minutes

After Activision released a remastered version of the original Modern Warfare in 2016, it also attempted to win back the favor of at least a portion of its fan community that didn’t like where the brand was going. While the remaster was absolutely hilarious, it also put the publisher back in a not-so-good situation at the same time. While the game’s multiplayer portion was certainly not among the most balanced and content-rich of the original Modern Warfare, it still managed to entice many players. Some of them were bothered by the novelty and content overkill of the latest installments. In contrast, others simply wanted to play the classic maps endlessly in a beloved title with much nicer graphics. Although a few unnecessary cosmetic changes were not avoided in the remaster, there weren’t too many, and the game remains pleasantly faithful to the original. But back to the Modern Warfare 2 campaign, we’re here for now.

Modern Warfare 2: Visualy Great

Modern Warfare 2 looks really great in the remastered graphics. For those of us who have played through the original game many times, it’s easy to spot the many sub-improvements immediately. The models, especially the character faces, look much better in the remaster, and each level benefits from improved lighting, more detailed textures, particle effects, and other tweaks. The first thing you’ll notice is the fantastically detailed weapons, which the developers at Beenox have done a great job with. You can see grooves, dirt, and all sorts of surface irregularities. By pressing the down arrow, you can get a good look at the weapon in your hands and examine it from all sides.

Furthermore, the lighting is noticeably improved, and it stands out most in the underground Gulag equipped with headlights and other light sources. But the truly incredible sight awaits you during the Battle of Washington, where there’s plenty of fire all around, and the battlefield is bathed in the blazing glow of the setting sun. Modern Warfare 2 already offered levels with a much higher density of individual objects in its original version, and this feature of the game comes to the fore even more in the remastered version. For example, there’s no shortage of furniture and other objects in living areas that react to the ubiquitous gunfire. Similarly, the fight with drug gangs in a Brazilian marketplace is excellent, with bullets flying over water jugs or tearing chunks of fruit.

Audio Lacks Behind Visuals

What could have been better is the sound. It’s not that it’s terrible or not improved over the original. Still, the year-older Modern Warfare 2019 reboot took the series’ soundtrack a long way further, and the difference between the current remaster and the last installment is quite noticeable. For example, there are disturbing moments where you can only hear voices from the radio, even though the person speaking is right beside you. The sound of the 2019 Modern Warfare reboot is also much more surround sound, and you can hear the impact of every bullet. The audio remaster of the second installment certainly doesn’t have such elaborate audio, and its sound settings are surprisingly kept to an absolute minimum here. More specifically, there is only one slider for all the sound, which doesn’t please too much.

Replayability Through Modifiers and Collectibles

Also, you indeed will be interested in the game time. The single-player campaign can be completed in roughly six hours without problems. You will remember the collectibles found in most Call of Duty games. Their role has been improved a bit in the Modern Warfare 2 remaster. Finding a certain number will unlock various modifiers that you can use to spice up your gameplay. Modifiers can be functional, visual, or just plain fun.

So you can, for example, turn on the option that all enemies will automatically drop the grenade when they die. The nice graphics of the game can be hidden behind one of the color filters. Some fun ones include a modifier that replaces your enemies’ heads with pineapples that explode nicely when hit. The game has more than enough similar things.

The Return into the Museum

I was pleased to see that Beenox also brought back the fabulous Museum to Modern Warfare 2, which you unlock after completing the campaign. It’s not just a gallery in the game’s menu but a short level you can freely explore. Here, individual characters, weapons, and military equipment are displayed as moving exhibits in displays reminiscent of the game’s levels. Captions will bring up plot details you may have missed or reveal many interesting facts about modern warfare. Paintings painted by talented individuals from the community hang on the walls, and the entire level has an interesting easter egg, which I won’t reveal here. I definitely recommend visiting the Museum at least once after finishing the campaign, especially for fans who would love to bury themselves in it.

Missed Opportunities for a Trilogy Collection

However, despite all this effort to offer added value, a remastered Modern Warfare would make more sense as a collection of the entire trilogy, like Bioshock or Uncharted. Alternatively, Activision could have rewarded all players with a code to download the first installment. Granted, in the same price range, i.e., roughly $25, you can buy games with similar gameplay length but a remaster of an eleven-year-old game? Despite all the qualities here, I’d rather wait for a discount.

A High-Octane Campaign That Holds Up

Modern Warfare 2’s campaign alone is one of the best the franchise has ever offered. Suppose you’re looking for a title where you can wrack your brain and rush forward through the battlefield, destroying hordes of enemies during epic scenery. In that case, you’ve come to the right place. The story directly follows the events of the previous installment. The thing that’s often classically mentioned in Call of Duty reviews is that logic doesn’t sit too well with Michael Bay’s explosive Hollywood movies. In the case of Modern Warfare 2, it’s very much the same, but in the best way.

New players may find it difficult to follow the short briefings between missions. These were widely criticized then, and many called for them to be replaced with cutscenes, which they eventually were. I see it differently here, too. Not only do the briefings look and sound beautiful, but their brevity also matches the brisk pace of the game while not giving much time to think deeply about all the illogic, which is certainly ideal. The game also constantly changes locations, and the level layouts are much more imaginative than when they first appeared. Routine firefights are continually diversified by various military technology gadgets or adrenaline action passages that last barely a few minutes. For the first time in the series, you break down doors and shoot surprised soldiers in slow motion.

Or maybe even its plot absurdity during the massacre of civilians in “No Russian” still sends chills down your spine, and the mission makes you hate Makarov more than any other antagonist in the series. Messy battles in the back alleys of Brazil will test your ability to navigate space, and you’ll find yourself holding your breath during the desperate fight for the White House. This is accompanied by one of the best soundtracks in the series’ history from composer Hans Zimmer. The game never lets the player breathe a sigh of relief. But at the same time, there are plenty of moments, like when you finish a frantic snowmobile chase by jumping over a precipice, accompanied by incredibly haunting music.

Conclusion to Another Reviewed COD:MW Remaster

The Modern Warfare 2 campaign is still fun, and the improved graphics make it a joy to play even today. You won’t find things like reloading during ADS aiming or the ability to put your weapon on the surface or lean out from behind an obstacle. Beenox wisely decided that this would break the authenticity of the game. None of that matters; Modern Warfare 2 is still a simple but very effective action ride that only lets you out of the saddle after the end credits roll.

About the Game

Title: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered
Type of Game: First-Person Shooter
Developer: Beenox
Publisher: Activision
Release Date: March 31, 2020 (PS4), April 30, 2020 (PC, Xbox One)
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One

Where to Purchase COD MW 2, bit tricky with PC..

You can purchase Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered digitally on:

PC: Available on Battle.net
PlayStation: Buy on the PlayStation Store
Xbox: Get it on the Microsoft Store

Note: This version includes only the single-player campaign with remastered visuals and audio. Multiplayer and Spec Ops modes are not included.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Remastered – A Richly Improved Classic Revisited

Call of Duty

By

Petko

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Captain John Price - Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare Remastered 2016 PlayStation 4 PS5 Retro Review

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

As you may already noticed, we are reviewing variety of “CODs” – the newest and older Call of Duty franchise games. We will start with the well-done Black Ops 6 (2024), followed by our recent retro review of the fantastic original Call of Duty 3 (2011). Now we aim somewhere into the middle.

It’s been over 8 years since the remaster of one of the most popular games in the franchise was released. We’re talking about none other than Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Remastered, which was released on November 4, 2016, for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One as part of Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare in Legacy, Legacy Pro, and Digital Deluxe Infinite Warfare editions. It was handled by a team of developers from Raven Software, who were undoubtedly no newcomers to the market back then, bringing us several DLCs for previous games in the franchise and helping with development, among other things. How did they improve this immortal classic to make it look and play great today? Find out in the following text.

A Misleading Title: Remaster or Remake?

Even though the title of the game says Remastered, the term Remake defines the game much better. This title isn’t just an improved version, which players have been served more and more of lately, but a fundamentally new game, so to speak. When Activision and Infinity Ward announced the original game almost 18 years ago (April 12, 2007, to be exact), setting the battlefield in modern times instead of the popular World War II, many people stared in disbelief and predicted failure. However, as we have long known, upon release, the game became a worldwide success because of its new and fresh setting and defining the action game genre as we know it today.

The Original Legacy of Modern Warfare

The story revolves around Sergeant John “Soap” MacTavish and his allies from Task Force 141, a special forces unit tasked with calming the situation in the Middle East. However, as it soon turns out, the problem is far more complicated than it first appears. The story campaign hasn’t changed much in the remaster, featuring all the well-known levels and similar gameplay to years ago. The developers have changed practically nothing about it, which may bother mainly newcomers a little bit; fans will, of course, overlook this fact, and they will even care a little bit that the controls or movement is not as smooth as in more modern action games, or that the game constantly sends practically endless crowds of enemies at you, who unerringly hit targets or spam you with grenades, which you die from very often. Even the vastly improved visuals I’ll get to can’t hide the game’s age and a few slightly dated elements for today. Still, it’s up to you how you ultimately approach them.

Story Campaign: Timeless Yet Slightly Dated

Even today, Modern Warfare’s story campaign is of high quality. It stands up quietly against the competition, dosing the action well and not threatening to bore you while playing it. Indeed, it offers many memorable moments, be it the ship’s cast in the first episode or the stealthy Chornobyl mission, which fans still remember after almost two decades.

Memorable Missions and Unforgettable Moments

Singleplayer is an excellent action game, but multiplayer was the main thing in the first Modern Warfare. Of course, this can’t be missed in the remaster, and it may come as a real shock for players who are used to the modern installments. No wall-running, sliding, or fast-paced jumping around levels; this wasn’t the rage back in the day. The gameplay is slower, but even today, it still has quite a bit of charm. In truth, I enjoy the multiplayer in old Modern Warfare far more than titles that are only a few years old, and given the number of players playing, I do not share this opinion alone. Understandably, nostalgia may play a big part in this, which may not work for newcomers. However, I’m glad it’s still possible to play Modern Warfare in this state after all these years.

Multiplayer: A Slower but Nostalgic Charm

The Modern Warfare remaster offers many game modes in multiplayer, with Team Deatmatch, Free-for-all, Kill Confirmed, Domination, Sabotage, Search and Destroy, and many more presents. The system of unlocking new weapons and equipment, in general, is, of course, making a comeback. Trough leveling up, you can unlock many new weapons, perks, and even cosmetic items, so you have extra motivation to play.

Game Modes and Unlockable Content

Activision has brought a few remasters to consoles before, and I’m sorry to say they haven’t been very successful. In fact, visually, they haven’t seen much of an improvement. So it’s great to know that Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare isn’t one of these not-so-good ports from Activision. It stands high above them. The developers from Raven Software didn’t settle for a simple port but redesigned many textures, added new visual effects, or improved the lighting, resulting in a magnificent spectacle with a much better atmosphere at each level.

Visual Overhaul: A Stunning Transformation

The game has dramatically improved visual quality, which many certainly didn’t expect. I first played this remaster years ago on a PlayStation 4, which runs natively at 1080p resolution, with only the occasional framerate drop in the most challenging scenes in singleplayer. For the most part, though, the game runs steadily at 60fps in multiplayer. I subsequently played the game again a while ago, this time on a PlayStation 5 on a 4K TV (the game ran at 2880×1620 resolution, just like the PlayStation 4 Pro), where the game has a smoother image and is even more visually impressive, especially in the night missions. The framerate is then even better despite the better detail and higher resolution, and there is even less dropout, so the result is outstanding. Multiplayer then, of course, runs at a perfectly stable 60 fps, I didn’t encounter any drops or other technical issues.

Conclusion

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare made it to the consoles of its time in an honest-to-goodness remaster, allowing us to this day to still enjoy a fantastic story-driven campaign and an equally high-quality multiplayer that still retains its unforgettable charm. The game has been beautified visually; it’s doing well in motion, too, and can be enjoyed in a beautiful 4K display. It’s just a shame that for a time, this remaster was only sold with the more expensive editions of Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, which, of course, is now long gone, and everyone can buy this enhanced gem separately, which I highly recommend!

About the Game

Title: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Remastered
Type of Game: First-Person Shooter
Developer: Raven Software
Publisher: Activision
Release Date: November 4, 2016 (bundled with Infinite Warfare), June 27, 2017 (standalone)
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Platform Reviewed: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5

Where to Purchase

You can purchase Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Remastered digitally or physically on:

PC: Available via Steam.
PlayStation: Purchase digitally for PS4 on the PlayStation Store.
Xbox: Buy for Xbox One digitally on the Microsoft Store

*Check for bundled versions, as it was initially included with Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare.