If you’re invested in the fate of Task Force 141, this campaign is unskippable.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 has been billed as something of a conclusion to the rebooted Modern Warfare series as a whole, following a rocky road for the franchise in recent years. After Modern Warfare 3 was criticised for its campaign length and last year’s Black Ops 7 was derided for its bombastically silly PvE campaign, it feels like this game is arriving at a pretty low point.
Thankfully, Modern Warfare 4’s campaign feels like the shot in the arm that the franchise desperately needs. Its story feels simultaneously intimate and every bit as expansive as past installments in the series, bringing the story of Captain Price and Task Force 141 to a climactic finish while setting up a promising new era for new characters to take the spotlight. While its final hours feel a little frantic and nonsensical, we can appreciate the big swings taken, and how the campaign as a whole regains the kind of edge Call of Duty has felt averse to for a long time.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4
Release date: 23 October, 2026
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC
Developer: Infinity Ward
Is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4’s story good?
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4’s approach to its campaign is three-pronged, featuring three different storylines that ultimately converge in a big way at its climax. The first involves Captain Price and Task Force 141, the go-to series protagonists who now find themselves fractured and at odds with one another, following Price’s decision to go rogue in pursuit of returning antagonist Vladimir Makarov.
The second involves an all-new squad of soldiers called Sierra-1, composed of South Koreans and Americans, who find themselves thrown into a sudden invasion of South Korea by the North Korean army. The third storyline involves North Korea itself and its new Supreme Leader Ri Seung-Ho, who has only recently succeeded his father for the position and now has to deal with simmering tensions between the region and South Korea.
There’s a lot going on here, but the roughly eight-to-ten hour campaign manages to deftly balance all of these storylines and characters surprisingly well. While players will most likely be keen on seeing Captain Price’s storyline through, the new faces in Sierra-1 quickly prove endearing enough to carry their own. At the same time, a new antagonist in the form of the Archer–played by Mads Mikkelsen–efficiently ties all of the storylines together, making any emotional investment you funnel into the North Korean and South Korean conflict pay off.
There are a few low points, don’t get me wrong. Much like every other Call of Duty campaign before it, the politics often dip into senseless territory to justify warfare on a global scale, and the adventures of Captain Price and his cohorts can feel a little too James Bond-y to be believable at times.
Still, following the rule of cool isn’t what causes the campaign to dip in quality–it’s the fact that it still feels too short for its own good, despite being one of the longer Modern Warfare stories in recent history. It burns through antagonists at a rapid pace to fuse its storylines together, which works to the benefit of Sierra-1 and Tasks Force 141 getting more screentime, but unforgivably wastes key talent like Mads Mikkelsen’s Archer.
I say “almost”, because Mikkelsen still manages to wrangle a great performance out of an absurdly thin script here, which gives his character–a pivotal figure in the game’s storyline–little to do until its abrupt finale. Makarov’s role in the story also feels pretty underbaked, considering his longtime presence in the Modern Warfare series. The game simply has too many antagonists to juggle, and deals with them all too quickly. A little more time spent with these characters would have been welcome to flesh their motivations out more. Without it, they feel borderline cartoonish in their evil actions.
Thankfully, these valleys don't get in the way of the campaign’s peaks. Even the contrived nature of Captain Price’s alliance with Valeria’s cartel serves to provide dramatic friction between him and the rest of Task Force 141–a squad whose ranks have been cut so thin already, that it’s miserable to watch the few who remain go at each other’s throats. While the tension of the game’s campaign largely rests on their fate, the newer members of Sierra-1 are the heart of the story, providing all the banter and heartbreak that Call of Duty campaigns are known for.
How many levels are in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4’s campaign?
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 has 16 missions in total, and some of them happen to be among the best of this rebooted era. While a few of the levels do boil down to standard run-and-gun fare, a few others are pretty inventive and provide a variety of options for players to manoeuvrer around enemies and dismantle them tactically.
Gone Dark, for example, is a terrific mission that takes Price on a chase through apartments in Mumbai, where he shocks various homeowners by stumbling into their living rooms on his way up and out the building. In Hired Gun, players have to navigate through stacks of shipping containers and time their shots in between passing trains, or jump on top of said containers and take the high ground instead.
A few of the game’s missions also slow things down to flesh out the game’s world. Following Orders is a standout here, putting players in the shoes of a North Korean soldier as they hunt down a defector in a small village. Depending on their actions, the mission can end with one more dead villager, the player character dying, or both. Most importantly, it serves to introduce Ko, an outstanding addition to the game’s ensemble cast, who paints a more layered picture of the game’s antagonistic North Korea.
There is, of course, the obligatory DMZ-inspired level. It breaks away from the campaign’s linear format with an open world mission that has Sierra-1 dismantle various defence facilities in North Korea, with players given the option to fast travel to each objective, or explore the entire environment on their own time. The level also introduces a gear and loot system, but ultimately feels like something you can rush through with the barest minimum of equipment to get to its admittedly intense final objective, which is an all-out assault on a North Korean base.
At best, it serves to endear you to Sierra-1–though its non-linear quest design also makes their interactions feel disjointed and forced.
Verdict
It’s hard to deny that Infinity Ward has put its all into this campaign, when even the recurrent open world mission feels pretty solid this time around. It’s not just the camaraderie of Sierra-1 or downward spiral of Price’s morals that keeps you glued to the controller; but some genuinely fun and inventive level design with jaw-dropping scale, and gorgeous visuals on top of that.
It feels like it’s been a long time since Call of Duty campaigns have felt this fleshed out and consistently fresh throughout, but better late than never again.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 launches on 23 October, 2026, on PC, Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. We received a copy of the game for this review.
How long is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4's campaign?
Modern Warfare 4's campaign can take anywhere from seven to 10 hours to beat, depending on your chosen difficulty. The game's open world mission, Stranded, can take a bit longer if you choose to explore the entire map.
How many game modes does Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 have?
Call of Duty Modern Warfare has a campaign mode, a PvP multiplayer mode, and a PvE DMZ mode.
