Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 isn’t technically out until October 23, but the single-player campaign went live today for anyone who pre-ordered the digital version and a small batch of early reviews have already weighed in on what players can expect. The TL;DR is that it sounds like MW4 gets back to the meat and potatoes of what the franchise’s campaigns do best, even if it might not ultimately rank among the best of them.

There are no scored reviews yet because everyone is waiting for more extensive hands-on time with the multiplayer, including DMZ, before making a final assessment. The in-progress reviews and impressions, however, are much better than the reception last year’s Black Ops 7 got at launch. While that surreal, always-online co-op campaign left many critics genuinely perplexed and disappointed, it sounds like MW4‘s six-hour, 16-mission campaign does exactly what you’d expect from a subseries that now spans seven separate games.

PC Gamer lauded it as a single-player COD experience not to be skipped, and one with some stellar levels that harken back to peak moments from earlier in the series, though it also found the story rushed and unsatisfying, especially the bits that included actor Mads Mikkelsen. “This was billed as the conclusion of the Modern Warfare story that started in 2019, but in practice, it’s more like a sprint to be done with it all,” the site’s Morgan Park wrote.

IGN had similar critiques but was also similarly impressed with the overall package, and pointed to a mission resembling “Korea’s answer to D-Day” as one of the campaign’s large scale highlights.

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