With 22 games in its mainline series and a 23rd inbound, Call of Duty is a well-oiled machine, arriving every year like a tactically placed care package to offer multiple modes for every type of player. Modern Warfare 4 refuses to break that trend, with a dedicated campaign, DMZ extraction mode, and the ever-present multiplayer. But how will Modern Warfare 4’s multiplayer stack up against what came before? What king does it need to topple to be declared the best in class? Let’s find out.

Infinity Ward’s second game in its Modern Warfare reboot series proved divisive. A year later, Sledgehammer Games was given the difficult task of taking the bones of Modern Warfare 2 and reworking it to address fan feedback. It achieved that goal in spades. Unlike the campaign, which was universally disliked, Modern Warfare 3’s multiplayer stood tall as the entry’s defining mode.

Modern Warfare 2’s worst additions were removed. The snappy movement of 2019’s Modern Warfare returned, and the recharging perks were scrapped in favour of a gear system that mirrored the classic perk structure. Tac-Stance was introduced, a midpoint between ADS and hipfire that offered better accuracy than the latter but faster movement than the former. And in a series first, all of the previous year's content was carried over into this new release, resulting in a staggering 105 weapons on launch day.

Having great core mechanics would be largely useless without fun maps, though. Rather than start anew, Sledgehammer brought back all 16 original Modern Warfare 2 maps, the 2009 classics given a new coat of glossy paint.

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