Modern Warfare 4 Reviews Roundup: What Critics Are Saying (So Far)

Campaign reviews for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 started rolling out on October 16, 2026, and the early consensus is that Infinity Ward has delivered the best single-player Modern Warfare campaign since 2019. Most outlets have published a campaign review in progress and are holding final scores until they can test the DMZ extraction mode (a battle-royale-and-extraction mode, early access October 20) and full multiplayer (launch day, October 23). The full Metascore on Metacritic reads “tbd, available after 4 critic reviews,” and ten critic reviews were on file as of October 17, 2026. Two have published explicit scores: 70 and 80.

The framework most reviewers are reaching for is the gap with Modern Warfare 3 (2023), which IGN’s Simon Cardy called “the low point of the entire series.” IGN’s review in progress lands the comparison directly. MW4 is “the best Modern Warfare has been since its 2019 reboot by quite some distance.” Modern Warfare here is the 2019 reboot subseries of Call of Duty that started with 2019’s Modern Warfare and continued through 2022’s Modern Warfare II and 2023’s Modern Warfare III.

The verdict so far

The numeric scores that have come in are clustered in the 70-80 range, and the written verdicts trend the same way. The only consistent complaints are: Mikkelsen’s The Archer doesn’t get enough screen time, the counter-based melee system is imprecise, and there is no co-op campaign.

What critics loved

• A real single-player campaign again. IGN’s Cardy praises MW4 as “a full-blown campaign crafted to be played like one, not a hodgepodge of other modes where the story feels held together with sticky tape.” The 16-mission structure splits into Captain Price’s pre-invasion hunt and the Korean conflict frontline. Alternating perspectives keeps mission design fresh.
• Moral weight without melodrama. One of the Metacritic campaign reviews says MW4 brings “surprising moral complexity.” It treats North Korean characters as people rather than a single shade of evil. That same reviewer highlights the emotional anchor of Young Mazino’s Park Hyun Jun, the Korean side’s lead. Mazino is a Korean-American actor known for Beef (2023) and The Last of Us (2025).
• Polished, punchy gunplay and sound design. Cardy on the audio: the Korean battles are “scored with some adrenaline-fuelled electronic orchestrations.” The new physics let you sprint, slide, mount, and peek without losing momentum. The Metacritic “campaign impressions” review praises “refined HDR presentation, ray tracing, and excellent sound design.”
• The Stranded open-zone mission. More on that below, because it gets called out almost universally. Open-zone here means a non-linear mission where the player picks the order of objectives across a large map rather than following a corridor.
• A confident ending for the reboot saga. Cardy frames MW4 as “a confident cinematic shooter that brings almost a decade of storytelling to a satisfying conclusion.” Multiple reviewers note that characters introduced in MW2 (2022) and MW3 (2023) are unceremoniously cut. This gives the new Korean cast room to breathe.

The complaints

• Mads Mikkelsen’s The Archer is undercooked. Cardy: he’s “classically unsettling” but “never given quite enough screen time for me to grow a connection with him.” A Metacritic snippet says his role “feel[s] a bit undercooked.” Reviewers wanted a Makarov-level villain. They got a Bond-villain sketch instead.
• Quick-time melee. The counter-based brawling system is “disorienting” and “imprecise.” It tends to pop up in story-critical moments where a retry kills the emotional impact.
• No co-op campaign. Several outlets flag this as a meaningful absence for a 2026 AAA shooter.
• Makarov is wasted. Cardy: “It is fair to say that the Russian terrorist is not close to being the well-developed threat from the original Modern Warfare 2, which feels like a wasted opportunity to revive a famous villain.”

The standout mission: Stranded

Every reviewer who published a verdict in the first 48 hours picks the same mission. Stranded drops you into a snowy behind-enemy-lines zone. It asks you to forage, craft, and complete three main objectives in any order across a large open map. Cardy calls it “an evolution of Black Ops 6’s Phantom Pain-inspired open zone mission.” It trades the sand for a much cooler climate. The choice to interleave Stranded with the main Korean story makes each of its chosen mechanics make narrative sense. It is also very fun to play through. Cardy says you can move on with the story quickly or spend a couple of hours chasing every snow-covered secret, keypad puzzle, and exotic weapon crate. The Phantom Pain is the subtitle of 2015’s Metal Gear Solid V, whose open-zone design Black Ops 6 (2024) borrowed for one of its missions.

Mads Mikkelsen’s The Archer

Mikkelsen is a Danish actor known for Casino Royale (2006), Hannibal (2013-2015), and Doctor Strange (2016). In MW4, he plays a new antagonist. His name tracks with the franchise’s Bond-coded framing of Captain Price. He is the closest thing the campaign has to a moustache-twirling villain. The reviews split on whether that is the point. The kinder reading, from a Metacritic campaign review: Mikkelsen’s casting “reinforces” the Bond-movie feel of Price’s chapters. His “classically unsettling” presence is genuinely threatening on screen. The harder reading, also from Cardy: the role needed more screen time and more inner depth to land as a proper Modern Warfare villain.

Performance and platforms

MW4 ships on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC (Battle.net and Steam), and Nintendo Switch 2 on October 23, 2026, with campaign early access running now (October 16-22) for owners of the Vault Edition and digital pre-orders. Critics have called out ray tracing and refined HDR presentation on the PC and console builds. Our Switch 2 upscaling notes published the same day detail the DLSS and Filmic SMAA implementation. Our PC specs guide lists the official minimum, recommended, and competitive tiers.

Should you buy it?

Buy MW4 at launch if you skipped MW3 (2023) and have been waiting for a single-player Call of Duty worth playing. The campaign is the strongest argument the series has made for itself in seven years. The Stranded mission is a genuine highlight, and the roughly seven-hour campaign respects your time. If you pre-ordered the Vault Edition or digital Standard, you can already play the campaign in early access. The October 20 DMZ unlock is a free bonus.

Wait for the multiplayer review if multiplayer is the reason you buy Call of Duty. No major outlet has reviewed it yet. The live-service questions (Season 1 timing, the Warzone integration, post-launch map flow) won’t be answered until the week of launch. Our multiplayer beginner’s guide has the confirmed modes and maps.

Skip the launch if you only have time for the campaign and don’t want to pay full price. The campaign will be here in six months at half off. The multiplayer is the half that drops in player count fastest. The release time page is up to date with the Oct 23 unlock and the DMZ Oct 20 unlock.

This page will be updated with the full Metascore, OpenCritic score, and final verdicts from IGN, GamesRadar+, Eurogamer, GameSpot, and PC Gamer once those outlets publish final reviews in the days after launch.

Most of the first wave is reviews in progress, so treat it as a direction rather than a verdict. The complaints line up across outlets (Mikkelsen’s screen time, the melee, no co-op), and the praise centers on Stranded and the Korean storyline. Campaign-only verdicts that follow a weak predecessor can read warmer than the final scores that include multiplayer, so if multiplayer is why you’re buying, wait for the full reviews after October 23.

Correction (October 17, 2026): We originally called The Phantom Pain an MGS V mission and gave a 6-9 hour runtime and a 30-40 minute Stranded time; it's MGS V's subtitle, and IGN puts the campaign at about seven hours.

Edited by Kerwin Stewart, Editor-in-Chief · How we report