'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare' Reviews Praise the Game for Its Grittiness

The reviews are in for the new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and people are really digging the game. While COD became a worldwide phenomenon due to its fast-paced multiplayer combat, it's easy to forget that Infinity Ward excels at producing some pretty excellent single player campaigns too. In fact, that's been a big part of the series' MO since the first Modern Warfare came out.

It was one of the first major titles that attempted to capture the horror of war. In fact, the game opens up with a grisly execution carried out by a terrorist group, and you see it through the viewpoint of the man who's being killed. 

One of the game's protagonists later on, an American Soldier, dies midway through the game — as he slowly fades into nothingness, with his vision blurring, he sees a nuclear warhead go off in the distance. It's a sobering and terrifying experience that players witness firsthand.

The newest COD game, simply titled Modern Warfare, not to be confused with Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, which came out in 2007, is just as intense. The focal point of the newest title is the modern-day ethical struggle of using chemical weapons in war. The center of this struggle is Farah, a young middle-eastern woman who leads a group of freedom fighters and is one of the characters you control in the game's story mode.

Farah's section in the game opens up with her hiding from Russian terrorists who have unleashed a chemical gas in her village. In the flashback scene, she's forced to wrestle a gun from a soldier who's double her size. After killing him, she manages to escape — it's a harrowing section of the game that's used to demonstrate why Farah is so opposed to chemical weapons and will never use them against her enemies.

She's not the only player you command throughout the game, however. Kyle Garrick, a sergeant from the UK and Alex Echo 3-1, an American grunt, are also playable characters with their own storylines that intertwine with Farah's. The US and UK military effort works with Farah to defeat the Russian terrorist threat, and while the group won't mess with chemical warfare, there isn't much else they won't do to overcome their enemy.

The no-nonsense, grim face of war, and huge fan-favorite from the original Modern Warfare is back to help Farah and the new game's band of heroes. Early on, you follow Price's lead as he tells you to ignore civilians who are being killed while you complete your mission.

If you needed a reminder about the kind of man Cpt. Price is — this mission does a good job of it.

As the game progresses, a tension builds between Price & Garrick and Alex & Farah — the latter group is always questioning the morality of what they're doing, whereas the former just wants to get the job done.

Given the game's criticisms of chemical weapons, it's kind of weird that the multiplayer mode rewards a kill streak with white phosphorous, but other than that, there's not much that's surprising about the standard online battle gameplay.

For the most part, mechanics haven't changed all that much, and the maps in the game are all about finding good cover and exploiting various little holes and hideaways to deal damage to your opponents. However, there is one new mode that fans are sure to love.

Bridging the gap between Core and Hardcore modes, "Realism" removes the HUDs and notifications. This means you need to listen to a character you gun down to make sure that they're dead, and the only reason you're privy to air strikes and kill streak bonuses from the opposing team is to listen to communications that come over the radio. Unlike Hardcore mode, however, your health regenerates like it does in Core mode.

The removal of on-screen prompts really makes the game that much more satisfying — you have to pay careful attention to every interaction, skirmish, and communication on the map, adding a heightened level of challenge that many reviewers are praising. In fact, the newest game is receiving a lot of credit for bringing the title "back to its roots", even if the title and its concept is kind of tired by now.

Personally, I feel like if you've played one Call of Duty after the original Modern Warfare then you've played them all, but Infinity Ward really does a good job of keeping things fresh for its fan-base, which is absolutely ginormous. So if you love COD, then this title won't let you down.