Revisiting the last truly great Call of Duty

When I heard Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2019 was back in the limelight thanks to an unusually steep $6 sale on Steam, I wasn't too surprised. Infinity Ward's Modern Warfare reboot was extremely popular in its day, reinvigorating a series that tread water through the mid-2010s and ushering in an era of followups that'd build on its reimagined progression and class systems.

MW2019 was the best these games had ever played, looked, or sounded at the time. Coming back to it now, it's obvious Call of Duty hasn't been meaningfully better since.

The first thing I noticed jumping into a match in 2026 (which only took a few seconds, as it's still popular) is how knockout gorgeous this thing still is. Like seriously, look at this seven-year-old videogame next to 2025's Black Ops 7:

Both look good, but Modern Warfare immediately wins on atmosphere. The cracks in the asphalt, the way those tree leaves are catching the light, the wildly detailed texture work on the aging buildings—what black magic was Infinity Ward up to making this work on an Xbox One?

Sound is still a standout, too. Assault rifles erupt with ear-splitting explosions followed by steel-on-steel cycling, and my kitted out revolver from launch sounds more powerful than its equivalent in BO7. Guns are appropriately loud in the sound mix—so loud that they can drown out the barks of the in-match announcer or interrupt the level-up guitar riff. Last night a teammate firing a Kar-98 rifle from behind caused me to violently flinch in my chair.

I'm reminded that this was Call of Duty redoubling down on grounded "realism" after years of wallrunning and jetpacks. Infinity Ward harnessed the immersive presentational qualities of a milsim within the confines of an arcadey shooter, and it's just as effective now as it was then. It's worth pointing out that this past streak of games helmed by Treyarch, Sledgehammer, and Raven just do not sound or look like this, even when it's clear they're trying to get close.

When folks say Infinity Ward's games are better made than Treyarch's, this is the stuff they're talking about. This game really checked all the boxes—excellent gunplay, memorable maps, sticky progression, and a campaign that doesn't suck (though that Highway of Death mission sure does).

Playing the last few nights, I'm taken by Modern Warfare's subdued Create-a-Class. You only get the basics—three perks, grenades, and two guns with five attachments. It's a bit limiting compared to the Swiss-army-knife-like monstrosities you can throw together in BO7, but that's appealing in its own way. When I can only modify a gun in so many aspects, I'm forced to embrace its intended strengths and weaknesses.

There's this observable pattern in competitive shooters with customizable guns, but especially Call of Duty, where everybody wants to create the same laserbeam. Whatever combination of grips, stocks, or barrels that lower recoil while juicing velocity or fire rate makes that gun objectively better, and therefore the most popular configuration. Modern Warfare's attachments are designed so that you can't boost those key stats without accepting tradeoffs in other areas like movement speed or ADS time.

Treyarch and Sledgehammer have loosened those restrictions on attachments in recent years, allowing up to 10 slots on each gun and mostly eliminating the downsides of making a laserbeam. The result is that every gun in Black Ops is pretty much the same. Modern Warfare isn't perfect in this regard either, but its launch lineup of weapons at least have standout qualities, like the M4A1's balanced damage and range offset by jittery visual recoil.

It's also nice to play Call of Duty from a time before it became a clown show of ugly skins. Modern Warfare still mostly looks like Modern Warfare, and it may be the last Call of Duty we'll ever be able to say that about. Modern Warfare 3 and Black Ops 6 will be forever besmirched by Nicki Minaj, American Dad, TMNT, and The Boys collaborations. Even after committing to chilling out on the tacky crap in Black Ops 7, Activision has proven this was a flat-out lie, with recent collaborations including Fallout and Dave Chappelle (yikes).

The irony is that MW2019 is both the last great Call of Duty and the one that kicked off its new worst era. Back in 2020, just a few months after it launched, Warzone hit the scene. A year later, the reboot was forcibly gobbled up by the battle royale behemoth that Infinity Ward co-created before giving the keys to Raven and saying "see ya."

We're still in this period where "premium" Call of Duty multiplayer is intertwined with Warzone—sharing weapons, classes, and roadmaps—in ways that are frequently a detriment to both games. The ultimate example of this is the modern Call of Duty launcher: a slow, grating layer of annoyware that inflicts extra steps upon those seeking to play it.

The only mercy today is that MW2019 was eventually decoupled from Warzone back into its own standalone product, though for some reason you still have to select it from a smaller launcher that also includes Modern Warfare 2 (2022), even if you don't own it or want it.

It speaks volumes of this particular chapter of Modern Warfare that it's worth the launcher hurdle. Seven years later, this is still the Call of Duty to beat (in retrospect, even better than the sequel I gave a higher score).

I imagine this is the sort of rekindled excitement Activision was angling for with the big discount, as 2026 is Infinity Ward's chance yet again to drag the series it created back to the forefront.