Perfectly playable – Gavin Lane, editor
As with millions of people in the 360 era, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare — the original one — was a game-changer for me. I went on to play World at War, MW2, MW3‘s campaign and a smidge of Black Ops before honourably discharging myself from the series. Returning 15 years later, I wasn’t expecting to it to feel quite so familiar, but it’s like I’ve never been away. It feels the same — slower than I expected after two-and-a-half console generations’ worth of progress — with the same funnelling between objectives, barrelling onwards to barks from your sidekicks. It’s still pretty thrilling.
I mention my personal series history because my hiatus probably softened my reaction, certainly on the presentation front. I played through Entrenched in handheld mode and the mission played just fine for me on Switch 2. No, it’s not as sharp as you’d like, but it’s perfectly playable and everything moves at such a clip that you don’t have time linger on the details. The mission mixes up the pace, but action-wise it feels like a good stress test. Aside from some voxel-looking explosions while driving the tank, it performed well in handheld, with HD Rumble offering great feedback.
I especially enjoyed the smudgy finger marks on the mask and lighting effects in the latter areas, and it was all clearly readable — if not clear — on Switch’s screen. I want to go back and dive into the options (I always preferred having ‘crouch’ on the right stick), and all the control and accessibility options here seem to cater to all tastes.
You’re sure to hear justifiable gripes, but for anyone with expectations set appropriately after nine years of handheld ports on Switch, MW4 looks and runs just fine on Switch 2 based on this taster. How that will translate to even more ambitious levels (and multiplayer) is another question, but this appears to be a comprehensive and very competent version.
Guns ‘n’ glitches – Ollie Reynolds, reviews editor
After a stint with Entrenched, I came away with one prevailing opinion: it’s a Call of Duty game. In fact, it felt like an amalgamation of several earlier titles, ending with a blatant nod to the original Modern Warfare in which you’re sprinting out of a burning environment before legging it toward a helicopter.
It’s tough to know exactly what the series can do at this point that feels genuinely fresh and surprising, but there was nothing in this short demo that felt particularly new or different from previous entries. Making my way through the trenches on Veteran difficulty was extremely stressful, while pummelling the enemy with missiles from a tank felt immediately liberating by comparison. This single mission was definitely fun, but in a way that basically every other Call of Duty is fun.
One thing to note is that I noticed a couple of concerning glitches when playing docked. After exiting the tank and making my way into the power plant, I saw what I can only assume was a vehicle scrunched up and swirling through the air at top speed. It just stayed there too, hovering in the air for eternity.
At the end of the mission, two soldiers meeting me on the helicopter failed to load properly, meaning their faces and clothing were completely absent of any texture – it looked weird. Obviously this is only the beta, but from my experience so far, it could use some more polish before 23rd October.
