Author: Trafficblast

The Modern Warfare series has always been about the messiness of modern war–the fundamentally different rules of engagement that come with a battle that has no set battlefield. When the fight could be anywhere at any time, where do you draw the line between doing what’s right and doing what has to be done?

Throughout Call of Duty: Modern Warfare‘s campaign, that line is chemical weapons. It’s a safe line to draw; people are largely in agreement that chemical weapons are beyond horrific. But there are other horrors of war, some of which Modern Warfare depicts, starkly, in strong but uncomfortable missions. Just when it could really make a point about any other aspect of modern war, it pulls back. Modern Warfare makes old observations and presents them with new flourishes. Those new flourishes do make for a good campaign and solid multiplayer. But it’s when Modern Warfare asks you to think harder that it falls short.

Campaign

In one of the game’s most distressing levels, you play Farah, a young girl in a fictional war-torn Middle Eastern country as she hides from both a Russian terrorist and the deadly gas his cohorts have unleashed on her town. To escape, you have to kill a man twice your size with his own gun. It’s a deeply uncomfortable experience. But the flashback serves to illustrate why Farah, now the leader of a group of freedom fighters, refuses to use chemical weapons or associate with anyone who does. It is a hard line she won’t cross, even though she’s had to face a lot of ugliness in the course of defending her country.

In many ways, Farah is Modern Warfare’s moral compass. There are a few key players in Modern Warfare’s proxy war, and everyone you play as–Sgt. Kyle Garrick from the UK, rogue American soldier Alex “Echo 3-1,” and sometimes Farah herself–abides by her one rule. Outside of that, though, the rules are much murkier. In getting pulled into a war between the Russian terrorists, a separatist group from Farah’s country, and the freedom fighters, US and UK military personnel disagree on how best to proceed with the situation–matters of disobeying orders, sacrificing some lives to save others, taking civilian hostages, and even torture. And on these matters, the moral compass is Captain Price.

A returning face from the original Modern Warfare and undeniably a problematic fave, Captain Price is the seasoned badass who takes the lead in most Garrick missions. Early levels with Price are among the best. As a rash and impatient Garrick, you follow Price’s directions in order to save as many people as possible from terrorists–though more than once that means watching as innocent people die while you wait to make the best possible move.

These missions range from large-scale, high-octane firefights to a carefully planned raid on a terrorist hideout with less than a dozen enemies total. You direct a woman through an embassy under siege using security cameras to make sure her path is clear. You quietly search a compound for an enemy using night vision goggles as Price watches overhead, shooting out lights to keep you hidden. Price guides you through the different approaches you need for each mission, and his mentorship–both in the mechanical skills you need to be successful and the hard choices you have to make along the way–makes these missions memorable.

While Alex’s missions don’t stick out quite as much in a gameplay sense, he gets a sniping level reminiscent of the original Modern Warfare’s “All Ghillied Up”–though with more enemies–and otherwise a few cool gadgets. His dynamic with Farah is strong, though. He follows Farah’s lead on her turf and on her terms because he believes in the cause, and they share mutual respect.

It’s disappointing, though, that Farah doesn’t play more of a role. While she is a key part of Alex’s missions and the driving force behind much of the story, you only play as her a few times. On top of the childhood flashback, there is an even more disturbing flashback later on in which you see the full extent of Farah’s resolve. Experiencing her suffering this way borders on unnecessary, as it’s already established in Alex’s missions that she’s a respected leader and a strong-willed person in general. While I liked Alex, I would have rather just played as Farah in those missions than get to know her character largely through her trauma.

I already liked and respected Farah without that context, and despite some questionable decisions, I liked each of the main characters and their small but crucial differences in working toward the same goals. Farah and Alex are principled, whereas Garrick and Price are results-driven. Alex goes so far as to disobey orders in favor of doing what’s right, and when he’s told that would be illegal, he responds, “I’m pretty sure everything we do is illegal.” To Alex, it’s a criticism; to Price and Garrick, it’s an excuse.

That tension builds up over the course of the campaign, and because the characters are likable, it’s easy to at least consider each one’s view of what’s right. But in the end, all you get is a vague “we all did what we had to do” sentiment rather than anything more substantial or interesting. Quite a bit of what you had to do–as Garrick, as Alex, and as Farah–was unpleasant or distressing, but the questions raised by your actions aren’t interrogated further, especially the questionable side of Price’s approach. Modern Warfare’s ending isn’t bad, but it is a safe one, leaving you to think on the harder questions yourself.

If anything, Modern Warfare lets Farah down with the bizarre and much-discussed inclusion of white phosphorus as a killstreak in multiplayer. Given how strong the campaign’s emphasis is on chemical weapons being a reprehensible war crime, it’s tone-deaf to include one in multiplayer, even though one could argue–much like Alex does–that pretty much all of it is illegal at the end of the day.

Multiplayer

Outside of any thematic contradictions, Modern Warfare’s multiplayer is up to par, with a variety of game types for different kinds of players. Across all the modes, maps move away from the obvious three-lane structure in favor of nooks, crannies, and tons of cover; there’s generally a balance of close-quarters and long-range approaches. The standard, highly customizable toolkit for your chosen loadouts returns, with a good selection of perks to suit different game types and playstyles. Modern Warfare largely stays within the strong foundations of Call of Duty multiplayer without pushing them much, with the exception of the excellent Realism mode.

Undeniably the highlight of Modern Warfare’s multiplayer, Realism mode is somewhere between the familiar Core and Hardcore modes, bridging the gulf between them. Oddly enough, in a mode called “Realism,” you can take more damage than in Hardcore, and your health regenerates like it does in Core. But Realism removes the HUD entirely, going beyond Hardcore to strip out the kill feed on top of everything else. In order to confirm a kill, you have to listen for the sound effect that plays upon death, and you also have to listen for NPCs over the comms alerting you to available killstreaks and enemy intel. It’s a fantastic balance for those who want more of a chance to survive a scrap, rather than dying in one or two shots like in Hardcore, but with the rest of the challenge intact. It’s a smart, satisfying evolution, and as a stubborn Hardcore-only player, it’s one I could see myself playing exclusively going forward.

While none of the new game types are earth-shattering, some are better additions than others. TDM 20, a 10v10 version of the classic 6v6 Team Deathmatch mode, is the least inventive or warranted of them, instead functioning as a more bloated version of regular TDM with bigger maps that can make getting back into the action an overly long process. One of the two maps I’ve tried, Euphrates Bridge, also suffers from balance problems on top of that; of the two spawns, one is much closer to the bridge dividing the map, and the closer side was almost guaranteed victory in every match I played. My team once managed to flip the spawn mid-match after struggling against snipers on the bridge for a while, and from there we were able to gain the lead relatively easily.

Gunfight is the antithesis of TDM 20. It’s a one-life, 2v2 mode in which your loadout rotates each round, and the goal is to kill your two opponents with the means available to you before they get you first. Gunfight features small maps with two main routes on each, and quick coordination with your partner–a “you go left, I’ll go right” at the beginning, plus callouts over voice chat if things go haywire–can make or break the fight. With a relatively level playing field, battles are often exhilaratingly close, and it’s hard to get discouraged by a loss since rounds go by so quickly. There’s also a version where you start without any weapons and have to find a gun in the map, which is a fun scramble before the frenzy of Gunfight itself. Either way, the more arcadey bent to Gunfight keeps things light and makes both versions a great addition to the multiplayer suite, if not a huge draw.

Ground War is somewhere in the middle. Maps are sprawling, with five control points to capture and one safe zone for each team on either end. Unlike in TDM 20, you can pretty easily get back to the fight after dying by respawning at any capture point your team owns, or on vehicles or your teammates (provided they’re not actively in a fight). Having objective points is also helpful for keeping such a large game type–it supports 64 players currently–more structured than the free-for-all of TDM. That said, matches can drag on a bit too long, as there isn’t anything to break up the constant tug-of-war for capture points.

There’s also a night vision mode, NVG, for a different take on the same maps, and by its nature it makes things a bit more tense. It pretty much plays the same as the other game types, but you don’t aim down sights in night vision–you have a laser, and that laser is easy to spot. You have to be extra cautious when lining up your shots, paying close attention to sightlines and who might see where your beam is coming from. Like in the campaign, the threatening glow of these beams cutting through the darkness looks excellent, and the slight change of pace NVG affords is enough to keep it interesting and distinct from the daytime modes. Editor’s note: As of October 24, Infinity Ward has removed NVG maps from the rotation and has said it will add them in at a later time. Stay tuned for updates.

Spec Ops

As of this writing, Spec Ops is the mode I’ve had the least experience with, though it’s not one I particularly want to play much more of. On paper, it’s a co-op mode where you and a team complete a set of objectives and are rewarded with some story. You can choose one of several roles at the onset, each with its own ultimate ability–there’s a medic, for instance, that can revive fallen teammates–and as a group, you have to work together to overcome enemies while gaining intel, heading to specific objective points, and so on.

In practice, my team of four could barely complete a handful of the objectives on both of the missions we attempted. This was largely due to frustrating enemy spawning–enemies seem to generate endlessly from all directions, and it’s all too easy to get overwhelmed by them. To add insult to injury, there are also no clear waves. It’s just enemies, from everywhere, at all times. After struggling to fight them off, reviving each other was we each inevitably died, we would end up running out of ammo and dying for good.

We tried a few different approaches on each of the two missions to try to figure it out. Splitting up was a disaster; stealth seemed to have no impact whatsoever on the number of enemies; different loadouts with PvE-friendly perks helped marginally. No matter what we did, it didn’t help our understanding of the mode itself. It’s just frustratingly, inexplicably hard. That said, I will be trying it again in the coming days to see if there was anything we were missing, and I also have to play the PS4-exclusive Survival mode as well as Spec Ops’ Classic mode.

But the pitfalls of Spec Ops don’t detract from what Modern Warfare does well. Realism mode is an excellent addition to the slate, and although not all the new multiplayer modes are great, Gunfight and the Night Vision playlist are refreshing standouts. And while the campaign ends up playing it safe in the end, it’s still a memorable one, and it lays a strong foundation for where the Modern Warfare series could go from here.

Editor’s note: This review, including the score, will be finalized once we’ve tested multiplayer on live servers and played more Spec Ops.

Warning: This post contains spoilers for the story of Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare reboot, as well as the original series. Read on at your own risk!

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare reboots the 2007 game, bringing back some of the same characters but putting them into a new, more contemporary situation. The game reimagines a few specific people and their roles in world events, like series regular Captain Price. It also suggests that more Modern Warfare sequels are on the way and gives a few hints at where the series might be headed in a post-credits scene and with its Spec Ops mode.

To understand the direction of Modern Warfare 2019’s ending, you need to remember the plot from the original series. Those games saw a Russian ultranationalist named Irman Zharkaev attempting to destabilize world politics in order to trigger a world war between the US and Russia–with the help of an American general. Modern Warfare 2019 doesn’t include those old villains, instead focusing on the crisis taking place in a fictional, Russian-occupied Middle Eastern country called Urzikstan. But there are more Modern Warfare series regulars mentioned toward the end of the game, which suggests we might see some of the original franchise’s plot points get reimagined as well.

What Happens In The End

The post-credits scene of Modern Warfare 2019 sees Captain Price meeting with CIA agent Kate Laswell to discuss the future. Price sees the need for a new military unit that can go to hot spots around the world, without implicating any particular government with its operations. That leads to the creation of Task Force 141, with Price running down which soldiers he’d like to recruit for the group, which will fight terrorists and rogue military leaders like those seen in Modern Warfare.

That puts the new Modern Warfare into a rebooted timeline before the events of the original game–we’re seeing Price set up Task Force 141, whereas in Modern Warfare 2007, the group is already in operation. And it seems that this new game could be setting up a reimagined version of some of the events of the first Modern Warfare, as well as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

The Return Of Al-Asad

Start the cooperative Spec Ops mode and you can continue the story of Modern Warfare 2019 with more missions. The opening cutscene sees the return of a villain from the original game: Kaled Al-Asad, a military leader who, at the start of the 2007 game, led a coup in a Middle Eastern country. If you remember the plot of the original game, you know that Al-Asad eventually set off a nuclear weapon in his country. It was also revealed that he was working with Zharkaev, and that the events in Al-Asad’s country set things in motion that eventually led to Russia attacking the US and World War III. It seems Spec Ops is showing us the early days of Al-Asad’s operations, but his presence is a big suggestion that we might see events from the original Modern Warfare in the next game. Zharkaev hasn’t shown up yet in Modern Warfare 2019, but it seems likely he wouldn’t be far behind his former co-conspirator.

Shepherd’s Plans

In Modern Warfare 2, we learn that there’s another villain working in the shadows to create war between the US and Russia: Gen. Shepherd, the commanding officer of Task Force 141. Like Zharkaev and his beliefs about Russia, Shepherd thinks the only way to return America to its former glory is through war. He’s the one responsible for the No Russian mission in that game, in which a terrorist group attacks civilians in a Russian airport. At the end of the mission, the terrorists kill the character you play as; it’s revealed you were a CIA agent, and the US gets blamed for the attack.

Eventually, Captain Price and Soap, the player character, track Shepherd down and kill him, but not before the damage is done and Russia invades the US. Shepherd doesn’t appear in the new Modern Warfare, but he is mentioned briefly at the start of Spec Ops. That means he’s back in the rebooted timeline, along with Al-Asad and, presumably, Zharkaev.

The Future Of The Franchise

So what do all these recurring villains mean? It seems very likely that just as Infinity Ward revisited the character of Price and put him into new situations, it’s also planning to revisit Al-Asad, Shepherd, and Zharkaev in its rebooted timeline. Because it’s set before the formation of Task Force 141, the events of the original Modern Warfare haven’t taken place yet in the rebooted timeline–but a lot of the same players are there. Given how Infinity Ward’s new Modern Warfare is taking a page from current political situations in the world, it seems very likely that future Modern Warfare games will also feature different events from the original trilogy. However, a lot of the ideas from the series that started in 2007, like shaky US and Russia relations, international terrorism, and proxy wars around the world, are still relevant today. We don’t yet know what future Modern Warfare games have in store, but these characters and their role in past games, plus the current events shaping Modern Warfare 2019, give a hint that a conflict between the US and Russia is likely brewing in the future.

Warning: This post contains spoilers for the story of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2019, as well as the original series. You might want to finish the campaign before reading further.

When it rebooted Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Infinity Ward reimagined some of the series’ original characters and put them in a new, more contemporary setting. The game’s story deals with events that are similar to what’s happening in our real world, and while some of the characters are the same, the story of the game is very different.

But the ending of Modern Warfare 2019 includes some hints that characters and events from the original series might be part of future installments. It also reimagines the timeline of the original franchise, placing the reboot before the events of the original game. That doesn’t mean Modern Warfare 2019 is a true prequel to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, per se–but it seems that plot points and characters from the original games might be appearing in the rebooted series’ future.

The Ending Of Modern Warfare 2019

Much of the information about Modern Warfare 2019’s placement in a new, rebooted franchise timeline comes from the post-credits scene at the end of its campaign. In it, we see series mainstay Captain Price talking with CIA agent Kate Laswell, both of whom are major characters in the reboot. Price discusses setting up a new squad, one that will be able to operate around the world to deal with crises without implication particular governments with its actions. Price has a name for the squad: Task Force 141.

If you’re familiar with the original Modern Warfare, you know that in that game, Task Force 141 is already fully up and running, and operating in the world. You join the squad as John “Soap” MacTavish and run through a training simulator before joining the squad on a mission. This is the biggest indcator that Modern Warfare 2019 takes on the role of something of an origin story: Task Force 141 is only an idea at the end of Modern Warfare 2019 and the events of this new game spur its creation.

Al-Asad’s Coup

The original Modern Warfare kicked off with a coup in a Middle Eastern country, led by Kaled Al-Asad, one of the game’s villains. A big part of that game is about taking Al-Asad down, which results in him launching a nuclear weapon against American and coalition forces fighting to stop him in his country. Al-Asad is not a major player in most of the rebooted Modern Warfare, but he does show up at the end of the game in the cooperative Spec Ops mode. It seems your goal in that mode is to fight him and his terrorist organization.

That means we’re seeing Al-Asad at an earlier point in the progression of the original Modern Warfare’s story, before he gains enough power to take over a country. It’s not clear right now if that means the next game in Infinity Ward’s new Modern Warfare timeline will have similar events to the 2007 game, but it’s definitely possible. We could see the next CoD game focus entirely on Al-Asad, which could easily dovetail into a story with similar events to the original Modern Warfare trilogy–which, you might recall, ended with a world war between the US and Russia. Modern Warfare 2019 also mentions Gen. Shepherd, the American military commander who betrays Task Force 141 in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Shepherd mentioned as still working with Price and Laswell in Spec Ops.

Taken together, these hints all suggest that Modern Warfare 2019 is at the start of a new series that could revisit some of the territory of the original–or could completely reimagine it. Still, we know that the latest entry into the Call of Duty franchise is actually something of an origin story for the squad we fought with throughout the original Modern Warfare trilogy. Where the story goes from here, though, is anybody’s guess, although Infinity Ward has definitely included some hints.

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While services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Hulu offer up a variety of different genres for their content, there is only one streaming service that specializes in horror, and that’s AMC’s Shudder. And the service just revealed what’s coming out for the month of November.

On November 1, there are a couple classic ’90s horror movies to check out. First, there’s Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight. The film follows a man trapped in a hotel, protecting a vile of ancient blood who is being hunted by a demon (Billy Zane). Directed by Ernest R. Dickerson (The Walking Dead, Dexter), the movie is a feature-length spinoff of the HBO series Tales from the Crypt. Also arriving that day is the very meta Wes Craven’s New Nightmare. Starring Heather Langenkamp as herself, the film follows the former Nightmare on Elm Street actress who is haunted by a demon who has taken on Freddy’s form. Trying to figure out why a fictional monster from her past acting gig is terrorizing her and her son, she enlists the help of Wes Craven, who is writing the very movie they are starring in.

The other must-watch movie of November is Takashi Miike’s Audition, which arrives on November 4. Audition follows a widower who has trouble finding new love years after his wife’s passing, so his son holds an audition for a fake movie for a lead actress, in hopes the man will move on. However, the woman he becomes obsessed with is a bit deranged. If you’ve seen the film, then the phrase “tik tik tik tik” brings back some horrific imagery.

Below, you’ll find everything headed to Shudder for the month of November, with the first of the month launching four titles you’ll really want to check out or watch again.

New to Shudder in November

November 1

• Session 9 (Director: Brad Anderson)
• Trick ‘r Treat (Director: Michael Dougherty)
• Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight (Director: Ernest Dickerson)
• Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (Director: Wes Craven)

November 4

• Audition (Director: Takashi Miike)
• Deep Murder (Director: Nick Corirossi)

November 7

• Re:Born (Director: Yuji Shimomura)

November 11

• Bride of Re-Animator (Director: Brian Yuzna)
• Tetsuo (Director: Shinya Tsukamoto)

November 14

• A Bluebird in my Heart (Director: Jérémie Guez)

November 18

• The Cat O’ Nine Tails (Director: Dario Argento)
• Season of the Witch (Director: George A. Romero)

November 21

• Nekrotronic (Director: Kiah Roache-Turner)

November 25

• The Baby (Director: Ted Post)

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