There’s a certain feeling you just can’t replicate when you find a great game. I’m always looking forward to going home from work and playing games until I go to sleep, but it takes a truly great game to cause me to leave work early, skip the gym, eat fast food every night, and get only 4 hours of sleep. I’m talking games like Modern Warfare 2, Halo 3, Overwatch, Fallout: New Vegas, The Witcher 3, Fortnite (the first year), etc. I was absolutely obsessed with each of these games within the first hour and I’ve poured hours and hours of my life into them. Well, add the new Modern Warfare reboot to the list, because in less than a week I’ve almost logged 30 hours of gameplay into this game. That’s extremely hard to do when you’ve got a full-time job, but this game is just that good.

Let’s start with the campaign (no spoilers I promise). Single-player campaigns for competitive FPS shooters are usually pretty mediocre outside of a few exceptions (Halo 1-3, the original Modern Warfare arc, etc). So it takes either incredible storytelling or unique mission concepts to make the campaign worth playing, and let me tell you, Modern Warfare has both. I don’t want to spoil any of it because it’s something that everyone should experience for themselves, but almost every level has a memorable moment in it. Think back to the missions of MW2. There’s the snow mission with the heartbeat sensor and the snowmobile chase, the favela mission with the torture cutscene, the mission where you run down the hill in the forest and die over and over until that BASTARD General Shepard betrays you and KILLS GHOST, and the finale where Soap and Captain Price go 1 v 2 on Shepard until you kill him with a throwing knife to the face SHEPARD YOU MOTHERFUCKER FUCK YOU BITCH SUCK MY NUTS. Yea…there were some memorable moments, to say the least. This campaign may not toy with your emotions as much as MW2’s, but it is very very good and absolutely worth the break from multiplayer.

Speaking of multiplayer, Infinity Ward has finally brought CoD back to it’s best years. The decreased mobility and map designs are so reminiscent of the CoD 4/MW2 days. No more sprinting and sliding and wall-running and grappling and soooooarin’, flyyyyyin, there’s not a star in hea-…(god Disney has caused me permanent brain damage). Call of Duty WW2 brought the series back to “boots on the ground”, but it still felt way too fast-paced. Modern Warfare perfectly balances the slowed down movement while still keeping the gameplay fluid. I also love that there are maps that aren’t standard 3 lane symmetrical generic pieces of garbage. It allows the devs to really be creative with how each map plays out, in turn allowing players to choose how to play each map to their preference. I also like how they made 3 different size maps (6 vs 6, 8 vs 8, and 10 vs 10). I personally feel like I play best at the 8 vs 8 maps, but it forces players to get used to different guns and playstyles. Good luck running around with an MP5 and pistol on the big maps; you’re just gonna get sniped or gunned down by longer-range weapons. Same with people who are strictly snipers. But honestly, the way the Gunsmith and perk system work helps accommodate these play styles pretty well.

I really can’t think of another FPS that allows you to completely edit a class in-game. I mean you can die, decide that your sight, barrel, and stock are the issues, and change them all in that life. That’s insane! Think about all the over analyzers though that are getting screwed by this lol. I mean, they’re absolutely changing their class after every death. There’s also just so many options on how to customize your gun to your playstyle. Some of the attachments aren’t that great, but that’s a relatively small complaint. Speaking of complaints, I do have a few that I think Infinity Ward needs to address. First, like in MW2 with the Model 1887, the shotguns at launch are just WAY too powerful. Like if you’re not running around with a shotgun right now, you need to be. The range and damage are just so ridiculous. Fix the damage dropoff please or we’re basically just double pumping like that game that I despise so very much. Second, it is VERY noticeable when another player has a lower ping than you. I’ve had killcams where a guy literally saw me a full second before I did and I have no idea how other than ping. I know Infinity Ward probably can’t fix that, but it’s a pet peeve of mine at the moment. Outside of those two issues, this game is absolutely incredible and addicting.

If you’ve been sitting on the fence about whether this game is overhyped or not, trust me; I know a good game when I see one. I know within the first 30 minutes to an hour or playing whether it’s worth my time, and I’ve poured almost 30 hours into Modern Warfare. This is the breath of fresh air we’ve all been waiting for and I cannot wait until I get home to play it even more…tomorrow because tonight I’m streaming Afterparty all night on Mixer until I finish it LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOO TO HELLLLLLLLL.