Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019)

GFA METERSTRONG

Reviewed by GFA Staff

Campaign: cinematic, tense, and not subtle

The single-player campaign is the best reason to play MW in 2026. It's built around CIA/SAS operations and a fictional conflict in Urzikstan involving chemical weapons, with missions that bounce between covert raids and full-scale firefights. It's paced like an action movie that occasionally remembers it's also a political thriller—then immediately forgets again because it wants to blow a door off its hinges.

Intense nighttime operations requiring night vision

Multiplayer: the “one more match” trap

Multiplayer is where the game's engineering shines: it introduced cross-platform multiplayer and cross-progression for the first time in the series, and it added modes like Realism (minimal HUD) and a beefier Ground War that supports 64 players. Crossplay works through Activision IDs, which is convenient… and also means you'll be asked to log into an Activision/Call of Duty account to use it.

Ground War features large-scale combat with vehicles

Spec Ops: co-op dessert after the main meal

Spec Ops continues the story thread after the campaign and offers cooperative missions—good if you want more “tactical chaos with friends,” less good if you're expecting it to be the headline mode.

The honest downsides

Storage appetite: depending on how the install is packaged on Steam, players report some packs being unexpectedly large (there are threads where people are shocked by triple-digit GB installs even if they only want the campaign). It's still CoD: matchmaking and balance will always be a living, breathing argument, and if you hate modern CoD monetization vibes, MW is part of the ecosystem that led into Warzone-era Call of Duty.

Fast-paced multiplayer action on tight maps

Steam discount (right now)

On Steam, Modern Warfare is currently 90% off—SteamDB shows it at -90% (e.g., $5.99 / local equivalent depending on region). That discount lines up with the Steam Spring Sale, which runs until March 26, 10:00 AM PDT (that's 18:00 Amsterdam time). No surprise: the huge discount has also driven a noticeable player resurgence on Steam recently.