[REVIEW] Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 (Every Shot Tells the Truth) | NINTENDO SWITCH 2

Welcome to EXPlay (Explain & Play) — the review series where we don’t care for scores. Instead, we tell it how it is with every game we get our hands on, while including lengthy gameplay so you, the reader, can form your own impressions and views while reading and watching.

In this explanatory review, we’re covering Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 by developers, Infinity Ward and Digital Legends:

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 (Nintendo Switch 2)

Developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 launched worldwide on October 23, 2026 across Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, PC (Battle.net, Steam and Xbox on PC), and for the first time in 13 years, became the first Call of Duty game on a Nintendo platform, since 2013’s Call of Duty: Ghosts for the Nintendo Wii U.

For the Nintendo Switch 2 release, Infinity Ward partnered closely with Digital Legends to deliver the full package natively on the Nintendo Switch 2: complete Campaign, Multiplayer and DMZ, with full cross-play and cross-progression so Switch 2 players sit properly in the wider Call of Duty community and what a game it is. As the most substantial Modern Warfare game Infinity Ward has put out in years. It deliberately steps back toward the grounded, high-stakes military roots that made the original trilogy matter, while still expanding scale, systems and technical ambition across every mode. The result feels both familiar and properly evolved, built for current-generation hardware with a clear focus on authenticity, player control and immersion.

Speaking of immersion, let’s dive into the campaign. The single-player campaign is the darkest and most grounded Modern Warfare story we’ve had in some time. It centres on a full-scale invasion of South Korea by North Korea that quickly threatens to destabilise the rest of the world. Political tension, shadow operations and outside interference push everything toward the edge of global catastrophe. You primarily experience the war through the eyes of Private Park Hyun Jun, a young South Korean soldier educated in both Korea and England.

Park finds himself caught between Western anxieties about the North and the lived reality of ordinary people on the ground. What starts as a routine joint patrol with US Marines in Hajin City collapses into chaos the moment the invasion begins. His arc is a classic zero-to-hero journey: a conscript forced to become a leader while fighting to protect his home and keep his own independent thinking intact. Supporting him are some strong characters. Sergeant Jae-woo is a conscripted ROK Marine from a long line of career veterans, resourceful, energetic and a natural leader who refuses to be reduced to a translator even though he speaks multiple languages fluently. Corporal Dunn, a dependable West Virginia Marine and JTAC specialist, brings lethal precision to close air support and a fiercely confident personality that balances the squad.

Running parallel is the return of Captain John Price. Now a wanted man after assassinating a US General and going completely off the books, Price operates outside every system he once served. His personal hunt for revenge and the pursuit of a powerful weapon eventually slam into the larger war and there’s one story mission in particular that sees Price give John Wick a run for his money. Additionally, familiar faces return too with Simon “Ghost” Riley still working under deep cover, and the ruthless cartel leader, Valeria Garza (El Sin Nombre), whose alliances with Price are anything but clean.

The campaign covers a wide range of locations and mission types. Early missions stay in and around Hajin City and the wider Korean Peninsula, delivering trench warfare, urban combat and desperate defensive stands. Later chapters shift the action to New York, Paris, Mumbai and deep into North Korea itself. Set-pieces include high-speed pursuits through Parisian streets, SAS night raids, city-wide assaults to reclaim occupied territory, and large-scale combined-arms operations.

Making up the entire campaign are sixteen missions, all varying in length:

1. Mayhem – A joint ROK and US Marine patrol in Hajin as tensions rise.
2. Out In The Cold – CIA Officer Kate Laswell reactivates a former asset in New York.
3. Following Orders – Special forces hunt a defector as power shifts in the North.
4. Hired Gun – Price forms an uneasy alliance with Valeria.
5. Losing Ground – The full invasion sweeps through Hajin.
6. Traffic – A meetup in Paris turns into a city-wide warzone.
7. Gone Dark – Price and Valeria arrive in Mumbai.
8. Assassins – Internal threats attempt to overthrow the new Supreme Leader.
9. Survivors – A covert raid into North Korea.
10. Stranded – Fighting to stay alive behind enemy lines.
11. Defection – An assault on a North Korean airbase.
12. Counter Attack – Allied forces launch a massive effort to retake Hajin.
13. Escape – Price attempts to break out of the Archer’s prison.
14. Entrenched – An all-out assault on a power plant.
15. Decapitation – An off-the-books mission that could end the war.
16. Greater Good – The final confrontation on the Russian border.

The campaign balances intimate squad-level combat with larger cinematic moments extremely well. It feels properly blockbuster in scale while staying grounded in the military authenticity Modern Warfare is known for. The dual narrative — Park’s frontline struggle running alongside Price’s shadow war — gives the whole thing genuine weight and keeps the pacing strong across its full length.

Moving on to Progression, Progression in Modern Warfare 4 is fully connected across Multiplayer and DMZ from day one, with full Warzone integration arriving at the start of Season 1. Level XP, Weapon XP, Battle Pass XP and Weapon Mastery all feed into the same systems. The camo journey spans all three experiences, with three Mastery Camos available per mode for a total of nine. Weapon progression has been properly streamlined. Attachments unlock once per weapon class rather than per individual gun, which cuts down on the old redundant grinding. Once a weapon is fully progressed, players unlock Apex Attachments — specialised modifications that can meaningfully change handling, firing behaviour, tactical utility or combat role.

As for Prestige, there are two paths available. Classic Prestige the traditional full reset of Create-a-Class progression in exchange for increased XP rates and exclusive rewards, whereas Regular Prestige lets you keep your unlocked loadouts while still earning Prestige rewards and milestones. This choice is one of the more player-friendly systems Infinity Ward has introduced in a long time. Create-a-Class has been redesigned into a unified loadout system that brings Operators, weapons, equipment, Field Upgrades, Perks and Killstreaks together in one place. You can save up to twelve Multiplayer loadout, with the new Gunny system acting like a knowledgeable gunnery sergeant, instantly assembling effective builds based on your preferred playstyle and unlocked attachments while still leaving plenty of room for further customisation.

As for multiplayer, with Boots on the Ground, and Guns that tell the Truth, multiplayer is where Modern Warfare 4 feels most refined. Infinity Ward has rebuilt the core combat experience around a new technology stack called Ballistic Authority. Bullet trajectory, weapon motion, Operator stance, camera behaviour, audio propagation, FOV and target visibility have all been unified into one highly tuned system. Weapon bloom has been completely removed from hipfire. The stated goal is simple: every shot should tell the truth. In practice, the gunplay feels more precise and connected than it has in several years.

Movement has been similarly overhauled, with animation transitions being smoother, reducing friction between actions while expanding player freedom. New mechanics include:

• Mantle Slide  — Transition directly from a mantle into a slide.
• Mantle Steering  — Full control to steer left or right, ADS, or abort mid-mantle.
• Supine Slide — A longer, lower slide that ends on your back with feet forward, useful in tight spaces.
• Pipe Climb and Fast Pipe Slide — Vertical traversal on building pipework with a controlled fast descent.

And for anyone who needs the practice, a dedicated Mobility Course lets players practise these systems and chase better times between matches. Incidentally, at launch, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 shipped with twelve brand-new core 6v6 maps, each with its own visual identity and tactical layout:

• Cachette — Abandoned French wine warehouse and mechanic’s garage converted into a covert armory.
• Coal — Remote Soviet coal processing plant with fallen smokestack and polluted flood plain.
• Lithium — Mexican lithium processing refinery under attack.
• Lotus — South Korean fishing village scarred by amphibious assault.
• Mumbai — Dense residential district centred on a Victorian market and rail line.
• Munition — Active North Korean command facility and munitions depot.
• Nautical — Damaged South Korean ferry at dawn.
• Reactor U92 — South Korean reactor complex in the middle of a meltdown.
• Rooftops — Snow-lined New York hotel rooftops with greenhouse, HVAC platforms and pigeon coops.
• Sentry — Russian military base under whiteout conditions.
• Silkworm — Dense South Korean shopping district with convenience store, gaming den and subway entrance.
• Transit 213— Overgrown Indian parking lot packed with derelict buses.

Beyond the core maps, Multiplayer includes dedicated Gunfight maps (Café, Library, NYC, Smuggler) and three large Combat Outpost maps designed for 32v32 vehicle-and-infantry warfare: Forest, Imjin Farmland and Wolves Stadium. These represent the evolution of Ground War, with Outpost capture systems that generate resources for further objectives. The standout addition is Kill Block, a dynamic live-fire training facility that reshapes sightlines, pathways and cover between rounds. With more than 500 possible configurations, it supports both 3v3 and the new 10v10 Gunfight modes and forces constant adaptation.

New 6v6 modes include Inflation (cash collection with escalating visibility), Hijack (Data Spike objective play) and Collateral (Search & Destroy with in-round purchasing). Returning favourites include: Team Deathmatch, Domination, Search & Destroy, Hardpoint, Kill Confirmed, Gunfight and Free-for-All. Perks return in a clean Pick-3 system across three categories with eighteen options total. Standouts include Quick Fix, Overkill, Ghost, Ninja, Scavenger, Tracker, Cold-Blooded and Combat Grid. Killstreaks now reward both eliminations and objective play, giving a wider range of styles a path to the higher-end rewards such as the Gunship, Air Lockdown and Argonaut.

And then there is the DMZ, a living Exclusion Zone. DMZ returns as a fully realised extraction mode set in the Hajin Exclusion Zone, a large-scale conflict area left in the aftermath of the campaign. Players deploy as off-the-books CIA assets tasked with recovering advanced military technology before it falls into the wrong hands. The mode supports solo or squad play and mixes structured Story Missions, Dynamic Operations and free-roam exploration inside a living world. Weather changes, military objectives shift, hostile forces reposition WMDs and strategic assets, and player-driven bounty systems escalate tension for those who engage heavily in PvP.

Between runs, players return to their Forward Operating Base, a persistent hub containing a 3D Printer for crafting, a Stash for long-term storage, weapon purchasing, a firing range, bounty boards and upgrade systems. Operator Traits can be improved using Trait Points earned during missions, with three distinct trees focusing on combat, scavenging and support capabilities. Points are tied to the individual Operator who earned them. The result is a deeper, more persistent extraction experience than the original DMZ Beta, shaped by player feedback and designed to sit as a true third pillar alongside Campaign and Multiplayer.

And then of course, there is Season 1’s Warzone Integration. At the start of Season 1, Call of Duty: Warzone fully integrates with the Modern Warfare 4 progression systems and two new maps arrive: Hajin for Battle Royale and Zodiac (a compact Resurgence map built around a drone manufacturing facility). A new Operator Skin toggle also gives players more control over the skins they see in Warzone, while Carry Forward continues to bring previously earned and purchased content forward.

Now, what of the actual Nintendo Switch 2 version and performance. As a full native port developed in partnership with Digital Legends, it includes the complete Campaign, Multiplayer and DMZ experiences with cross-play and cross-progression enabled from day one. The port delivers the entire feature set while making clear, expected compromises for hybrid hardware. Campaign mode targets a locked 30 fps and largely holds that mark outside of occasional brief hitches during high-speed driving sequences. Whereas competitive multiplayer targets 60 fps but can drop into the low 50s or high 40s during dense smoke, riot-shield effects or crowded fights. DMZ however offers a 40 fps target when played on a 120 Hz display.

The visuals retain ray-marched smoke, real-time weather and the updated global illumination system, with anti-aliasing options include several SMAA variants and Nvidia DLSS. In docked mode the game runs at a dynamic resolution that typically sits around 900p when using DLSS, rising toward 1080p with SMAA in less demanding scenes. Handheld mode settles at a dynamic 720p baseline. Texture resolution, bump mapping, screen-space reflections and shadow quality are reduced relative to the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X versions, and campaign character self-shadows have been removed entirely (they are restored in multiplayer for competitive visibility).

Nevertheless, despite some significant competitive limitation in input latency, Digital Legends did a fantastic job in porting Modern Warfare 4 to the Nintendo Switch 2, as the game is highly enjoyable on the portable system, but to get the most out of the game is to play it whilst the console is docked. docked. . Digital Foundry measured multiplayer latency at approximately **81 ms** when docked and **100 ms** in handheld, compared with **49 ms** on PlayStation 5 at 60 Hz — roughly 64 % higher when docked and effectively double in portable mode. Despite this, the team still describes the conversion as “a job well done” overall, praising the preservation of the full mode suite and cross-platform multiplayer on hybrid hardware. Players seeking the most responsive experience are advised to play docked wherever possible, as this keeps the core gunplay, movement systems and mode structure remain intact. 

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is a confident, large-scale return to form for Infinity Ward. The campaign delivers a dark, dual-narrative story with strong set-pieces and genuine weight. Multiplayer feels tighter and more deliberate than it has in years, thanks to Ballistic Authority, the refined movement systems and a generous launch map pool. DMZ has been rebuilt into a deeper, more persistent extraction experience that finally feels like a proper third mode rather than an experiment.

There is an enormous amount of content here on day one — twelve core 6v6 maps, large-scale Combat Outpost modes, a dynamic Kill Block with hundreds of configurations, a full sixteen-mission campaign, a living extraction zone, robust progression systems and meaningful player choice across Prestige paths and loadouts. The Nintendo Switch 2 version makes that entire package portable for the first time in the series’ history. If you have been waiting for a Modern Warfare game that prioritises authentic gunplay, meaningful systems and a darker narrative tone, this is the strongest the series has felt in a long time. Every shot really does feel like it tells the truth.

Game Specifications:

Developers: Infinity Ward, Digital Legends
Publisher: Nintendo
Platform: Nintendo Switch 2 (Digital)
Genre: Shooting, Action
No. of Players: 1 (Single System) | 1 – 12 (Online) 
Release Date: October 23, 2026
Price: $69.99
Nintendo.com Listing