A "sentinel" perspective on Call of Duty [COD] MW4 2026
First of all, I know it’s pretty trendy to hate on Infinity Ward across internet forums, social media and comment sections. That’s probably because the people who care enough to comment on the game are usually the most dedicated fans of the series and most of them were already playing long before 2019.
I completely understand that Call of Duty isn’t the same as it used to be before Infinity Ward rebooted MW in 2019. Honestly, they didn’t just reboot Modern Warfare, they basically rebooted the entire franchise.
The last CoD I really played back in the day was MW3(2011). I briefly tried BO2 but after that I completely lost interest in the series. I didn’t even care enough to watch reveal trailers or anything. To me it was still the same outdated stuff running on basically the same engine they had been using since COD4(2007). Meanwhile other shooters were already way ahead technically and gameplay wise (BF, R6 etc.).
Everything changed in 2019, when IW basically dropped what felt like one of the most immersive shooter experiences ever made. The graphics, the weapon sounds, the art direction, the gunplay… just insane. It reached a level that, honestly, still hasn’t really been matched to this day. Out of nowhere, they took a franchise that felt like it was kind of running on fumes and completely revived it. And don’t get me wrong, it didn’t turn into a “mil-sim” or anything like that for me either but the overall feel of it, that tacti-cool experience instantly pushed MW2019 to my personal #1 shooter of all time.
Yeah, I’ll say it: in my opinion, MW2019 is the best shooter game ever made.
But yeah, that’s just the technical side of it. Gameplay-wise… I won’t overcomplicate it because I’ll probably get downvoted into oblivion anyway. I actually like that there’s no perma ninja perk. I didn’t buy an $800 audiophile headset back in the day just to not hear anything in a shooter, I bought it exactly for games like this where I want to hear every little sound cue. I also like that the map design isn’t just some boring 3-lane Quake arena but actually asymmetrical, more like a real combat environment. I like that characters aren’t bouncing around like epileptic squirrels and I can actually keep my crosshair on people even after a long workday without needing super reflexes. And yeah, I even prefer the fact that you don’t need half a magazine to kill someone, everyone has “just” 100 HP instead of 150 or 200.
And to the end a Treyarch beef too, maybe there’s still someone who hasn’t completely hate me but I’m giving a final chance now. The internet is already full of IW bashing so let’s have a bit of Treyarch as well. I lost any interest in ever playing a Black Ops game when: after the high quality, top tier MW2019 they released BOCW and you had a revolver that somehow held 8 or 9 rounds while the model clearly showed a 5 shot cylinder. Treyarch = sloppiness, a fast-paced, jumpy, Fortnite copy kind of gameplay… but mostly: total lack of quality. And I’m not someone who settles for low-quality things, which is exactly why I don’t waste my limited free time on them.
Thanks for the reading.
