Since Infinity Ward rebooted Modern Warfare in 2019, Call of Duty‘s multiplayer has rigidly kept its action grounded. Minus a few key pieces of movement tech from Treyarch, the franchise sought to call players back after a “tumultuous” dalliance into the future. One where players could boost jump and run along walls and shoot guns in space.

Much like its stellar campaign, Modern Warfare 4‘s multiplayer feels like a bookend for the last generation of Call of Duty and serves as a callback to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, the moment where the franchise began to take over the world.

For the last two decades, Call of Duty has exerted an unprecedented amount of dominance in the multiplayer space. It cannot be denied that a number of foundational elements we recognize in online shooters found popularity with 2007’s perks, prestige, killstreaks, and general flow. Whether it be from unbridled nostalgia or the simple fact that countless Call of Dutys have met such a high bar, players have come to expect a lot, game after game.

The great question faced by Infinity Ward, Treyarch, Sledgehammer, and Raven has always been how far to take things. Campaign has always allowed for a degree of leniency, regardless of the era of war. But where can the formula go without being too familiar or too wacky? How do you give players what they want but also provide them something unique enough to justify a wholly new entry?

Stripping the hopeless argument from the mind that Call of Duty deserves at least a year off and that some entries would be better served as major DLC packs, there has been precedent that unlike sports games that often are roster swaps, each Call of Duty developer shoots for refinement and engaging additive content worthy of more than just map packs.

Modern Warfare 4, while representing a potential closing of a chapter for Infinity Ward and the franchise as a whole, explores what a relatively stripped down Call of Duty can look like this deep into constant, iterative change.

More than anything, Modern Warfare 4 works to solve problems that have been present for years. Unpredictable elements like hip fire spread and weapon recoil spreads have been tinkered with to give players a degree of comfort as they learn what weapons work best. Lighting and ray tracing have all made the battlefield thrive with the gritty beauty of a military shooter. It all feels realistic and mechanically sound, what players should expect after so many years of play.

I may be so bold as to call Modern Warfare 4 comforting. Its 18 perks are all variations of what has been on offer before, meant to help players thrive situationally depending on the mode being played or the weapon in hand. The list of lethals, tacticals, and field equipment all supplementing what might make a player more expertly deadly or a sneaky camper.

Weapons fall into those camps of cool, steely warmth. Over the years I’ve held dozens if not hundreds of weapons of Call of Duty death in my hands. To this day, I wouldn’t be able to name a single one outside of those which are commonly used across other forms of media. Rarely have I been a sniper rifle main, I’m just not accurate enough and often lack the patience. Assault rifles and SMGs have always been my flavor and that remains the same here.

But what has dazzled me most about Modern Warfare 4‘s weapons are the Apex attachments. Progressing through weapons to unlock attachments has been a staple for decades and unlocking camos has always been one way to further express mastery of a gun. But with Apex attachments, players unlock a modification to the gun that often changes its usage case or further benefits a playstyle. One of my favorites turned a burst-fire AR even deadlier by allowing players to keep the trigger held and have it continue to fire slowly. An SMG Apex attachment granted the ability to wield two of them akimbo. Perhaps a marksman rifle will get a set of throwing knives, giving players an emergency option if an enemy closes the distance. I turned an LMG basically into a sniper rifle as its belt was replaced by 10 powerful bullets.

At times, the Apex attachments will block out the traditional weapon attachment slots. But often, players are able to more or less produce a sinister version of a weapon they’ve come to understand and find a new use for it.

I think player agency and identity have always been one of the things Call of Duty struggles with outside of weapons. The thing players wield in their hands most is the most crucial factor in victory. It is an extension of a player’s preparedness, timing, and skill. Attachments are one of the ways to fine tune this expression. In the past, Call of Duty has tried to use borderline class systems. WWII, Black Ops 3 + 4, and Infinite Warfare had their concept of operators who had active skills or passive perks that made them work differently from others.

Modern Warfare 4 leans towards being a back-to-basics multiplayer experience for Call of Duty, one that doesn’t add too much to the pot to muddy the flavor of exhilarating moment-to-moment gameplay. The lack of busy complexity from perks and attachments allows players to use the weapon to dictate how they play best. So often I would take advantage of my Create A Class just so I could have one class for each weapon type to complete daily challenges. Now I want to make classes as extensions of Apex attachments and the most valuable perks for those weapons.

Maps have always been a sticking point for Call of Duty players. What makes a great map and what makes a mediocre one? I’ve always thought a distinct visual identity helped make certain maps soar where other ones faltered but that’s also because aesthetics are important to me. But Modern Warfare 4‘s 12 launch maps for 6v6 encounters are the expected parade of multi-lane shootouts with pockets of actions inside of buildings, corridors, streets, and open rooms with varying points of entry.

During the second weekend of the Modern Warfare 4 beta, me and my friends were getting tossed around in “Transit 213”, a small map where it is easy to pick off players from almost any point. But then I go to the crowded and colorful streets of “Silkworm” and “Mumbai” and trade off with players as they turn corners or hop through windows. “Nautical” is a call back to Black Ops 2 but I loved its long lines of sight and center chaos on both levels.

Ground War returns for big encounters and at launch, three maps allow for players to work towards dominating control points where vehicles and other players will spawn. It was interesting when Call of Duty first tried to take a bite of Battlefield‘s cake and I think the two primarily separate themselves through Battlefield‘s use of classes. Ground War is simply more of a long-form deathmatch where a lot of players are just going to constantly fling themselves into death and a handful of others will actually strategize and try to infiltrate points.

“Kill Block” is one of the more interesting of Modern Warfare 4‘s new offerings. Conceptualized as a space at the West Bridge Training Facility, “Kill Block” rotates three shifting spaces that borrows map segments from other Call of Duty maps, usually the smaller ones. With over 500 possible configurations, “Kill Block” will first be available for 3v3 and the new 10v10 Gunfight. For those who love Gunfight, “Kill Block” is an absolute treat. The shifting gun possibilities in tandem with the shifting maps keep both sides of players on their toes, even when they may recognize what part of the map they are playing on.

Inflation, Hijack, and Collateral are three new modes added to Modern Warfare 4 to push the game into familiar territory with a small flair of the unexpected. Hijack works similar to a Capture the Flag mode but here players fight for a Data Spike that can be carried, thrown, and passed around. Once the Spike is planted, a team must defend it, earning maximum points if it detonates. I enjoy Hijack as a more focused mode, similar to Hardpoint or Control, just with players constantly engaged in a tug of war. Inflation grants players cash as they kill others but once enough is collected, they are marked as a High Value Target, revealing their position. It’s up to a team to defend that player to prevent the opposing side from enriching themselves. Because I can’t handle the smoke, I would never go for too much cash in Inflation but absolutely loved rushing the map and trying to take out the HVT.

Collateral is basically Modern Warfare 4‘s spin on Counter-Strike. The rules are the same as Search and Destroy except players start with a basic weapon and a small amount of cash. Playing the objective and getting kills rewards cash that players can use to buy new weapons and perks to empower themselves for the next round. Staying alive means keeping those weapons. While death isn’t the end, the high stakes of Collateral offer just enough complexity to one of Call of Duty‘s most hardcore modes.

Laying all of Modern Warfare 4‘s modes, maps, and features bare, it doesn’t feel like a lot. And that’s because it isn’t. There is a kind of restraint Infinity Ward put into this game, a feeling that they wanted to deliver high quality but not spread themselves too thin.

Much of that is likely because the developer has now been entrenched with this Call of Duty subseries for several years and it is time to close this chapter and figure out what to do next. Modern Warfare 4 feels like the Call of Duty that I’ve been playing for years, just with the yearly differences I’ve come to expect. Gameplay flow is fluid, fast, and an extension of the player’s skill.

Call of Duty has so often felt excellent and while its campaigns can be bombastic and ridiculous and pure spectacle, multiplayer has always been the grounding rod. Zombies, DMZ, Warzone, and more have existed throughout the years to provide players with new approaches to the franchise. And each year they work to justify their existence and potential permanence. Though DMZ is likely going to be heralded as Call of Duty‘s Next Big Thing, Modern Warfare 4‘s multiplayer will likely be a standout because it hearkens back to different periods of the franchise, especially those players have grown to love the most.

Disclaimer: Our full impressions and final review score for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 will arrive right before the full game launches on October 23. For campaign coverage, check out our review here.