A terrifying game. Its bone-chilling nature, if it is engaged with earnestly, comes from two factors. First, the obvious one, the nuclear threat, portrayed through a mixture of three different tragedies: Chernobyl, a failure of a mission by the American troops, and the looming presence of an even bigger nuclear disaster. The second, likely less noticable if this was to be someone's first CoD game, is the horror that technological advancement brings to armed conflict. It struck me first on the second American mission, when you put on the night goggles and see all these lasers coming from the guns of your allies contrast with the lack of lights on the side of the enemy. Then, you use the Javelin missiles, you also get some aid from air support. If you die as much as I did, you're likely to see the messages popping up—a staple in the series—however, there's less of these inspirational, detached quotes about war. They are replaced by the costs of the weapons of destruction that have been assisting you. Soon after you get to see from the perspective of air support, where targets are no longer people, they're white outlines—the allied ones are pulsating, the enemies are not. It's the most I've been invested in a CoD title up to this point. It was a truly challenging piece of media, one that doesn't stray from not only cleverly, but also very openly criticising the actions taken by certain governments. The best writing in the series up to this point—a plausible, slightly hyperbolized political thriller with very memorable moments.

The setpieces are undeniably the best ones in the series so far. Modern Warfare has one of the best defensive sections—where you defend a point waiting for extraction together with your sniper teammate who is unable to move due to injury—while also having undeniably the best offensive sections, so many that I can't even choose one, but pushing through enemies towards a point of any kind is intense, difficult and satisfying, upping the stakes and, subsequently, investment in the story.

Veteran is rarely unfair in this title, my only complaint is that the enemies behave a bit inconsistently but the sections where I truly got stuck for longer than I'd want to are few and far between, and they are placed appropriately, given how they would clearly be the most difficult ones for real people as well. You absolutely need to use certain tools at your disposal, the flash grenades especially are key to finishing the last missions, in particular the epilogue plane section.

Modern Warfare is a gaming pioneer and a tough pill to swallow. It holds up fantastically. The moment of eeriness, as well as those of overwhelming noise and pressure—the haunting vignettes of people who got to experience war in its most devastating version so far.