- Modern Warfare 4 shaping up to be one of the most grounded Call of Duty experiences for years
- It features realistic character designs and playable ‘Mil-Sim’ operators
- The lead game designer says, “with the gruesome stuff, there’s a lot of depth”
One of the first things I noticed fell into multiplayer Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is its grittier tone and overall art direction. It’s night and day compared to the more bombastic and stylized direction of Black Ops 7populated by playable characters that look much more like modern soldiers.
A handful of the beloved ‘Mil-Sim’ (short for military simulation) operators from the past Modern warfare games are also back, giving the most realism-focused players the option to drop in as anonymous soldiers from the likes of the SAS or Korean military instead of the roster of distinctly named heroes.
“We want those characters to feel set in our world and hit the tone and feel of our world,” explains multiplayer creative director Joe Cecot as we chat in one of the many meeting rooms at developer Infinity Ward’s office in Los Angeles.
Even central characters like Ghost have brand new designs that embody a somewhat more down-to-earth aesthetic.
“Joel Emsley, who is our studio art director, is the person behind Price and Ghost and all these different iconic characters,” he continues.
“Every game he levels up and thinks ‘how do I improve?’ We have the sort of ‘Mil-Sim’ characters and then we have Ghost who is like both ‘Mil-Sim’ but now he’s got the new mask that he’s retrofitted from bits and pieces of stuff he’s found. He’s this badass character who fits into our world but feels brand new.”
“I feel like there’s a lot of depth to the gritty stuff, and we want to continue to explore that,” adds lead game designer Jackie Reynolds, possibly hinting at the studio’s approach to any post-launch skin.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is set to launch on October 23, 2026. It will be the first modern Call of Duty games to skip previous generations of consoles, and launch exclusively on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Series S and Nintendo Switch 2.
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