Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is actually the seventh Modern Warfare game. The slate was wiped clean with 2019’s Modern Warfare, but to developer Infinity Ward, the sub-series’ principles remain the same going into Modern Warfare 4.

“We wanted to chase this gritty, grounded, almost ripped from the headlines style Modern Warfare game – where it feels not exactly like the real-world, but something that could be in the real-world,” says Jack Hoppus, multiplayer technical designer. “We were really laser focused on boots on the ground, [a] return to form with traditional modern warfare, and that was the guiding principle.”

In the original trilogy, we followed soldiers across the world as they tried and failed to prevent World War 3. In recent years, Modern Warfare’s perspective has shifted to spec ops, its casts working behind the scenes to foil more self-contained threats. But Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4‘s campaign trailer shows North Korea invading the Korean Peninsula, and its scenes of full-scale army assaults are reminiscent of when London, Paris, and Washington DC were turned into battlefields in the first three games.

True grit

That “boots on the ground” focus has been the guiding light for Modern Warfare 4, says Hoppus. “It’s been a unifying factor. Everyone at the studio is really aligned on the visual style and the tone we’re setting.”

“Historically, in our recent titles, it’s been really spec ops – really highly trained militant forces – and it’s been a while since we’ve seen the grunt perspective, and that’s something that I’m also really looking forward to in our campaign,” he adds. “Seeing this group of ragtag soldiers try to navigate their way through this conflict is something that’s really interesting.”

In realizing that tone at the action layer, Infinity Ward is aiming for a “grounded, fluid movement” system for Modern Warfare 4. That’s not always something I’ve associated with Call of Duty – preferring the likes of Battlefield or Escape from Tarkov for weightier combat. With Call of Duty’s quicker style of play, I ask Hoppus how that heft will be conveyed.

“It really comes down to the movement and also our weapon fidelity. So, we are committed at Infinity Ward to making these guns feel strong, feel powerful, but also not compromise on gameplay. We want them to feel satisfying to shoot. We don’t want you to feel like you are holding a piece of plastic. We want you to feel like you’re holding this high caliber, strong weapon that a highly trained soldier would use, right? But we don’t want it to feel heavy in the sense that you’re clunky with it. We make a first-person shooter game, so the gun is the hero of our game – it’s deserving that we spend a whole bunch of time on weapon fidelity. So, the gun will dynamically, with how close to a wall you are, it’ll actually tilt up, and you’ll hold it closer to your chest. Or, as you enter a doorway, your gun will pivot with your arms like a highly trained soldier.”

“All of those [features] are meant to feel like you are in the driver’s seat, like you have agency, and it’s also a balance of our movement as well,” Hoppus continues. “We understand that the world is moving fast-paced now, so players want to slide and get up in other players’ faces and try to break ankles. But we also want to have something for the tactical player that maybe wants to take intentional gunfights, check corners, and hold positioning. We want to create a game that, if you take really smart battles, you can win. But, if you’re really mechanically good, you can also win those fights. [We] find the balance between both of those.”

Speaking selfishly, I always prefer when Call of Duty opts for more considered movement. I can usually tell whether I’ll gel with an entry based on how much I dig its marksman rifles, which I relay to Hoppus. “I am a marksman rifle player myself,” he grins, “and I think you’re gonna be having a great time this year […] They feel great, more so in this game than any game I’ve played before.”

Now approaching its 23rd iteration, Call of Duty has poked and prodded in many directions over the years. Infinity Ward has been at the heart of it all – and heading into Modern Warfare 4, I’m curious to learn how the studio approaches new entries. Is it a case of looking back through the years, at specific touchstones, or perpetually building upon the latest game?

“As one of our directors would say, we’re always building from the things we couldn’t do in the last game. So when we were building Modern Warfare 4, it was a lot of what we couldn’t do – or what we didn’t do great – in Modern Warfare 2. That’s where all of our movement fidelity came in.”

He points to similarly-scoped changes, like “stripping away the complexity” of weapon platforms and the gunsmith system to better incorporate shared attachments between guns. “We’re always looking at the past, but we’re also looking at what we can do that’s cool and new this game.”

Ahead of Modern Warfare 4’s launch on October 22, we’ve rounded up the best FPS games you can play right now