Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III & Warzone Season 4 impressions — A trip down memory lane

While a little smaller than its contemporaries, this year’s Season 4 is not a miniscule offering. There are some components that fall a bit short (Warzone is light on content and Zombies is straight up absent), but overall there’s plenty to engage with. I was a bit late to the party – Summer Game Fest happened, and I previewed Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 – but now with a few sessions under my belt, it’s time to give my thoughts on what Season 4 is all about.

Let me first address the elephants from the earlier paragraph, Warzone and Zombies. Warzone has stuff, but it’s limited to features, like gulag variants and a Buy Back Solos mode. World Series of Warzone is also coming up, so not wanting to upset the balance probably factored into these choices. That said, it is disappointing to more or less get a meta shift as your main content.

As for Zombies, there is absolutely nothing. One rift is the only mid-season update. It’s really sad to see this fantastic mode abandoned, and the innovation it brought. Given we’re heading back to round-based zombies in Black Ops 6, I can see one final hurrah in a future season before it’s done for good.

With that out of the way, let’s jump into the biggest shift: the guns. The Kar98k makes its grand return, this time as a marksman rifle. I’ll be frank: this thing is busted. It’s an instant two-tap anywhere and one-shot in the upper torso and head in multiplayer. Similarly, it’s ridiculously powerful in Warzone, one of the top meta weapons to use. There has already been a post on it getting a nerf at the Reloaded point of this season, so hopefully this is a case of just letting players have fun with a familiar friend before killing it off.

Even so, I can’t deny it’s fun to use. Running around with it is so much quicker as a marksman, and I’ve gotten so many random hip fire kills with it. I see the appeal, even if I don’t think it should stay in the meta. Too many times I’ve loaded into a Search and Destroy match and seen six sniper scope glints from those buggers, so it’s time to go.

Next up is the Superi 46, a submachine gun. I’m reminded a bit of the LC-10 from Black Ops Cold War in design, although it doesn’t hit as hard. While it has a good spot in the Warzone meta, it’s still not overpowered. This is also the case in multiplayer, as I think it works well, but I wouldn’t pick it over the Rival-9 or WSP Swarm. It’s a great gun with easy to control recoil and decent stopping power, just not something that breaks its way into the multiplayer arsenal.

As for the maps, both are aesthetically fun and different from what’s available. The size is also great too, with both being more medium to small. Paris is the larger of the two, featuring Eiffel Tower-backed streets with a few buildings dotting it. This is an easy map to use any choice of weapon on, with a more two lane design on the outsides along with some cuts in the middle you can use for flanks. It’s also on the brighter side, like an Invasion, so your line of sight won’t be obscured by shadows.

Tokyo brings the neon-lit streets in a smaller map that is perfect for close-range encounters. You definitely can still use longer-ranged weapons, but there’s only a single lane on one side of the map that will work well for that. The other lane has tons of head glitches and other obstructions that will give you cover to move up the map. Most of your fights will be absolute chaos, and that’s a great addition for the map pool.

When it comes to gear and equipment, the game continues to grow, and I’m a little confused as to why it’s necessary. The I.M.S. is essentially a Cluster Mine killstreak, but with homing explosives. The compression plate is just Quick Fix, but in another form than a vest. The DNA bomb is interesting, essentially replacing the nuke at 25 kills, but continuing the game whereas the other streak would end it. There’s a lot of bloat in these areas of Call of Duty, and it’s not getting much better with how much is being added, especially given most of what’s here isn’t useful.

The battle pass and BlackCell, however, are as good as ever, alongside the recent live service events continuing to set the standard. It’s never been a better time to engage with Call of Duty, as you always feel rewarded for putting in your hours. Between the fun mix of items in the battle pass, the weekly challenges for Aftermarket Parts, and the themed events, I’m still enjoying playing the game and grinding for what’s available.

My biggest question from here is whether or not this season is indicative of the level of content we’ll see going forward. Black Ops 6 is coming whether you like it or not, and I’d assume plenty of developers are moving over to help with its release. I just hope the incredible amount of work that’s been poured into Modern Warfare III and its surrounding Warzone accomplices isn’t abandoned too early.

This might be a middling season for this year’s Call of Duty, but only because the bar is set so high by the previous three. Season 4 is still doing well, especially when you look back at games past. Even if we’re closer to the end than the beginning, Sledgehammer, Raven, and the rest of the teams are giving us the best version of seasonal Call of Duty we’ve ever gotten.

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