Back in 2007, the Call of Duty franchise got its fourth installment with Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Nine years later it has been remastered and those that pre-ordered Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare can start playing it now.
Does the remaster live up to the legacy of the original title, or are you better off just waiting for the next installment for the series?
Nine years ago graphics were at a different level than what we are seeing for this generation of consoles and PC graphics cards. Games looked and ran great on last gen equipment, but since we didn’t have a time machine we had no idea what the future would have in-store for our viewing pleasure. Call of Duty4: Modern Warfare was a great looking game back in 2007 and received great review scores, with an average on Metacritic of 94. Yeah, it was that good.
Fast forward to 2016, and in anticipation of the release of Call of Duty: Infinte Warfare, Activision asked developer Raven Software to remaster Modern Warfare in order to bring it up to date with the current generation of gaming. What resulted was what feels and looks like a brand new game.
When one thinks about the term remastered, they may think it’s just smoothing out some images and making them look a little better. That’s not exactly the case here as Markus Peekna, Studio Character Artist tells us:
The SAS sweaters in the original game were re-textured versions of a jacket. While this was a legitimate and resourceful solution for the time, we decided early on to create a new asset from the ground up for Price and his crew.
The game truly doesn’t look like a remastered game. The graphics are smooth with no pixelations or rough edges. The environments weren’t just touched up, but also got extra attention to detail according to Charles Morrow, Creative Visual Director :
Realizing the Chernobyl reactor, surrounding forests and the world seen from the sniper’s perspective – in addition to intense detail in the foreground – was a nice challenge. As an example in how world creation has changed, In Modern Warfare, window frames could be built simply with one or two mouse movements; in this scene, the window frame was modeled out, and even has internal structure. The team relied on the layout of the original game for high level visual direction.
On of our favorite levels from the original was All Ghillied Up and to see how much it’s been adapted to this gen of gaming was impressive. While the ghilli suit looked pretty good on the original, it took on a life of its own with this version. Ryan Butts, Lead Artist explains why:
The ghillie suit is one of the most iconic pieces of clothing across the Modern Warfare franchise. Our goal was to emphasize realism and that includes having the cloth move naturally from character movement and wind. This adds a great sense of realism to the mission.
What really gave us the sense that this wasn’t just a simple remaster was the level of detail given to the folks that you’ll see a lot of in the game. Captain Price is one guy that seems to always be around and his level of detail was impressive. Markus Peekna, Studio Character Artist tells us:
Captain Price received the most attention during the art review process. From the smallest details like skin pores, the depth of his crow’s feet and other blemishes to the shape of his facial hair, it was all redone to make him feel more alive than ever. We felt a deep responsibility to maintain the original spirit of the character but also bring him into the modern area of games with much higher quality.
Those that played the original back in ’07 will probably remember most of the story lines, but just like when you’re re-watching an old movie, how much do you actually remember? The story is the same, but for us, remembering what was around every corner on the Veteran difficulty wasn’t easily remembered. The game is very punishing, albeit beatable with time and patience, but still as fun as it was back then and well worth another go at it.
If you are looking for an awesome way to prepare yourself to get back in the FPS world of Call of Duty, you can’t go wrong with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered.
9
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