Modern Warfare 4 dropped its campaign early access yesterday, and the internet did what the internet always does. Fans stampeded in to see what all the fuss was about with this year’s most hyped shooter. Is anyone actually surprised that the Steam reviews are already a circus?
The Scoreboard Nobody Expected
Eighty-two percent positive. That’s the number sitting on Steam right now for Modern Warfare 4’s campaign early access, and it makes this the best-rated Call of Duty launch in over a decade. Black Ops III back in 2015 holds the crown at eighty-four point three six percent, so we’re talking about a gap roughly the size of a decent sandwich. Not bad for a game that’s only shown people the campaign.
I’ll be honest, I did not see this coming. My money was on the usual launch meltdown. You know the type. Angry forum posts at 3 am about mouse acceleration and a guy named xX_TacticalToad_Xx writing a three-thousand-word essay about sprint-out times. Instead we got positivity. Weird.
Where The Rest Of Them Landed
Pull up the full list, and it’s a graveyard with a few nice headstones. Black Ops 7 sits around forty-two percent on Steam depending on which snapshot you trust, which is low enough that the vibes are openly hostile. Vanguard coughed up sixty-seven percent across twenty-five hundred reviews, and Steam itself confirms that number so at least somebody is honest. Cold War sits at seventy-nine percent on the major trackers, which is fine.
Modern Warfare II is the one that keeps me up at night. Steam’s public data puts it somewhere in the forties depending on when you look, but tracker sites have recorded it as low as nineteen percent at certain points. I don’t know what the real number is, and neither does anyone else, because this game has been review-bombed, re-reviewed, and dragged through so many discourse cycles that the score is basically a mood ring. What I do know is that Modern Warfare II is not a game you point to as evidence of anything good. It’s the cautionary tale.
Black Ops 6 Honeymoon Ended Fast
Black Ops 6 is another one I have to be careful with. Launch week it sat at sixty-nine percent, and everyone called it a triumph. That was ages ago. The number has almost certainly moved, and I’m not going to pretend I know exactly where it landed. The honeymoon ended roughly four seconds after the first battle pass dropped, same as always.
Wait, Cold War beat Modern Warfare 2019? The game everybody dunked on for being rushed out the door? That one? Above the game that rebooted the whole subseries and gave us Warzone? Sure. Fine. Nothing about this franchise makes sense, and I’ve made peace with it. I refuse to make peace with it, actually. That’s my bias, and I’m keeping it. Modern Warfare 2019 was robbed, and I will die on this hill.
Small Sample Size, Big Feelings
Only around four hundred and seventy-two reviews existed when one outlet checked, and another counted six hundred and seventy-two. That’s not a sample, that’s a dinner party. And the people at that dinner party paid extra to be there early, which means they showed up already planning to have a good time. This is like asking people at a wedding if they like the couple. The score will absolutely tank or spike once the actual masses arrive. Mark my words. I’ll be smug about it either way.
The campaign itself seems to be landing well. People keep throwing around phrases like technological leap and dizzying new heights. Cool. Great. The multiplayer, though? Nobody knows. Not a soul. That’s the part where the goodwill usually catches fire and rolls down a hill. Activision’s marketing guy even said the quiet part out loud: they’re not holding themselves to a specific number; they just want people to like the game. Bold strategy. Let’s see if it pays off.
A Cultural Detour Nobody Asked For
This whole thing reminds me of that moment in 2012 when everyone on the planet was arguing about the ending of Mass Effect 3. Hold on. I said 2009 last time and got corrected. My brain does this now. Point is, gamers love a good collective meltdown, and they also love a redemption arc.
Modern Warfare 4 is currently enjoying the second one. Give it a week. The multiplayer beta will show up eventually, and then we’ll see the real numbers. Until then, the campaign crowd gets to feel like geniuses for a few days. Enjoy it while it lasts, folks.
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