After playing the Campaign and Multiplayer over the past few days on PS5, I’m very excited about the direction Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is taking. Movement is quick without becoming overwhelming. The weapons respond well, and the overall pace reminds me of the Modern Warfare games I enjoy most.
That doesn’t mean everything in the Early Access Beta is where I’d like it to be yet. Spawns have been unpredictable, footsteps make enemy positions too obvious, and Gunsmith doesn’t explain some attachment penalties clearly enough. Even so, movement and gunplay were the first things I liked. Kill Block and Entrenched kept that positive start going. Here’s what I liked most about the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Early Access Beta. There’s still room for improvement in several areas.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 details
Platform(s): PlayStation 5, XBOX Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC
Developer: Infinity Ward
Publisher: Activision
Genre: First-person shooter
Modes: Single player, multiplayer
ESRB Rating: M (Mature 17+)
Modern Warfare 4 finds a better movement balance
Movement was the first part of Multiplayer that changed how I approached matches. It’s faster and more responsive than Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, but it doesn’t push as far as Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 or Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. For me, that middle ground is exactly where Modern Warfare should be.
You can move around maps quickly, slide into fights, mantle over cover, and change direction without losing control. I found it easier to follow what was happening around me than in the recent Black Ops games. Matches stay fast without turning every encounter into a movement contest.
It reminds me most of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, with some of the more measured pacing I remember from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019). There’s enough speed for aggressive play, but positioning and reading an opponent remain important.
Sliding is useful again, although the brief delay before firing from a slide sometimes interrupts an otherwise quick sequence. I’d like that delay shortened for the full game, but it never changed my opinion of the broader movement direction.
Gunplay feels excellent
The new movement pairs well with weapons that respond quickly. Recoil and muzzle smoke interfered less with my view than in some previous Modern Warfare games. I could track targets through sustained fire without relying as heavily on the red enemy marker.
Sniping was another part I enjoyed. I didn’t enjoy sniping as much in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, but it came together much faster for me here. Sniper rifles have enough power for aggressive sniping without turning every shot into an easy kill.
I was less convinced by some of the choices inside Gunsmith. There are plenty of attachments, but some penalties had me questioning why I’d equip them. I sometimes had to dig through several choices before I knew whether an attachment suited my class.
Weapon progression also cuts down on repeated attachment unlocks. Once you unlock an attachment, it becomes available across compatible weapons. When a weapon reaches a rank tied to an attachment already in your collection, Bonus Level Up advances you past that rank. I like that approach because it reduces how often you repeat the same attachment grind across several guns. I just want Gunsmith to make the useful choices clearer.
Kill Block expands Gunfight to 10v10
Most of my beta matches were in Team Deathmatch, Domination, Hardpoint, and Kill Confirmed. Those familiar modes benefit from the new movement and gunplay, but Kill Block was the new mode I enjoyed most.
Kill Block brings Gunfight to 3v3 and 10v10, with one life per round. Everyone competes with identical randomly selected loadouts. Routes don’t stay fixed for the whole match. Every two rounds, the arena switches to a new Combo of three connected Slabs, along with another shared loadout.
In 10v10, the larger teams turn Kill Block into a very different kind of Gunfight. The changing arena forces me to rethink routes and sightlines every two rounds instead of memorizing one layout.
I also enjoyed Hardpoint because controlling the zone kept the match moving from one fight to the next. I liked most of the maps I played too. Several have clear routes, good flanking options, and more environmental detail than I expected. Transit 213 rarely slows down and reminded me immediately of Shipment. Its tiny layout also exposes the beta’s spawn problems more often than larger maps. I still enjoyed it when I wanted a match that barely pauses between fights.
Entrenched is a strong first look at the Campaign
The Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Early Access Beta also includes Entrenched, the first Campaign mission available in a Call of Duty beta. The mission puts you in an assault to stop a nuclear power station from falling to enemy forces. Infantry and armoured vehicles fill the battlefield. I liked how quickly the mission establishes the scale of the fight.
Explosions, gunfire, and movement surround you, yet I could still follow the action on PS5. Weapon detail, character animation, and the environment all looked excellent. That turned Entrenched into a useful test of how Modern Warfare 4 handles a much larger fight than standard 6v6 Multiplayer.
One mission isn’t enough to judge the complete Campaign or its story. It was enough to raise my expectations for the full Campaign.
Spawns and footstep audio were my biggest issues
As much as I’ve enjoyed the beta, a few problems kept showing up. Spawns were the biggest one. There were matches where the spawn flipped too aggressively or put me back into the action with enemies already nearby. I can accept more unpredictability on Transit 213 because of its size, but I noticed the same issue on other maps.
Footsteps are currently too easy to track. Directional audio is excellent, and I could often tell exactly where someone was approaching from. The problem is that footsteps reveal so much information that slowing down and pre-aiming becomes an easy response. That changes how aggressively I want to move through a map, especially in one-life modes.
Visibility became another problem once tactical equipment, explosions, and Killstreak effects filled the screen. Weapon smoke interfered less with my aim, but battlefield effects could still hide an enemy model behind the red marker.
Connection quality varied from match to match. Some games registered shots the way I expected. Others had moments where I fired first and still felt a step behind. Because this is a beta, I’m not treating those moments as evidence of how the full game will perform.
Some weapons already seem noticeably stronger than others. Shotguns sometimes killed from farther away than I expected, and a few weapons were much easier to use than others. The Firing Range was another weak point. It didn’t give me enough information to test recoil and damage behaviour properly.
The issues were noticeable, but I still enjoyed the beta because the movement and gunplay were consistently fun. They’re exactly the kind of things I want the beta to identify before the full game arrives.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 has me excited for launch
The Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Early Access Beta gave me a lot of reasons to be excited for the full game. Its movement is quick without becoming overwhelming, and the gunplay matches that pace well. I plan to play more Kill Block, and Entrenched raised my expectations for the Campaign.
I want better spawns, less revealing footstep audio, clearer visibility, and a more straightforward Gunsmith. I also want to see better consistency from the network side. Those issues are important, but they haven’t changed my overall opinion of the beta. If you enjoy faster Modern Warfare movement without the more extreme recent Black Ops approach, I think you’ll appreciate this direction. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 launches October 23, 2026, for XBOX Series X|S, PlayStation 5, PC, and Nintendo Switch 2.
If you didn’t get a chance to play during the Early Access Beta, you’re in luck. The Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Open Beta begins August 28 and ends September 1. Everyone can jump in this time, including Nintendo Switch 2 owners.
You can already pre-order the game for PlayStation 5 and XBOX Series X|S and get an exclusive SteelBook case. The SteelBook is available in limited quantities while supplies last.
