After taking a year off in 2018, Call of Duty‘s single-player campaign makes a strong return with the reboot of the Modern Warfare series. For my money, this is the best campaign the series has seen since Black Ops in 2010. While it stops short of being as provocative and boundary-pushing as it seemed poised to be, it’s still an extremely well-designed first-person shooter that refreshes the formula just enough, offering some cool new ideas and fresh takes on familiar ones.

The plot begins by blurring the lines between good and bad, but it quickly settles into a more straightforward narrative where the “good guys” are clearly defined. The U.S. team is led by the mustachioed fan-favorite Captain John Price, while the sister-and-brother duo of Farah and Hamir head up an insurgency movement in their fictional home country of Urzikstan, fighting to expel Russian forces.

Yes, it’s “cool” to shoot at Russia again—but that doesn’t mean the game shies away from uncomfortable, morally gray moments. Unarmed women die, children are shot, and suicide bombers pose a constant threat. Yet, even during the campaign’s most intense moments—such as a showdown with an enemy lieutenant known only as “The Butcher”—the game flirts with moral ambiguity but never fully embraces it. This is a bit disappointing, as I had hoped the story would offer more meaningful commentary on the nature of war, especially considering the U.S.’s ongoing involvement in global conflicts.

Still, just because Modern Warfare doesn’t dig deep into these complex themes doesn’t mean it’s not an excellent action experience. It’s one of the best linear first-person shooter campaigns I’ve played in a long time, thanks to its fast pace and the constant variety in gameplay. While we’ve seen our share of street battles in previous Call of Duty games, here you’re never engaged in one for too long before something unexpected happens.

The game excels when it surprises you. Whether you’re engaging in tense close-quarters combat to clear out small multi-story houses in pitch-black darkness with only your night-vision goggles, flying explosive-rigged drones into enemy helicopters, or painting targets for missile strikes, there’s always something exciting around the corner. The enemy AI is fairly standard, but it does its job well enough. One standout moment is a unique “boss fight” where you play as a child. I won’t spoil the details, but it’s a memorable and unexpected experience.

Modern Warfare also includes dialogue choices at key points, giving you the feeling of having a real impact on the story—though, in the end, your choices don’t significantly change the outcome. Perhaps the most notable twist comes halfway through, when the game takes the gun out of your hands entirely and switches to a stealth sequence where you guide a civilian through a terrorist-occupied embassy. In this section, you use surveillance cameras to monitor rooms and direct her on where and when to move over the phone. It’s a clever change of pace that adds depth to the overall experience.

It’s something we’ve never seen in the series before, and it’s a clever twist that helps make Modern Warfare more tense and engaging by slowing down the action just enough to build suspense before cranking it back up for maximum impact.

But perhaps my favorite mission is its largest—an all-ghillied-up homage where you and Captain Price stealthily move through a small town, silencers ready, taking out enemies with single shots to the head. The freedom to tackle the buildings in any order gives the mission a sense of possibility. You can choose any entrance for each building, and even opt to search the exterior to find the electrical main, allowing you to kill the lights and enhance your stealth.

The original Modern Warfare was the first Call of Duty to understand that quiet moments could amplify the loud ones, and this reboot applies that lesson well.

Modern Warfare (2019) is also stunningly beautiful. The lighting, particularly in the outdoor forest areas, is dazzling, and the character models and animations are some of the most lifelike I’ve ever seen in a game. The audio is top-notch as well, with the deep thud of weapons punctuated by the distinctive sound of bullet casings hitting the ground.

If you can, play in 4K with a high-quality sound system to truly appreciate the visuals and audio.

As someone who’s played every Call of Duty campaign and really missed the single-player experience last year, this new Modern Warfare is exactly the kind of revival I’ve been hoping for. It introduces fresh gameplay moments while executing the familiar ones exceptionally well. Sure, its story might not be as provocative as it initially hints at, but it re-establishes a strong identity for this 16-year-old franchise, offering a standout solo shooter experience.