Prepare to go dark, Modern Warfare is back!

The stakes have never been higher as players take on the role of lethal Tier One operators in a heart-racing saga that will affect the global balance of power.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare will make its return in a powerful experience reimagined from the ground-up, engulfing players in a modern-day conflict, where split-second decisions could affect the global balance of power.

In the gripping and dramatic single-player story campaign, players will immerse themselves in a visceral narrative that shines a light on the changing nature of modern war. Alongside a cast of international special forces and freedom fighters, fans take the role of tier one operators in a saga that will affect the global balance of power. Additionally, picking up where the Campaign ends is the cooperative Special Ops mode where players can team up in strike-teams of four. Special Ops advances the overarching Modern Warfare lore with multiple ways to play co-op, including Operations, the largest and most involved experience with multi-phased objectives, and the more curated Classic Special Ops, to test your performance with weapons, munitions and other tools.

And the story doesn’t end there.

In Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, players will be thrust into an immersive narrative spanning the entire game. Players can experience the ultimate online playground with classic multiplayer or squad-up and play cooperatively in a collection of elite operations, accessible to all skill levels.

The latest Modern Warfare game update is available now on all platforms simultaneously, offering another slew of free content! This update contains a variety of new content, including game modes, Featured Playlists, and three new Special Ops experiences you can play with friends via crossplay and cross progression.

As with the previous free community content drop, this is a precursor to major in-game events that are set to deliver a larger selection of free content to all players. As usual, in addition to the new content available today, developer Infinity Ward is releasing a number of quality of life, tuning, and play balancing updates.

Here’s the lowdown on what’s available now:

Additional Mode and Playlist Content

Enjoy following additions to the game mode and playlist rotation: Realism (with objective modes) and Gun Game.

Realism (with Objective Modes)

“Minimal HUD with standard health and increased headshot damage.”

Realism is coming to additional objective-based game modes; not just Team Deathmatch! Play Domination, Headquarters, Kill Confirmed, and Hardpoint like you did before, but with one important difference; you’re in Realism Mode! This removes the HUD (heads-up display), tweaks the health and headshot damage, and is available across all day and night map variants.

Gun Game

“Be the first player to score a kill with each one of the provided weapons.”

On November 21, Infinity Ward debuts the fan-favorite Free-For-All mode, Gun Game. It requires skill and the use of all types of firearms: Each player starts a match with the same handgun. Every time a player defeats an enemy with the weapon, they receive a new weapon. As combat continues, and you showcase your skill by defeating more foes, expect the weaponry to become more challenging to utilize! If you’re taken out by a melee attack at any time during the match, you are “demoted” to the previous weapon and lose a point. If you suicide, you’re also demoted to your previous weapon. The final weapon you’re given is a Combat Knife (primary) and Throwing Knife (lethal), and the match ends when you take down a foe with the Throwing Knife, or execute a Finishing Move.

New Special Ops Content

Expect three new Special Ops outings dropping today (November 21), all involving a challenging scenario to complete. Prepare for Operation Harbinger, Operation Brimstone, and Classic Special Ops: Door Kick! 

Operation Harbinger

“Gather intel on the whereabouts of local informant MAGE and verify his reports of a ‘major shipment’ leaving Verdansk.”

Downtown Verdansk is the setting for this lengthy sortie involving your Armistice Taskforce, who are dropping into the mean streets of this ruined cityscape and given a variety of increasingly-difficult tasks to perform. With Al-Qatala present in great numbers throughout the engagement, after infil you’re to collect a number of clues from various Smuggler Caches, allowing you to triangulate the location of a local informant, and verify his intel. After rescuing the informant, you are to exfil with all haste; which is easier said than done!

Operation Brimstone

El Traficante’s train has left the quarry carrying explosives. In this new operation on what should be familiar soil for Ground War players, you must fight your way to the railyard, recall the train, and rig it for detonation.

Classic Special Ops: Door Kick

“Infil. Retrieve enemy intel. Move to extraction point.”

Set at Aniyah Palace, located about two klicks outside of El Nadaar, Urzikstan, Al Qatala has set up a new base of operations at this bombed-out and abandoned royal residence; the Al-Raab compound. Your mission is as dangerous as it is straightforward; you must infil, retrieve enemy intel, and move to a location for extraction. As part of Armistice Team 4, expect to receive close air support as requested. This is a fast-paced mission, testing your skills in sweeping multiple rooms for hostile forces and uncovering vital intel along the way.

The Classic Special Ops update also includes a three-star rating system and Multiplayer unlocks which will apply to both Door Kick and the previously released experiences, Safeguard.

• 3-star rating system (based on time completed).
• XP & MP unlocks based on your star rating after finishing a game.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare features a new engine delivering an immersive and photo-realistic experience across the entire game. The new technology utilizes the latest advancements in visual engineering, including a physically-based material system allowing for state-of-the-art photogrammetry, a new hybrid tile based streaming system, new PBR decal rendering system, world volumetric lighting, 4K HDR, DirectX Raytracing (PC) and more as well as a new GPU geometry pipeline. Spectral rendering delivers thermal heat radiation and infrared identification for both thermal and night-vision in-game imaging. The technical investment made provides a cutting-edge animation system and blend shape system, while the new suite of audio tools allows for full Dolby ATMOS support, on supported platforms, along with the latest in audio simulation effects.

Modern Warfare multiplayer delivers a thrilling and game-changing online experience with best-in-class down the barrel gameplay, along with an all-new level of strategic and tactical play. Players can jump into new play spaces that redefine Call of Duty multiplayer, from quick-action, close-quarters 2 vs. 2 experiences in Gunfight, traditional 6 vs. 6 multiplayer gameplay, modes that support 10 vs. 10 and 20 vs. 20 firefights, along with high-player count maps and combat, such as the all-new Ground War, an epic large-scale mode supporting more than 100-players. And, that’s just the beginning for Modern Warfare fans.

With a complete weapon overhaul and the most choices in Call of Duty history, players will be able to outfit their multiplayer operators for every combat encounter, with unprecedented customization and modifiability in the new Gunsmith system. Modern Warfare features cutting-edge visuals, authentic sound design, with realistic recoil and weapon ballistics throughout the game. In addition, gameplay mechanics, including bullet penetration, gun mounting, door breaching and night vision multiplayer gameplay maps featuring night vision goggles (NVGs), allow for an amazing tactical experience.

Activision also confirmed that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare will have no season pass, and that it will feature cross play between Xbox One, PS4 and PC platforms.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare features a fully-optimized PC version, developed in partnership with Beenox, which will be available exclusively on Blizzard Battle.net

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is currently available worldwide on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.