Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (2022) is a continuation of the popular rebooted trilogy and a direct sequel to Modern Warfare from 2019. The campaign puts Captain Price, Soap, Ghost, and Alejandro Vasquez at the forefront in a fight against a drug cartel and General Ghorbrani's terrorist network, with emphasis on action in tight interiors as well as sprawling open missions, including a night drop with thermal vision or an underwater infiltration of a harbor. Multiplayer introduced an improved weapon customization system, Gunsmith, and the game also serves as a springboard for the battle royale Warzone 2.0, with which it shares weapons, operators, and seasonal progress.

The PlayStation 5 version makes full use of the next-gen console's power: it runs at a higher and more stable resolution (dynamic 4K scaling), offers ray-traced shadows and reflections on selected surfaces, and the faster SSD drive cuts loading of missions and multiplayer maps to a fraction of the time PS4 required. The game also makes use of the DualSense controller – adaptive triggers simulate the resistance of individual weapons when firing and reloading, and haptic feedback responds to explosions, footsteps, or the type of terrain the character is moving on. The sound benefits from the Tempest 3D audio engine for more precise spatial localization of gunfire, which is completely absent on the older PS4 hardware, where players must rely on classic stereo or surround sound through headphones. The menu interface and transitions between the campaign, multiplayer, and Warzone 2.0 also run noticeably more briskly on PS5 thanks to the faster storage and more powerful processor.

In terms of content, the PS5 version matches the PS4, Xbox, and PC releases – the same campaign, the same multiplayer, the same cooperative Spec Ops missions, and the same link to Warzone 2.0 – the difference lies purely in the technical execution and control comfort, where the next-gen edition offers a noticeably smoother and visually richer experience than the version for older consoles. The faster SSD drive also showed in multiplayer, where PS5 players on average waited substantially less time to join a match than on PS4.

Why play it: For PS5 owners it's the same content as elsewhere, but a noticeably smoother and visually richer experience thanks to the faster SSD, which shortens the wait to join a multiplayer match.