Modern Warfare 4's campaign trailer puts Price on the run

Call of Duty has finally shown what Modern Warfare 4's campaign is actually about, and it is not a small war. The campaign trailer debuted at Tokyo Game Show on 17 September, and it begins with Captain Price on the run from the people he used to lead.

What is actually going on: after the assassination of General Shepherd in Modern Warfare III, Task Force 141 has been disbanded and Price is a fugitive. Ghost and Gaz are ordered to capture or kill their former captain, with Ghost openly questioning Price's methods. Kate Laswell, the CIA station chief, is still in touch with him, though Activision's own notes admit even she is growing wary.

Price does not stay isolated for long. He is forced into an alliance with Valeria Garza, better known as El Sin Nombre and the head of the Las Almas cartel, which is exactly the sort of colleague he would rather not have. Meanwhile North Korea has launched a full-scale invasion of South Korea, and Private Park Hyun Jun and his squad are fighting alongside joint US and South Korean marines to hold the line.

Threaded through all of it is a weapon of war being moved towards a villain Activision only calls the Archer. The launch is confirmed for 23 October, with Campaign Early Access opening on 16 October for anyone who pre-orders the Standard Digital or Vault Edition.

Why you should care

Because this is the studio selling a story rather than a mode list. Price has spent years as the franchise's moral centre, and Modern Warfare 4 makes him the man his own squad has been told to kill. That is a genuinely interesting inversion, and it hands the campaign a question the marketing did not have to invent: was Price right to take the law into his own hands? Early Access also means the campaign now lands a week before the multiplayer crowd, which changes how these launches are actually played.

One thing to keep in mind: the trailer's biggest talking point is the face behind the Archer, and Activision's written materials name only the character. Treat anything the trailer implies about casting as trailer evidence rather than a publisher announcement.

Our opinion

Making Price the hunted rather than the hunter is the smartest narrative move this series has made in years. Killing Shepherd off and then letting his own squad turn on him gives the campaign a question it genuinely does not have to invent, and the Korean Peninsula is a clean, legible backdrop after several years of vague conspiracy plotting.

The caveat is that Call of Duty campaigns live or die on execution rather than premise, and we have not played a second of this one. The El Sin Nombre alliance could be the best beat in the game or a cutscene that overstays its welcome, and a single shot of Price and Valeria sharing a room is not evidence either way. What we can say is that 23 October is now on the calendar, the campaign arrives a week early for pre-orders, and for once the trailer has handed us a story worth arguing about.