The Call of Duty series has been plying its individual and flavoursome interactive take on the Second World War for five years now. That’s just one year less than the actual conflict lasted so perhaps it’s no surprise that the staff at developer Infinity Ward opted to set the next entry in the series in the modern battlefield.

What’s immediately and surprisingly apparent is that, for all the night vision goggles, rifle-mounted grenade launchers and zip wires, modern warfare shares a great many similarities with that found in the 1940s. Your commanding officer, the inimitable, moustachioed Captain Price, for one thing remains unchanged by 60 years of intervening history.

Beyond that the mechanics of finding cover, taking down wave upon wave of encroaching forces while inching forward feels very similar to the previous two instalments in the series. But the context, story and visuals are all very different. You play as one of three different soldiers: US marine Jackson, British SAS soldier Soap and we won’t spoil the third surprise for you.

The game’s divided into numerous stages across three acts and each one deposits you into wildly different situations across Russia, the Ukraine and the sensitively unspecific “Middle East”. The stunning gently interactive intro movie sees you driving through Iranian-style backstreets before taking an execution-style bullet to the head. The imagery feels topical and controversial even though details of the plot throughout the game are wafer thin. Perhaps what brings it all to such life are the extraordinary graphics: stunning lighting, tight and robust 3D models and sprawling environments through which the disorientating and deafening bustle of war resounds. We’ve never fought in a war but, as far as videogame interpretations go this certainly feels the most terrifyingly realistic.

The relatively short single player campaign burns with hot brightness casting you in many different battle situations from stealth missions to participating in the advance of a whole squadron of units. That’s not to say there aren’t niggles. Key team mates are indestructible, a wise gameplay/story decision perhaps but one that undermines the game’s sense of realistic drama. The set pieces are incredible and jaw dropping but they do reveal the tightly scripted and corridored way the game’s been designed. Finally, there are sections of the game where enemies will simply keep respawning until you reach some unknown invisible trigger point when they tail off – not a problem on the easier difficulty levels but an often insurmountable hurdle when playing on Veteran.

Nevertheless, on first playthrough at least this is an unbearably exhilarating ride and the range of missions and roles you play from foliage-crawling sniper through to helicopter gunner makes this one of the most interesting war-based FPS titles in a crowded marketplace. The ingenious levelling system in the multiplayer modes (which sees you rank up, gain abilities and earn access to new game types and challenges as you level up your online persona) elevates this side of the package high above the competition making this yet another must-have title this Christmas.

5 out of 5