Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is a first-person shooter that serves as a reboot of the Modern Warfare sub-series. The game features a single-player campaign, cooperative Special Ops missions, and a multiplayer suite with cross-platform play. The campaign emphasizes tactical realism, with morally complex scenarios, civilian threat assessments, and night-vision operations. Multiplayer introduces a revised gunplay system with extensive weapon customization, a Realism mode that removes the HUD, a Ground War mode supporting over 100 players, and a 2v2 Gunfight mode. Post-launch, the game received the free-to-play battle royale mode Warzone. The traditional season pass was replaced with free content updates delivered through seasonal battle passes.

A CIA officer loses a shipment of chemical weapons during a covert operation in Eastern Europe when unknown hostiles intercept his convoy. The following day, suicide bombers affiliated with the terrorist organization Al-Qatala attack London. British SAS Captain John Price, CIA operative Alex, and Urzikstan Liberation Force leader Farah Karim join forces to track down the stolen chemicals and confront both the terrorists and a Russian general whose occupation has destabilized the fictional Republic of Urzikstan for decades.

As alliances shift and the true origin of the chemical theft is revealed, the team finds itself fighting on multiple fronts. Farah struggles against both foreign occupation and extremism in her homeland, while Alex must decide how far he will go outside official channels. Price works to assemble a coalition capable of stopping the weapons before they can be deployed against civilians.