In the first 20 minutes of the campaign (watchable above) the new IW engine is put through its paces and then some. First the player is subjected to a cutscene created by the renowned visual effects artists at Blur Studios that is stylistically identical to in-game assets, and shortly thereafter control of "Alex," one of two playable protagonists in Modern Warfare, is assumed. This may seem like a pretty standard opener but there's a lot going on in the span of 10 seconds. First
at 1:41 the pre-rendered cutscene seamlessly transitions into real-time gameplay, and then
at 1:50 the camera switches smoothly from a third to first-person perspective without a cut.
But it's the composition of the first playable scene
at 2:00 in the video above that really sells the impressive new look of Call of Duty. It's a familiar environment to anyone who enjoys hiking at night, but one that you've probably never seen portrayed well in a video game until now. That's because
forests in video games are generally much less dense than their real-world counterparts, partially to reduce the rendering load but also to allow NPC AI to easily navigate the space. Whether the result of AI improvements or predetermined routes, this isn't the case in Modern Warfare, and the illusion of being in a real eastern European forest is complete. Furthermore, this scene is lit entirely by moonlight which can be seen directly striking the player's firearm and surrounding trees, but also being dispersed by volumetric fog that gives the horizon and eerie glow.
