Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 | Switch 2 Hands-On Impressions

Modern Warfare on the go, and it's not Call of Duty Mobile this time

• Features
• Nintendo

Győző "FairyEmpire" Baki

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Our vast coverage, stemming from our fruitful visit at the Infinity Ward studios in Los Angeles, continues with one of the most exciting aspects of the latest Call of Duty. The Switch 2 port, as in, the first time a Call of Duty games comes to a Nintendo console since 2014, and as such, the first time this happens on a hybrid home/handheld console of theirs. These are DayOne‘s impressions of the Switch 2 version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4!

As a reminder: this Call of Duty goes pretty damn hard

You can read our full opinions of this year’s, explosive return to form of Infinity Ward’s latest Call of Duty, in what promises to be the last entry in the Modern Warfare reboot franchise. A story, largely set between South and North Korea, lands that this franchise hasn’t ever really tackled properly, that packs some of the most exciting sequences and ties up most loose ends in a satisfying way. A DMZ mode that is easily one of the most exciting extraction shooters out there. A multiplayer suite that is Infinity Ward’s best in quite some time, as well, packed with well-designed maps, fantastic new game modes and a satisfying balance.

To be clear: the Switch 2 version has every game mode, virtually every feature (aside from a few, more demanding graphics settings), and is also fully cross-play with all other versions of the game from the start. I had the chance to play both DMZ and multiplayer on a Switch 2 against PC players, and the experience was as smooth and seamless as it has been for many years now on Xbox and PS consoles alike. This is, for all intents and purposes, a full-blown port with no corners cut. Content-wise, Modern Warfare 4 is the real deal on Nintendo Switch 2. So… what about the quality of the port itself? The graphics? The performance? Let’s find out!

Remember the beta? Well, forget it.

In late August 2026, ending on the starting day of September to be precise, were two beta weekends to test out the ins and outs of this latest Modern Warfare. In an unusual move, not only players could test out the multiplayer suite, but also a piece of the campaign. Only the second weekend of the beta was on Nintendo Switch 2, but both modes were a bit lacking for one reason or another. The multiplayer suite would keep itself at a relatively stable 60 frames per second but at a shockingly low native resolution, resulting in the “soft” and grainy look of reconstructed frames. The campaign sacrificed a lot of visual flair, it still kept a fairly low resolution, and it didn’t get beyond 30FPS either. It became evident that the beta is still not quite where the game would need to be yet.

I’m happy to report that the near-launch version of Modern Warfare 4 that we tested is a dramatic improvement over the beta from less than two months ago. All of the main suites have receiving substantial upgrades, and even DMZfeatures some surprising solutions. Let’s start from the latter, also known as the the extraction shooter module – here, the game manages to keep up the pace even with dozens of enemy units on screen. It is locked at a stable 30 frames per second, unless you play docked on a monitor or TV that supports 120hz modes – in which case, you can use said mode and take advantage of VRR to make the performance feel even better. The lower resolution is definitely felt, especially during long distance combat encounters, but it’s a solid way to play this massive game mode. This version of the game does not have keyboard and mouse support like Xbox and PlayStation do, but on the flipside it does support the Joy-Cons’ mouse mode for aiming, so that’s a decent compromise at least.

Cinematic compromises

Moving over to the campaign, the 30 frames per second limit is back, but the visual compromises to reach it are not that bad anymore. Some of the graphical assets are clearly on the lower end, but the overall quality of the image is pretty good, and the resolution felt quite satisfying as well. I played through various segments of the story, including a vehicle segment, and the controls felt reactive, with the visuals being in a good place. When compared to the extremely blurry and “artifacty” beta from a few months ago, the difference is night and day. Even the more detailed sequences, such as the opening mission starting in a crazy high fidelity South Korean store, look close enough to their home console counterparts. Quite impressive, for sure.

Lastly, multiplayer has been the most satifying mode of ’em all, as I played several matches against full lobbies of PC players, and at no point I felt at a disadvantage. Rock solid 60 frames per second (or at least, it felt as much with the variable refresh rate potentially filling in the blanks) all across the board, though there’s no 120Hz support like there is on other consoles. The resolution is notably higher than it was in the beta, the performance as said is much smoother, and the general image quality of the small-to-medium sized multiplayer maps was absolutely satisfying. I wasn’t able to test the 24v24 matches of Combat Outpost, so I can’t comment on that one, but otherwise the multiplayer experience has been very smooth and enjoyable. I can definitely envision the Switch 2, with crossplay off, being a decent “cooldown” experience for some players, who’d definitely find sweatier lobbies when paired with PC and other console players as well.

An excellent game in a surprisingly great form

Overall, Modern Warfare 4‘s Nintendo console verion is less of a “miracle port” than, say, Cyberpunk 2077 or Star Wars Outlaws perhaps, but when you consider that it is the first episode to skip PS4 and Xbox One and that it’s the first Call of Duty for the Switch 2, I think it’s a very promising start. It is an obviously a slightly compromised version when compared to the other consoles, let alone PCs, but it loses nothing in terms of features and is fully cross-play with all platforms in all modes, while displaying a good enough image quality and performance even in the busiest combat scenarios in DMZ. It is therefore a bit of a shame that we weren’t allowed to capture footage of the game in our testing sessions, as we were playing on devkits, but I’m sure that by the time you’re reading these words, footage of said version won’t be difficult to find around.

All this to say that, if your only way or preferred way to experience Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is the Switch 2, things are looking good. This is quite an excellent port that is smooth as butter in multiplayer, but also good enough in campaign and DMZ not to feel like an afterthought, with in fact even VRR support in place for the latter. I would absolutely advise using a Pro Controller or use the mouse mode of the Joy-Cons, as the sticks on the original controllers are really not built for such fast-paced FPS games – though that’s not something that can be blamed on the game. This is a genuinely commendable port of one of the finest Call of Duty games in years, and if the quality of the beta scared you off the Switch 2 version, you might wanna reconsider – the game is now very satisfying even on Nintendo‘s latest console.