If these past two weeks have taught us anything, it’s that the appetite for reliving classic games has never been stronger.

Resident Evil 3 is a fantastic recreation of a terrifying horror. Final Fantasy VII Remake is shaping up to be absolutely incredible, as is Square’s reimagining of Trials of Mana.

Now Activision decide to drop Modern Warfare 2 Remastered on us – seemingly from nowhere – which is arguably Call of Duty’s finest campaign to date. And for the most part, it still holds up really well.

As you can probably tell from trailers and screenshots, the visual style has had a massive overhaul. It looks great from the off, but the first time I really noticed just how good was during ‘Cliffhanger’. Being up close to the characters, seeing the icy mist cloud everything, the draw distance looking out over the mountains. Wow!

Activision and Beenox have rejuvenated the character models, redesigned the art, and even remade the cut scenes for this release, making this look, feel, and sound better than most current day releases.

Frankly, it’s astounding what they’ve managed to achieve. It’s rare that a ten year old game can still blow you away, but MW2 most certainly made me raise my eyebrows more than once. And that was playing it without HDR.

I wouldn’t necessarily say the campaign itself has held up compared to modern releases – Act II, in particular, is pretty padded and some elements feel rather dated – but some of the messages, key moments, and varied gun types are just as relevant, exciting and well balanced now as they’ve ever been.

The Modern Warfare games are what put Call of Duty on the map, and MW2 is often credited with being a major turning point for the series. Ghost, Soap, Shep and Price are names that have surprisingly stuck with me over the years, and No Russian remains one of the most talked about and controversial levels in a shooter to this day.

Modern Warfare 2 has earned its place in gaming history, and this remaster more than does it justice, Despite the release not being formally announced until this week, a lot of care, diligence, and love has clearly gone into MW2 Remastered to make this a definitive version of a classic.

The multiplayer component has been stripped out, which was obviously a massive part of the original release. For some, that’ll be a dealbreaker, and it can make the price a little bit of a sore point at $19.99. Me, personally, I tend to revisit missions in Call of Duty games, and there’s plenty of reasons to do that if you’re striving for a Platinum and want to be a completionist.

And it’s great to see Activision giving the campaign a chance to shine on its own merits. Because of that there’s more emphasis on earning the trophies, beating the challenges, finding the intel and trying to wade through it on harder difficulties.

And believe you me, Modern Warfare 2 remains a hard-ass of a game, with bullets flying at you from all directions, and enemies charging at you with reckless abandon. You’re not remembering it wrong, this one really was a beast.

I’m hugely impressed by how much better this looks, how well it performs, and how entertained I was throughout. Call of Duty doesn’t always get much respect given to its campaigns, but Modern Warfare 2 Remastered ages better than you’d expect, and looks greater than you could have imagined.

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Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 Remastered is a PS4 Exclusive until April 30

Code provided by the publisher