If you’re gearing up to dive into the Modern Warfare 3 single-player campaign, which is available to download and play right now, then chances are that you might be wondering what the Call of Duty story in the Modern Warfare sub-series is all about.

Whether you’re a first-time Call of Duty player or a returning fan of the series, with considerable chunks of time elapsing between annual entries, it can be pretty easy to forget the precise details of the plots from games past.

Luckily, our friends on the team behind the Future Games Show have put together this handy video guide outlining everything that you need to know about the Call of Duty Modern Warfare story so far in order to dive straight into the Modern Warfare 3 campaign, fully versed and fully informed.

Containing plenty of details on the main characters, various settings, and even some of the similarities with the original Modern Warfare trilogy, this is a definitive guide to the timeline of the sub-series after it was reset with 2019’s blockbuster reboot.

Thankfully, most of the named sub-series in the franchise have their own independent storylines – barring Call of Duty: World at War which bizarrely seems to be part of the wider Black Ops timeline but you don’t have to worry about that right now. As a result, you don’t need to have played anything outside of the most recent Modern Warfare and Modern Warfare 2 to fully understand what’s going on here. There are, however, a few story beats in Modern Warfare’s easily missable Spec Ops co-op campaign and even some bits from the online Call of Duty: Warzone that feed into this timeline.

In addition to what you would find in each of the two game’s story campaigns, we’ve been super careful to include the relevant details from the live-service content, too. We also have some pretty strong opinions on Captain Price’s wonderful mustache, a highlight of the Modern Warfare titles and something that you absolutely don’t want to miss.

For more first-person shooter recommendations, visit our lists for the best FPS games and best free games.

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