The Modern Warfare 4 beta kicks off August 21 for players who pre-ordered the game. For the first time in the franchise’s history, it includes a piece of the campaign alongside the usual multiplayer modes. Infinity Ward has never let beta testers touch single-player content before, making this year’s rollout a departure from the usual format.
Call of Duty betas have followed the same pattern for years. A handful of multiplayer maps and modes go live early, mainly to generate buzz and stress-test servers ahead of launch. Adding a campaign mission breaks that pattern, giving players a preview of the story alongside the usual shooting-range tryout.
The campaign mission is called Entrenched, and Infinity Ward has released a short teaser to go with it. The mission lands during North Korea’s invasion of South Korea, based on what is known about Modern Warfare 4’s story so far. It puts players in the middle of the conflict rather than easing them into it.
What happens in the Entrenched mission
Entrenched follows a squad of South Korean marines, plus one embedded American soldier, as they push uphill against dug-in enemy positions. The teaser shows trenches, armored personnel carriers, and shotguns at close range. It also includes a motion-captured brawl between an NPC ally and an enemy soldier, playing out right in front of the player. It reads as a standard Call of Duty set piece, executed with the scale the series is known for.
Warzone joins the Modern Warfare 4 beta for the first time
Warzone will also show up in a Call of Duty beta for the first time, though not during the opening weekend. That content arrives in the second wave, which runs from August 28 to September 1. Unlike the first weekend, it is open to everyone rather than just pre-order customers. The new Zodiac Resurgence map will be playable during that window. The beta should also reveal how Warzone absorbs the movement and weapon changes built into Modern Warfare 4.
Those changes are the throughline for Infinity Ward’s approach this year. The studio’s first Call of Duty release in four years leans on refinements rather than a full reinvention. Muzzle flash, hipfire accuracy, and movement speed have all been adjusted to keep the series feeling grounded, without slowing down players who take it seriously. PC Gamer got early hands-on time with the multiplayer in May, ahead of other journalists, and described the session as a positive one. Still, next week’s beta will be the first broad test of those changes outside a controlled preview.
Infinity Ward has not said why this year’s beta carries more content than usual. PC Gamer suggests it could be an attempt to win back players still frustrated with last year’s Black Ops 7. That game arrives weeks before Grand Theft Auto 6, competing for the same audience’s time and money. Whatever the reasoning, players who pre-order now get a longer look at Modern Warfare 4 than any Modern Warfare 4 beta has offered before.