Infinity Ward’s latest iteration of the Call of Duty series moves away from the World War II era and introduces us to the brink of World War III. With new innovative weaponry and technology that seems to come right out of an episode of Futureweapons, Call Of Duty 4 shows what it takes to update a well established series to the modern age. Multiplayer brings new features and customizations that can change the online combat forever. Is this a Halo 3 killer? Best49erfan has the review.
Review score: 9.5/10
Title
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Publisher
Activision
Developer
Infinity Ward
Rating (ERSB and PEGI)
Mature (Blood & Violence)
Genre
First Person Shooter
Xbox live
(SP) 1 - (MP) Up to 16 players
Number of players (SP)
1-16
Availability
Available Now
Introductions
It is another go around! Let’s all hit the beach head with our M1’s ready! Belay that! All Marines and SAS personnel to the Middle East! The terrorist have fallen into possession of nuclear weapons! Governments are turning against themselves. Is Nuclear War imminent?
Game play and Controls
The controls and game play do not differ much from previous COD games. In fact, why mess with something that is already successful? Most of the favorite COD things make a comeback. It is still fun to throw back enemy grenades and give them a nice surprise!
The campaign has a great story line. It has a lot of war drama and plot twists. The main objective is to prevent a nuclear war. The action is very similar to Halo 3 where there are short periods of movement followed by brief, but intense firefights. In addition to the campaign, the Arcade mode is unlocked after completing the campaign, which adds new ways to play by giving the player certain limits such as limited lives and earn points. There are some major highlights in the single player than just make the game worth buying. The ability to be the gunner on the AC130 gunship and to wear a ghillie suit in the sniper level. These levels really make the game worth playing all by itself. On the other hand, there are a few shortcoming to the game. Albeit minor, the campaign is short, about 6 hours long on a straight play through. Other minor complaints is a fierce firefight, it is hard to distinguish the enemy from friendly troops. Also, the lack of air strikes, and some of the cut scenes seemed to be excess filler to lengthen the game. Let us not forget, no cooperative play!
Multiplayer
I am a huge fan of Halo 2 and Halo 3 multiplayer. This makes it really hard to judge COD4. At first, it seemed ok, but…..I couldn’t stop playing it! Where Halo is a run and gun, COD4 is more strategic and has a faster pace. In addition, the ability to play as different classes and even create custom ones adds several layers of depth. On top of this, the more you play, the more you are rewarded as you advance in level. As you play and gain experience and move up in levels, more abilities and benefits become available. One example is the ability to customize your weapon with different accessories to make it more powerful and efficient. There are even abilities that make you faster, have more health, and even give you one last chance to kill the enemy as you are dying. Even more so, when you start killing in streaks, you get rewarded with Intel and air support.
Getting three kills in a row lets you have an UAV that shows the location of the enemy. After five kills, you get an airstrike that drops bombs in an area of your choice. After seven kills, the last reward is a chopper attack that shoots a machine gun and launches missile strikes at your enemy. This allows you to quickly build up points and win the match. Many matches that I have played have been close, and some have been just brutal beatings by players with a lot more experience than me. I would consider this something that was extremely overlooked during development. There should be a fair and consistent matchmaking that like most online games puts players of near equal experience together. Another drawback is the fact that you must play a lot and level up just to play some other modes other than free for alls and team death match.
While it seems so far, you can level up quickly if you are consistent in your play. Another thing this game lacks and all multiplayer games should have, is a Halo 3-ish saved films. There were several kills and deaths that I would have loved to show friends.
Graphics and Presentation
Hands down, this is by far the most impressive looking game I have seen to date. On top of this, the level of detail at any given time is just mind blowing. With all of the non player or enemy items going on, it just shoves the graphics into over drive. The level of detail that IW has put into this game is more than they have done in the previous games. This just shows how dedicated they are with their baby. All of the characters, weapons, and items just look so real.
Sound
I would have to say that the best sound related item of the game is the level up rock music. It just puts you in the mood to put a bullet in the head of the closest enemy. The sound track was done by Stephen Barton and Harry Gregson-Williams. With all of the bullets, grenades, RPGs, and other sounds, it is easy to miss this underappreciated music. As mentioned earlier with the graphics, the sound and music were given the same spit and polish that provides another high level to the game.
The Straight Dope
Halo 3 has little competition for game of the year, but this title will give it a run for its money. If you are a COD fan of old, then this is a can’t miss! A well done package that falls slightly short for campaign, but provides countless hours of combat on Xbox Live.
Reviews
Infinity Ward’s latest iteration of the Call of Duty series moves away from the World War II era and introduces us to the brink of World War III. With new innovative weaponry and technology that seems to come right out of an episode of Futureweapons, Call Of Duty 4 shows what it takes to update a well established series to the modern age. Multiplayer brings new features and customizations that can change the online combat forever. Is this a Halo 3 killer? 
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