"Oi, Suzy!"

First regarded as "another World War II shooter" and a "Medal of Honor clone", Call of Duty has been regarded as a high quality shooter since it's first game. Notable changes included a more squad-based WW2 shooter, and the fact that you weren't even the commander of your squad. Now, fast-forward to 2007, and, after two sequels, we are presented with Call of Duty 4. A wonderful experience, it's not long-lasting, but that time you play it in is certainly a blast.

Graphics/Environments
The game looks very top-quality. I haven't encountered any clipping problems, any slow-loading environments, or anything else of the sort. Environments, while generally quite repetitive (usually some variation of a snowy village, or a desert village), look superb, and it all looks amazing when scouting around with a Sniper Rifle. The Environment is also interactive to a degree; shooting a bucket will make it fly around the room, and will add bullet holes to it. The spray of gunfire will pepper the perimeter of a house, and blacken the floorboards. The opening level is also a visual treat, as you slide down a rope from a helicopter onto a ship, neutralizing the crew, and getting the hell out while tragedy occurs. I won't ruin what happens, but taking a look down from the helicopter will show you splashing water that smacks the sides of the ship and flutters around, and a deck filled to the brim with crates and all manners of cover. All in all, the Graphics and Environments are beautiful, but some variety would have been nicer.
9/10

Sound/Music
Somewhat of a letdown, the Music is your standard semi-epic war tunes, coupled with a few songs scattered here and there (For example, in one level, and during the credits) which are mostly rap, which won't sit too well with some people. The sound is even worse. Guns let out odd sounds, and you will encounter MANY familiar sounds if you're a veteran of the series. They sound recycled from previous games, such as Grenades, for example, which I'm almost 100% sure have the same sound as the Grenades from CoD (Call of Duty) 2 and 1. The voice-acting is pretty neat, but one thing that irks me are the Russian characters in this game. While it's understandable that they are speaking English so we can understand them, they ALL do it in a very tacky Russian accent which I didn't think was all that stunning. It's a small issue, but I feel it detracts slightly from the sound.
5/10

Story/Characters
First person shooters aren't generally known for their deep stories, but you can tell they've at least tried with CoD4. You aren't going to get epic, massive script akin to Tolkien, but the plot basically centers around a Nuclear crisis in Russia and the Middle East, and a rebellion in Russia. Taking command of one of two characters (three to five, if you want to include three characters you play for a very short period of time), you will command either Soap MacTavish of the SAS, or Sergeant Jackson of the USMC. For the majority of both, you're chasing one specific person, but the target eventually changes to somebody you might go "WTF?" about, but will make sense if you pay attention to photos in the loading screens.
7/10

Gameplay
And then there is Gameplay, of course. The thing which matters most about videogames. Call of Duty is a First Person Shooter (Or FPS for short) as you probably already know, and while there isn't a whole slew of new functions to offer, it is a solid experience. Not revolutionary, but crisp. The game is, for the most part, semi-realistic. I say that because, while three bullets won't kill you, you will generally die if you try and run out in the middle of the battlefield. The amount of damage you can take changes, depending on your difficulty, and, in a feature implemented in previous Call of Duty games, there is no health bar, or health-restoring items. When hit enough, your screen will flash red, you will hear your characters heart pumping, and you will hear them panting. When this happens, hit the dirt, and take cover. When it goes away, you'll be right back at full health. While some absolutely abhor this, others think it is a particularly smart system. I'll leave you to decide for yourself.

For the guns, there is a good variety of modern weaponry (You'd probably know this from the title, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare) for you to get your hands on. There are the classics like the AK47 and the RPG, to explosives such as C4 and Claymores. The latter are quite useful, unlike many games which just tack these on for depth, and can actually make quite a difference, especially when you're trying to defend a position. There are mounted Machine Guns as well, which you can't haul around with you, but can defend with, that will generally hit the enemies hard. You don't get to use these a lot, but they come in handy. And then there are weapon sub-classes. I like to classify them by Automatics, Semi-Automatics, Shotguns, Heavy Weaponry, and Sniper Rifles. As you might have guessed, Automatics are fast-firing weapons, good at short-to-medium range, that spew out a lot of damaging bullets, and will probably make up one half of your weapons at any given time. Semi-Automatics fire as fast as you can click a mouse, and are slower, but more accurate than Automatics, and excellent at a medium-to-long range. They are, in my opinion, probably the most useful guns in the game. Shotguns are pretty self-explanatory, powerful short-ranged weapons. Heavy Weaponry encompasses things such as Rocket Launchers, and are used in the campaign to take out Helicopters or the occasional Tank. Sniper Rifles are those wonderful thing that everyone in Multiplayer loves to hate, and are excellent at a very long-range for picking off enemies. The balance is pretty decent, but some guns are near useless, or much to unrealistic. For example, the Skorpion fires almost straight, and with next-to-no recoil, at long ranges, making it incredibly powerful. I'm not an expert on firearms, but I am quite sure that it wouldn't go like that in real-life. In addition, some guns have grenade launchers attached to them, but other than this, there are no modes of fire, which have some disappointed.

If you payed attention to the tutorial, you might notice that most guns can fire through light surfaces, like Plywood, or Crates. This adds another tactical element to consider. For example, there might be a band of tangos holding AK47's spewing bullets in your direction, but to hit them, you need to get up close. You might seek shelter behind a crate, but while this gives you a little bit of cover, a lot of the bullets are still going to get you. Some find it frustrating, some find it clever, some find it realistic, some find it overly exaggerated. I'll leave that for you to decide. There are four different difficulties; Easy, Normal, Hardened, and Veteran. Easy is incredibly pathetic, and is generally recommended for those new to gaming, or First Person Shooters/Shooters (In that case, welcome). Normal is also pretty easy, and if you're not overly confident of your skills, this would be a good place to start. Hardened is a nice level to start at if you've played quite a few First Person Shooters. Veteran is a big challenge, and is pretty much for experts at this game, and other First Person Shooters. A nice feature is that, in the Tutorial, there is a course you must run, and depending on your time, an appropriate difficulty will be recommended. A note that some might find disappointing, is that there are no drivable vehicles in this game. You'll be on some, but these are mostly you driving/flying to your location, and then getting dropped off. You'll also have the chance to use guns on Helicopters, and even a large gunship in one level, but that's about it.
8/10

Length/Replayability
Unlike previous games, Call of Duty 4 only has one big campaign, split between two main characters. There is no 6 American missions, and then 6 British missions, and then 6 Russian missions to be found here. Missions are of varying length, and depend mostly upon the difficulty level, but I've tinkered around for about an hour on some of the longer levels on harder difficulties. About half the levels are generic, objective based "secure the town!", while the other half generally present some sort of perk that differentiates it from the others. For example, one level sees you piloting a Fighter armed with bombs and all manners of nasty weaponry, as you cover your guys from below. The whole game itself is not that great, however. It took me two days to beat it on normal, and I'm not a big fan of First Person Shooters. Replayability is not too bad; First Person Shooters aren't known for having thousands of choices for you to make, but there are Pieces of Intel scattered around levels that unlike all manners of goodies and options for you to play your games in, and are akin to Grand Theft Auto's Hidden Packages. It also has cheats and an Arcade Mode unlocked from beating the game, and several levels of difficulty. Not the greatest stuff, but fantastic for a First Person Shooter.
8/10

Overall
Call of Duty 4 is not a revolutionary game. It will not drop your jaw (except at maybe some of the graphics in the explosions). It will not make you dream at night about it. What it is, however, is a solid, playable experience, that will last maybe a week to a few months. Whether or not you demand your games last longer might affect your view of this game, but Single Player, coupled with Multiplayer (which I haven't played, so I can't review it) should keep you coming back for more.
8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/26/07, Updated 06/23/08

Game Release: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (AU, 11/07/07)