"This game goes above and beyond the call of duty, becoming one of the best online shooters available to date."

When I heard they were making a Call of Duty game in a present day environment, my jaw dropped. No World War II? Blasphemy! How could they do this to us? I don't think there've crossed the one million mark on games that take place in WWII, so this is sacrilege, to be sure. Or is it? Well, I got the demo and wasn't too impressed. It really is one level of the game, and a decent one, but it basically felt like CoD2 with fresh skins on everything and better graphics. My initial impressions were very, very wrong. First and foremost, I was judging this game as a singleplayer experience alone, as well as foregoing the plot and general enjoyment that can come from a game such as this that gamers just can't get enough of. After finally breaking down and begrudgingly purchasing Call of Duty 4, I played it and my original assessment was blown away. Here are my new assessments of the game…

GRAPHICS: 10/10

Holy crap. I'm using a rig that was pretty darn good two years ago, and yet this game looks amazing, as though it's tapping unkindled greatness right out of my video card (GeForce 7800 GT) like some sort of magical video card-milking machine! I'm going to keep this short: Call of Duty 4 looks freaking incredible even on medium settings. Other developers should study this game's graphics to see where they keep going wrong. I'm tired of playing games like Crysis and F.E.A.R. where the game looks like total ass unless you have an uber video card at the time of the game's release.

I generally assign a maximum of 5 points of the 50 in my reviews, but this game's graphical wizardry as well as the lack of importance of the plot itself in the overall scheme of things have led me to switch my maximum points for sections around in this review. To place more emphasis on this particular game's story than its graphics would be a travesty. Call of Duty 4 is graphically perfect and deserves merit for its generous consideration for those of us who don't throw money around for new hardware every time a new video card comes out.

SOUND/MUSIC: 5/5

Guns! Gunshots! Yeah, so you're firing guns and running around. There are explosions as well. Okay. There really aren't that many sounds…or so you would think, anyway. There are a crazy number of guns in this game, in all honesty, and while I'm not sure if every single gun has its own sound effect, enough of them are different enough that I certainly took notice. They did a great job with the war sounds. It sounds like you're in a big-budget war movie. Good stuff. The voice acting is great as well. There aren't a lot of characters, but all the voices of everyone are of high quality. Once again, it's like being in a war movie. As for music, I honestly just don't remember the music at all. If it was there, I either thought it was decent or just didn't care. It's been a month since I played the singleplayer, so I really can't recall that aspect. It wasn't good enough to remember, at any rate. All in all, though, Call of Duty 4 did a great job in the sound and music department, though, with a very strong emphasis on the sounds for having all the great war sound effects.

CONTROLS: 5/5

You run around, shoot, throw two types of grenades, switch weapons, and…oh yeah, zoom it. That's about it, except things like sprinting. It's simple stuff that any FPS gamer knows by heart. If you've played Call of Duty 2, you know exactly what the controls are like; they're either uncannily similar or perfectly identical. I believe all of the keys are customizable, meaning, of course, that you can set whatever key to serve whatever function you'd like it to. The controls are just fine and dandy by default, and the ability to customize them makes them perfect in every way.

STORY: 5/10

Call of Duty 4's story is “the weakest link,” as they say. Seeing as how this game is one of those “fun first person shooters” you rarely hear about anymore, I sometimes forget that a game's plot really isn't the end-all beat-all most important thing of a game next to the actual gameplay. As mentioned above, I've lowered the maximum points I normally score a game on its story for, as most games will only motivate you to play them via their storyline. Call of Duty 4 is the exception. It's like back in the day with games like Doom and Heretic. A story was neat to have, but if it was lacking or practically non-existant, you just flat-out didn't care. Call of Duty 4 is in the same vein…not as a run-n'-gun title, but as a game that just doesn't really need a storyline to be good.

However, Call of Duty 4 does, in fact, have a storyline, and it's definitely better than the previous CoD games by a long shot. However, it's just not all that incredible. It'll probably keep you wanting to know what'll happen next, but it just isn't the main reason you'll keep playing, as the gameplay is the main reason for that. Over the course of the game, you'll play as four things: a president of some middle-eastern country (no guns, all scripted), a British soldier, an American soldier, and a gunship. You will primarily be playing as the British soldier and occasionally as the American soldier, while the president and the gunship are one-level events. Essentially, some jackasses are trying to start up a war, and of course, some nukes are involved. It's nothing amazing, and easily forgettable. Aside from a few moments and the very last scene of the game, it's pretty much forgettable. Like I said, though…it just doesn't matter.

GAMEPLAY: 20/20

Yes. 20 out of 20, baby. This game is a freaking blast. The singleplayer's pretty fun. I've played better games in singleplayer, but where Call of Duty 4 totally kicks ass is in the multiplayer department, featuring team-based gameplay covering several game types. Although teamwork may be lacking at times, the small yet very good maps put you so close to your team mates most of the time that as you get better and better, you'll often find yourself working with team mates to overcome the other team. It's so much damn fun.

When you first start out, the multiplayer seems somewhat restrictive, as you only have three classes to choose from with different weapon load outs. However, this game has a ranking system much like the one in Battlefield 2. As you get promoted, all sorts of new features get unlocked. As you first begin getting promoted, you unlock two more classes, soon followed by unlocking the “Create a Class” feature, which lets you pick any main weapon you've unlocked, any sub weapon you've unlocked, and up to three “perks” that you've unlocked to give your character. These perks will offer bonuses like more maximum health, more damage per bullet, bullet penetration (bullets going through thin walls), etc. They're really neat little touches that help you make your character however you'd like him to be.

What's great is that you'll always having something to do aside from just trying to win the game. There is a sort of Achievement system in place where the game will tell you to blow up a car sitting around or get 50 kills with a particular gun, and various other things. For completing these, you'll receive a big ol' chunk of experience to help with getting promoted faster than usual, thus unlocking even more of these so-call “Challenges.” It's a really great way of taking away from the “level-up tedium.” I much prefer the ranking system in this game to games like Battlefield 2, though, as it's actually possible to reach the highest rank without devoting every free minute of your life to playing the game and doing nothing but shooting for a high score. I only played for a couple of weeks online and maxed out my rank. I played an awful lot, but I've invested several hundred hours into Battlefield 2 and am not even a freaking Lieutenant yet! I mean, how depressing is that?

In Call of Duty 4, however, you'll get the fun feeling of being rewarded and often. Even if you max out your rank, you can still keep trying to get all the achievements. Even then, whether you get them all or just don't care, the game alone is a ton of fun. I haven't played in a while, but I'll gladly come back to the game to play it online again, even though I've unlocked every gun and perk. It's just that fun and very addictive. There's cover to hide behind, tall grass to blend in with as a sniper with a grass suit on some maps, and just so much more. In terms of “fun,” I think Call of Duty 4 may have been the most enjoyable multiplayer game I've played so far. Once again, the singleplayer is definitely good, but it's very short and far from being as amazing as the multiplayer.

CONCLUSION: 9 (10 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 20 = 45; 45 * 2 = 90%)

All in all, I just can't really say much else except that if you liked Call of Duty 2, you'll love Call of Duty 4. If any thing, please get it just so you can experience one of the oh-so-rare big budget war games that does NOT take place during World War II. You really do deserve a break, and Call of Duty 4 is just what the doctor ordered. If you don't like playing games online, though, you may want to pass on this title, as you'll only be playing the singleplayer for a few hours. The real meat of Call of Duty 4 is its multiplayer. If you enjoy multiplayer games, this is where it's at. I'd highly recommend this game to anyone who enjoys first person shooters, especially if fast-paced yet tactical multiplayer is your thing. This game is great. Thanks for reading, and I hope this review helps you. =D

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/25/07

Game Release: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (US, 11/05/07)