"In Modern Warfare, there's no telling what's going on (Disclaimer: Single player review only)"

As a warning, this review will cover only the single player mode of this game. I'm sure there are plenty of gamers out there who, like me, have little time to invest in a multiplayer game, but enjoy a good single player game. If you want a review of the multiplayer game, read any of the other many positive reviews on the Gamefaqs website. With all of the hype surrounding Call of Duty 4, especially its Game of the Year awards, how could I have avoided this game? It became clear to me pretty quickly that developer Infinity Ward's interest was more deeply invested in the game's multiplayer than the single player.

The Good:
+ Has its share of intense moments
+ Good controls
+ There is a very well-received, in-depth multiplayer game here

The Bad:
— Very difficult to tell what's going on, either in the story or the game
— Some parts will have you shaking your head in disbelief
— Too short, not enough there

The Ugly:
:( Infinity Ward loses some prime opportunities to comment on the war or terrorism

Story—3/10

Some of the dialogue early on reminds me of the bizarrely in-depth descriptions of Metal Gear Solid's dialogue. The commanders throw out names as though we should know them and say a cryptic statement as though it's crystal clear. I wish the game had continued doing that. As it stands, the plot is very simple, but Infinity Ward attempts to mask that simplicity under confusing dialogue. Most of the time I don't know what's going on, but I really don't care either. As long as you follow the small main thread, the rest of it doesn't matter.

This confusion occurs during cutscenes, too. I can't tell who's who. When a key character is captured and interrogated in one scene, I, at first, think it's only a minor character. Only during the scenes that follow do I learn what really happened. And unfortunately, this scene is also an example of some of the tasteless scenes and plot points of the game. They're only tasteless, mind you, because Infinity Ward doesn't take a stance or seem to have anything to say about them. Infinity Ward has some great opportunities to make a statement about war and terrorism, but they settle for tasteless portrayals of it.

You play two different characters, switching between them throughout the game. It's not like the original Call of Duty, where you switched between the Americans, British, and Russians. You switch between two different Americans. As a further example of the lack of clarity in the game, I had no idea there were two different main characters until it switched a couple of times. The two characters are Soap and Jackson. You begin as Soap, switch to Jackson, and go back and forth. It wasn't until I was Soap the second time that I realized there were two different characters. Why couldn't this be clearer? Neither character has a personality, though. You never see their faces. They're just two avatars whose view you play from. Their purpose is merely for the two converging plot points.

Gameplay—5/10

Think Call of Duty 1. Now think modern weapons, sort of. Then you've got Call of Duty 4. The villains of CoD 4 are no different from those of CoD 1, despite the difference of countries and sixty years. The Middle Eastern terrorists fight you no differently than the Germans of World War 2. In fact, the Middle Eastern terrorists will continually take the place of a fallen comrade as though the corpses provide no clue that it might not have been a good place to take cover.

At the start of the game is a simple tutorial level, and then another tutorial where the ally AI leads you through the whole level. For the rest of the game, the troops rely on you to lead the army, despite the fact you are not the leader. Without you, the mission would be a failure because everyone would be stuck on level one trying to figure out what to do and where to go. But the game is inconsistent on this measure: sometimes you have to take point; sometimes your allies take point. Sometimes you have to stop and fight the enemies; sometimes you have to just move on. The problem is you never know when it's one or the other until you've died a few times. And that's not so much frustrating as annoying.

Many times allies will yell at you to do something while you're busy shooting stuff. They yell when they've killed somebody, so you'll most likely tune out their voices. Plus, you're shooting stuff. You can't hear them. So they yell at you over and over and maybe by the third shout you'll realize you're expected to do something, and that something is never quite clear. So now you have to scramble to find out what this something is and do it. It's as though everyone is crying that the world will blow up because you won't destroy the tanks or take the lead. Because they don't know how to.

And your allies don't die. I rarely saw American corpses lying about. Many of them are literally invincible because they're part of the plot, and a lot appear out of nowhere to help you. But worst of all, as this is supposed to be modern warfare, there are absolutely no civilians at all in this game. Nor is there any mention of them. Modern warfare is all about the civilians. You can't read a report on the news without reading a civilian casualty report. But video games don't seem to care about them. In these worlds (not just CoD 4, but Halo 3, as well) civilians don't exist. Everyone fights.

There are some well-done moments. The shooter gameplay is well-done—it's the design that's subpar. A couple of the game's cinematic moments not only show off the game's great graphics engine, but almost lead to some very poignant conclusions. They end up being tasteless, but everything leading up to the tasteless bits is great. The car ride during the beginning credits, the aftermath of a powerful explosion. All of this was great, and I wanted more.

Longevity—2/10

Without the multiplayer, this game isn't worth buying. Maybe a rental. At around 6 hours, there isn't much here. While there are different difficulty levels, to me that's just the developer's way of saying, “I couldn't do it right the first time, so let's add more difficulty levels.” And you might be sorry for staying for the credits. There's a rap song at the end, made just for the game, that serves no purpose but to hate Call of Duty 3, which Infinity Ward didn't develop, and serve as a vanity project for the developer. The epilogue sequence, though, is probably the most fun in the whole game, even though it has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the game. It turns out to be, like the rest of the game, a little bit of tasteless fun.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 04/28/08

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