Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

"If you love this genre, this game is for you."

Once in awhile one game on one system will simply amaze you and have your jaw dropping. A game that comes out of no where and surprises you with full detail and enjoyment. After playing that certain game, you can only say one thing; "wow". Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is one of those games. With so many First Person Shooters (FPS) this one sticks out and it makes it due.

Before even thinking about picking up this game, you have to ask yourself if you first like the FPS genre. Second will be if you like war type games. If it calls for, third if you like to play online with other people. If you answered yes two out of three, then this game is perfect for you.

The plot of this game is very straight forward. You play as either a member of an American or British anti-terrorist soldier. You are out to stop a Russian terrorist named Zakhaev that wants to basically destroy the U.S. and bring back his homeland. You are given missions that slowly accomplish this. Each mission you play as one of these soldiers as you are following a small team and a captain. There are four playable characters and there is actually a fifth, but you don't get to use him for too long.

The realistic feeling of you actually being the battlefield is wonderfully done. You are given orders and a feel of importance as you either rush through enemy fire, planting C4's on enemy tanks or taking out enemy choppers. Each mission has their own unique of surprises and it sure keeps you busy.

The developers to me, wanted the players to get a feel of every aspect and every possible scenario while playing this game. From missions that you are shooting huge amounts of enemies, to sniping and moving slowly. The change from the two are perfectly done. You won't find yourself bored or frustrated. Although frustration can sometimes occur playing this game, especially on a higher difficulty setting. Enemies are smarter and you take less shots to die. But the challenge is very satisfying and can keep you at attention for a long time.

What is a war game without guns? Well, it wouldn't be on and this game wouldn't be as good. But there are guns, many types!. If you played other modern war games or similar genres, you will remember the M4 and the Ak47. Both guns in the game is highly detailed and there are more than one version of each. One gun I love the most is the sniper rifle. You find one spot and you snipe the enemies shooting at your comrades. It gives a great satisfaction when you pop someone in the head. Especially if they are on top of a building falling from it. Let's not forget if you like close range, you have your trusty knife which is another satisfying way of killing someone and the shotgun. The impact is so realistic, you will find yourself addicted using it.

Besides just using guns, you have your grenades. There are the hand grenades and the smoke grenades. Sometimes throwing a hand grenade can be deadly, especially when the enemy can throw it back at you. But, you can throw the enemy's grenades back at them as well. The smoke from the smoke grenade is very realistic but it also has it's bad side when you can't see where you are going most of the time. Also sometimes it seems the enemy can see through it which doesn't help.

Now I can finally get into the part I love the most. The graphics. Not having a special HD television, the game still looks simply amazing. The detail of the maps, the surroundings, the sun, the bushes, the movement of the troops, everything is top notch. The life like movements and the wonderful voice acting puts this game straight to the top. The water and grass are in particular well detailed as well. Even the smallest detail of shadows is done rather good. The graphics for this game shows what a next gen console can do and how to do it well.

The music for this game is very limited. But it matches very well with the scenario when there is any. Sometimes you will wish there will be more, but it also takes away the realism and it feels more like you are watching a film. One particular film this game reminds me of is Black Hawk Down. There are some missions you play in that has a familiar feel to it.

For the controls, like all games I always fear of not getting use to it. But this game gives you all the chances and training to get you use to it. You can repeat the training area as many times as you like before heading out and doing playing the main game. All the buttons on the controller are comfortable for whatever situation. That can be from switching guns, with the Y button or switching to night vision goggles by pressing up on the directional pad. A very easy to catch on type of controls, done very well.

I will say one small bad thing about this game is that it is pretty short. But beating the game actually unlocks arcade mode where you can play the missions over again and rack up points. Of course if you are done with the game and wants to do more, get yourself on Xbox live and play others around the world. While online by completing objectives or gaining kills, you gain rank. By gaining rank you get better guns, different classes and even abilities like having faster reloading.

Being online with other people also has many game modes, from free for all, team death match, sabotage, search and destroy which will remind you a lot of Counter Strike if you ever played it and many more. So far, the only downside of playing this game online is actually connecting to the servers to play. Many players had found themselves going back to Call of Duty 2 because they just couldn't connect to Call of Duty 4.

Now comes the flaws. One main flaw to me is that sometimes I can't tell who I am shooting at. I know that sounds silly and most of you are going "you just suck" but it's true. Sometimes when I move my gun towards an enemy he won't shoot at me so I turn away only to have him shoot at me! Sometimes I found myself team killing which is an instant mission fail when you do that. But thank god for check points! And I guess the other part is how short the game is. After beating it, it just makes you wish there were more.

So in closing. I hope I didn't spoil too much of the game and I hope that I provided most of the good points in this review. I didn't watch any videos or played any Call of Duty games before this one and I absolutely love this game for what it is. I highly suggest buying it if you are into the FPS genre.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/13/07

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