Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

"Infinity Ward stepped it up a huge notch."

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Review

Well, I have to say, Infinity Ward went a long way. This game is absolutely amazing, from graphics, to sound, from game play, and of course the Multi-Player, that is phenomenal. Now if you don't know exactly what the Call of Duty series is, I will explain it to you. From all of the Call of the Duty games, they have all been based in WWII. Now in Call of Duty four, it goes modern, it is surely different, and I mean that in a good way. I think there are actually too many WWII games, and I enjoy unique games. So in this game, you are a S.A.S. soldier named “Soap” Mavtavish. You are also a U.S.M.C. member too, named SGT.Jackson, so you play as two different people, however they are allies. In previous Call of Duty games, you played as different countries, so it is a little similar.

Graphics

Okay, the graphics are absolutely amazing in this game. One of the best I have seen, ever in a game. So you ask, what makes the game have such good graphics? Well, first let's talk about lighting. The lighting in this game is very good, as in the shadows, for example, say a character is in a light space and he goes just near the shadow and only shows part of the shadow, also certain textures are only lighted on the character. The Shadowing and the lighting is very good for the graphics section, now let's talk about the textures. Okay, so everything looks really realistic in this game, as in the colors seem lighter or darker depending on the shadows. Also if it is, say wet out, or raining, the textures look as if what they would look like in real life. Okay, so now we can just talk about, how real or good the game really looks. Now I think I will just narrow with down, say when you shoot a window, it gets a bullet hole in it, now sometimes it always doesn't break in one shot, so you need to shoot it again, now that's also realistic, also just from shooting things like the ground, dirt comes up, or if you shoot water, it looks as if an actual bullet was hitting the water. Now these things are normally in these next generation games, because all games in the next generation are looking really good. Now there is one more thing to talk about in the graphics department, and that is how clear this game is, it is once again excellent, you can see everything very clearly, the previous Call of Duty games were also very clear.

Sound

Sound in games is normally very well done, including COD4. Every gun sounds life-like, now I don't know what every gun normally sounds like in real life, but the sound is of every gun is unique and well done. One thing I always found cool is that when you shoot something it really sounds like it, now it most games it does, however every gun sounds different on the same object, now not completely different, but not similar. For example, say you shoot a window with a pistol; it may just put on bullet hole in, and not break the glass, and that's because it's not as other weapons that you would carry for your primary. So then say you take a shotgun, and shoot the glass, it will completely destroys the window, and have a little louder noise of the sound of glass breaking. Also for another example, a M16 shooting metal compared to a sniper shooting metal, the metal getting hit will sound different. So everything down to the sound of explosions, all different guns, characters walking or running on different surfaces sounds different as well. Once again, the sound is really great in this game.

Controls

Controls is normally never a big factor, but you also don't want controls bad in a game because then it will be hard to play. So you have the standards right trigger for shooting, and that's always a great spot for shooting games. One control I like is right down from the shooting trigger is the right bumper, and this is the grenade button, which while shooting you can easily throw a grenade. So most of the other controls are good, most of them are the same to the previous COD games. Also another easily maneuverable control is the sprint button, and that is you have to click down on the right stick, so while moving you can easily just click down and start sprinting. The controls are great in this game, and easily maneuverable.

Story

Okay, either I like this game a lot, or it's just really that good, because I thought the story was, like, really, really good. So, like I said in the Introduction you are two different people this game. A S.A.S. soldier and a U.S.M.C. soldier. You go through all different missions, and I think that the missions on the S.A.S. are pretty different from the U.S.M.C. missions, just how a lot of the missions in the S.A.S. are in the dark and the U.S.M.C. are in the day light. Until the two join and go with Joint Operations, later in the game. So the story is really just immersive, and you can get really into it. Not only is the multi-player awesome, but the single player is really great to.

Game play

Okay, so game play is (in my opinion), the most important factor in a game. So let's start out with talking about just how it plays so say you're in a fire fight with someone, it runs pretty dang smoothly just how you see bullets going right past your face and you just may get hit, your screen is turning red and you need to take cover. There are snipers hiding in their ghillie suits trying to pick you off. Just the feel of the playing this game is so amazing, it runs very smoothly like I said, there is really no lag or slow-moving play either. There's, I think different ways to play also, for example. You can be a stealthy person, and keep a low-profile, like a sniper or ghost would. Like use your knife or silencer on your gun, to not show up on people's radars. Or you could be a person who likes to just get right into the action and shoot anything that moves, unless their teammates of course. Also another awesome feature they have put into COD4 is that you can shoot through a lot of kinds of walls, so you could shoot someone on the other side. You would also have to watch out as to where you take cover. So I wouldn't take cover behind something that an enemy could easily pierce though with their gun. Here's a tip: Hide behind concrete, you can't shoot through something that thick, also thick metal would work as good cover to.

Multi-player

Now finally, probably one of the most talked about multi-player games in 2007. So first I will start out that the multi-player is absolutely phenomenal. There is so much to do in this; there are Leader boards of kills, accuracy, wins, and much more for single player game too, like who beat this certain level in this amount of time or something like that. There are many ranks to journey or your way through, 55 to be exact. There is also “Prestige Mode”, which is where you reset your rank back down to private when you reach the highest rank, however this is optional, and you will get a special insignia for beating “Prestige Mode”. When you journey your way through different ranks you will also unlock all sort of weapons to try out.

In the Multi-player of COD4 there are also different attachments for guns that you can unlock for getting a certain amount of kills with that weapon; you can unlock different camo for the gun too for getting a certain amount of head shots with it. There are also ways to gain EXP faster than playing games by doing certain things in the multi-player, for example blowing up 5 vehicles while in the game, you will gain EXP to get to higher ranks. Now one more thing in the multi-player that I would like to tell that I thought was very cool, and that is the “Kill cam”. Now the kill cam shows how you got killed in multi-player, and what I mean is that every time you die in the multi-player it shows the guys screen who killed you and how they killed you. So now you won't be like, “wait, how did that guy get me”? I thought that was an awesome feature in the game. So yeah, again Infinity Ward nails the multi-player section and does a fantastic job.

Conclusion

Alright, so Infinity Ward did a phenomenal job on Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, everything down to the single player, to the multi-player, the graphics are amazing, and they've just really done a great job on this game. And hey, I think it's got what it takes to take Halo 3 down, because I actually think that it's better than Halo 3, but that's in my opinion. I suggest you buy this game, and not rent, because if you like FPS, then you will love this game. Infinity Ward has stepped it up a huge notch, and I hope they continue with Call of Duty 5. Keep up the Great Word Infinity Ward!

-Faded Dust

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 01/15/08

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