Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

"The best FPS I've ever played since Goldeneye"

To start off, what is Call of Duty? Well, it is a franchise of World War 2 shooter games, established by Infinity Ward. The first in the series was, obviously, Call of Duty for the PC. The 2nd installment in the series is Call of Duty 2, which many fans consider to be the best out of all the World War 2 Call of Duty games, and it also received the honorable title of game of the year. The next in the series, Call of Duty 3, wasn't made by IW. It was made by Treyarch, and sadly enough, it is considered to be the worst WWII game in the Call of Duty series. In 2007, Infinity Ward brought us the gem that is this wonderful game, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Well, what makes it so awesome? Read on to find out!

Graphics: 10/10
The visuals in this game are absolutely spectacular. All the detail put into the guns, the flora and fauna, the character models, the buildings, the textures, and sky detail... and it all runs at a beautiful speed of 60 frames-per-second. No matter what, the game never slows down at all, even in a frantic firefight with bullets and grenades flying everywhere. One thing that I really found amazing in particular was the detail put into the sniper rifle scopes. As you move and turn, everything behind you reflects off that little magnifying lens, which is pretty impressive. The gun detail is also pretty impressive. When you aim down the sights, parts of the gun appear blurry and out of focus, just like in real life.

Music and sound: 9/10
Unlike most FPS games that I know of, where the guns sound like BB guns and the explosions sound like crap, all the sound in this game is awesome. The voice acting is pretty cool, and sounds great. What impressed me the most, was the gun fire and explosion sound effects. The guns sound like, well, guns and the explosions sound like, well, explosions, something that very few FPSes have ever done. I really only have one complaint about the gun sound effects. It's that the USP and M1911 pistols sound like someone just went "pew pew". But that's my only complaint. The sounds in this game really make you feel like you're part of the combat. The music also deserves an honorable mention. Although, most of the time there is no music at all, when there is music, it sounds great and fits the mood of the situation. Going to go save your teammate from execution, you hear a frantic sound track that really makes you feel like you're in a rush to save your buddy from certain death. Escaping a control center in a jeep, you are treated to an awesome sounding chase theme. The music is great and never seems to get old.

Gameplay: 10/10
The single-player campaign plays out much like a movie, with lots of twists and turns, and (as stated before) with great voice acting. One of the interesting things about the campaign is that you see everything in the first-person perspective, so it really gives you a feeling of "I am this character." The campaign mode just has way too many cinematic moments to describe. There are so many that I loved, that it is hard to list just one. The story of the game is interesting and has lots of sudden twists and changes. The game first starts out with you playing as the SAS's new recruit, Soap Mactavish (kind of a dumb name, I know). You've just completed your training and are ready to take on your first mission, which is to locate the manifest on a ship in the middle of the Bering Strait. Shortly after, you are sent with your team to rescue your informant, simply known as Nikolai. After this, the story changes gears and you then take control of sergeant Paul Jackson, a member of the Marine Force Recon. Your mission is to locate and capture Khaled Al-Asad, whom is the bad guy responsible for the chaos and wreckage caused in the middle east. As you and your team make the push into Al-Asad's hideout, something goes wrong. Al-Asad actually sets off a nuclear bomb, destroying the entire city and causing your chopper to crash. You wake up hours later, severely injured, and none of your teammates are in sight. As you observe the destruction caused by the terror that is a nuclear bomb, the last bit of strength left in you fades away (in other words, you die). The story changes gears again when you once again take control of Soap Mactavish, after finding out who the real bad guy is. You see? The campaign, although short, is great in this game. The gameplay isn't much different from past FPS games, although there are some differences. The first being is the iron sights function. Your shots are very inaccurate when you fire without bringing up your sights (known as hip-fire), but when you aim down your gun's sights by holding down the left trigger, your shots are very precise. You also have the ability to sprint by clicking (but not holding) down the left analog stick. I think it's about time to wrap up this section of the review, because I might have rambled on a bit too much ^_^

Multi-player: 10/10
The multi-player portion of this game is very awesome. First of all, unlike most FPS games, where everyone starts with the same weapon and must locate other weapons on the map, COD4 uses a cool variation on the class system of games like Battle Field. Basically, you have 5 classes, which can all be customized to your liking with different weapons, camouflage patterns, weapon attachments, and perks. What are perks? They are special abilities that you can add to your custom classes. Perks include abilities like extra health, extra bullet damage, increased explosives damage, invisible on radar, and other such things. So you can really make setups that are to your liking. This game also has a ton of online modes. First of all, there's the well known FFA and TDM modes, and as you rise up through the ranks (explained later on), you will unlock other cool modes like Domination, Search & Destroy, Sabotage, Headquarters, and so on. The ranking system in this game is pretty cool. As you score kills and complete challenges while playing online, you will earn EXP points that will increase your rank. As your rank increases, you will unlock new challenges, weapons, perks, and lots of other stuff. For those Unreal Tournament junkies out there, fear not, for there is also a mode unlocked at rank 18 called Old School mode, which goes back to the weapon system that is used in games like Unreal Tournament, where everyone starts with the same weapon and must find better ones scattered across the map. There's also a cool mode called hardcore, which is just what it says. In hardcore mode, weapons deal more damage, friendly fire is ON, and your HUD is removed. The multi-player is awesome and never seems to get old and really has something for everyone.

Unlockable content:
Here, I'm going to tell you readers about the unlockable content available in this game's campaign. First off, scattered throughout the single-player environments are pieces of enemy intel. Collecting these pieces of intel will not only get you some achievements to boost your gamer score, but collecting a certain number of them will unlock special cheats (the cheats menu is available after you have beaten the game). Cheats include the usual infinite ammo, but also interesting ones like super contrast and one very odd cheat, rag time warfare. Another cool feature which can be unlocked after completing the campaign is arcade mode. Arcade mode is the same as the regular campaign, but with a timer and a scoring system. It's a lot of fun to replay through your favorite campaign missions to see how high of a score you can achieve.

Conclusion:
All in all, COD4 is one of the best FPS games of all time. It has a lot to offer, from arcade mode to cheats to online rankings. You will really never get bored while playing this game. Whether you're a long time fan of first-person action games or new to the genre, you will love this game. Pick it up right now, you won't be disappointed!

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 03/30/09

Game Release: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Game of the Year Edition) (US, 04/01/08)