Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

"A worth sequel to the Call of Duty series"

It's been a while since any Call of Duty game has come out but the wait has been worthwhile. The all new modern warfare is action packed with plenty of new weapons, missions and a whole new online mode. Also, it is the first Call of Duty game to step outside the realems of World War 2 and use modern weapons. However, this modern world, while it was probably a hard step for Treyarch to create a great game with the bar set so high from the previous Call of Duty it looks amazing, sounds amazing, and is amazing. This is a classic in the making. This is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.

Modern Warfare is a whole new game with a whole new campaign experience. It is one of the few games that acually have some diversity in all the missions and make all these diverse missions fun in their own way. The plot is that you're either a U.S. Marine or a British S.A.S. officer and you have to eliminate certain targets who are very elusive and have a lot of protection. The missions include standard run-and-shoot missions, a long range sniping mission, a hostage rescue mission, and missions where you're shooting from planes or helicopters using incredibly powerful guns. All these different kinds of missions are guaranteed to keep the game fresh and fun. The only downside is however that you can finish the game in about 4 hours on an easy difficulty and about 5-7 on one of the harder ones. Even so, once you beat the game once you will probably attempt to do so again as the replay value for the campaign is very good. Also, when you first beat the entire campaign mode you unlock arcade mode which allows you to play through the story mode again earning points for every kill you make an how you make it. While this feature may seem worthless to some it is quite an interesting add on which allows you to replay the story mode in a different way if the classic way is starting to get boring.

The muliplayer mode matches, if not surpasses the single player mode. The best thing is all the choices of games that you can have. You can have hardcore, which gets rid of all indicatiors incuding grenade indicators, radar, kill cam and everything else. You have oldschool which is the most realistic one. In oldschool, if you get hit once you die. What is the best though is choosing perks. Perks are certain unlockable upgrades that help you. For example, the perk deep penetration allows you to shoot through certain walls more easily. While some critics view these perks as cheap I personally find that they add a new level of depth to the game and increase the replay value yet further. Also, kill streaks can be awarded with certain "perks" too. A three kill streak will be awarded with an airstrike which you can plant and drop bombs with to kill enemies. Just don't hit yourself. A five kill streak earns you a helicopter which flies around obliverating enimies with it's machine gun. Every kill you make with you copter of airstrike counts as a kill for you. The online scoring system is a point system much like the one in arcade mode. Every kill awards you 10 points. You can also get a number of points depending on how much you hurt an enemy before a team mate killed them. At the end of the time limit the team with the most points altogether wins. A score limit match keeps going until a certain team reaches the number of points required to win. Getting as many kill as possible will earn you new ranks, new perks, and new gun attachments.

The controls are just perfect for a first person shooting game. They are what you may call "common sense" controls because they are strategically placed in such a layout that every action you do seems natural when playing the game. Also, they are incredibly responsive. That is particualrily so when aiming and sniping. For sniping you can even press a certain button to steady your scope so you can get a clear shot. In normal gameplay, the controls are like a classic FPS. The left analog stick moves the character while the right stick controls the direction the character is looking. Also, when sooting enemies you can press LT to aim which uses only the right analong stick to aim. In fact, I think that Modern Warfare is probably the only game in the whole X-Box 360 library which has "perfect controls".

The sound and graphics of this game are also breathtaking. For example, and time you shoot someone you can see blood spatter in the appropriate direction. People dying are usually screaming. The enimies are shouting in foreign languages. Also, anytime there is a flashband thrown at you or something is collapsing around you it looks just like the real thing. However, I would say the best things are the explosions. Every single crshing vehicle is sucked up into a ball of flames and everybody inside it is killed. Even when you talk on your radio the voice sounds just slightly cracked giving you the impression that it's real. Other things also use these realistic graphics and sound to their advatage. For example, when someone throws a flashbang it makes an ear popping sound and your screen goes completly white and blanks for a second. Also, when you're about to die you see bloot all around your screen and your vision becomes slightly impaired. Just like the real thing.

The replayability value is also one of the highest of any game for the X-box 360. While the campaign mode is admitedly short you will want to retry it on a harder difficulty after you've beaten it once. If not, you may want to get a high score on the all new arcade system which can be played infinite times and is always a challenge since you're always trying to beat a high score. Also, once you've done that you may want to start up your X-Box live and start trying to make your place on the leaderboards or a higher level. Dur to the fact that you're always trying to advance in ranks, costumizing you guns, or getting new perks it will take a very long time before you're bored of Call of Duty. Therefore, the replay value is very high due to an amazing amount of things to do even after you've finished campaign once.

In conclusion, I would say that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is a game worth buying and a game worth your time. This game will please you no matter what. Weather you're a fan of Call of Duty, a casual gamer of just a first person shooter game this is a game you want in your library and this is a game you're going to work hard to beat. It is probably one of the best games for the 360 and it definetly deserves some well earned attention. On that note, go out and get your own copy of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and try it yourself. You'll be amazed.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 06/26/09

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