Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

"One of the biggest FPS of 2007 goes pocket-sized."

While Call of Duty 4 made it's way onto consoles and the PC, another version on the game snuck it's way onto the DS. While it can't compete with it's bigger brothers, and has an unfortunate lack of online, Call of Duty 4 comes up on top as one of the best FPS for the DS.

There have been quite a few other FPS games on the DS, but Metroid Prime Hunters was really the one of the only games, if not the only game to really get it right. Call of Duty 4 would be the next to do so. Call of Duty 4 isn't a majority watered down port, and it isn't a needless cash-in either, although a different subtitle probably would have been more appropriate. Call of Duty 4 DS overall follows the same storyline as the console games, but you'll play through separate events parallel to what's going on in the console game. You may find yourself in different scenarios and places similar to the console game, but you'll be controlling a different character, doing different things while in the same general areas.

The game controls excellently. Even better than Metroid. Part of this is due to the fact that the game controls closer to PC shooters, through use of the stylus and touch screen, (although you can use the thumbstrap for a less cramp inducing option), due to the fact that unlike in MPH, the crosshair stays in the center of the screen while you turn, instead of moving away from the middle before turning. This makes moving around easier, and aiming is also slightly easier too.

All the action will be going on on the top screen, while the bottom screen will serve as a radar, and a way to switch your weapons. The radar is actually quite useful, although it's somewhat awkward for multi leveled buildings. An enemy will show up in front of you on the map, but they could really be above you getting ready for a headshot. You'll double tap up on the D-Pad to run, double tap down on the D-Pad to duck, and double tap the touch screen to zoom in. It's a lot of double tapping, but the DS doesn't have all the buttons in the world. Thankfully, it works well, and unless you can't control your hand, you're not going to find yourself zooming in and out accidentally.

When you start the game, you'll go through a tutorial that'll teach you pretty much everything you'll need to know while playing. The campaign has you going through a number of missions, divided up in to smaller objectives. The objectives are little things like looking for somebody, heading to a certain point, defending a certain area etc.. It adds a bit of something besides running and gunning through the game, granted, you won't get far actually doing so, and you're still really only going from point A to point B. While enemy AI isn't the best in the world, it's alright, but you'll most likely be dying because there's usually a decent amount of enemies around to kill you, unless your ducking down behind some kind of cover.

There are a few things wrong with the AI though. One is that they seem to have a boundary in where they'll move. You won't necessarily be chased by anybody, so as long as you're not surrounded, and can find a hiding spot, you should be safe until you recover. And before you ask, this game does use the "wait around and you'll heal" health system. Another thing wrong with the AI, is they don't react to anything. They'll run around sometimes, but they won't duck for cover, and just stand while you keep shooting. Also, you'll throw a grenade at them, and although they'll shout "grenade!", they won't do anything, like they're in so much fear, that they can't move.

Apart from shooting down all your enemies, you can also do a melee attack, and throw grenades. Both your allies and your enemies can pick up tossed grenades and toss them back. You can even through a grenade by the feet of one of your allies and he'll pick it up and throw it at the enemy. Your allies also do a pretty good job of picking off some enemies, but you won't be relying on them too much.

You'll find a number of pretty standard weapons throughout the game, such as a SMG, AK, and Sniper Rifle, along with the grenades. You'll usually have to pick them up from the ground, and you can only carry one at a time, along with your pistol. Grenades are carried separately from the guns. You'll also enter a few on-rails sections of the game where you're in a vehicle such as a tank or helicopter. You won't be directly controlling the vehicles, but you'll man a gun, and then things will take place similar to a rail shooter.

There's also some other stylus control apart from aiming and selecting weapons. You'll occasionally need to set or disarm bombs. You'll do this through one of two little mini games. They're quite simple really. One has you tracing wires with the stylus, while the other has you connecting circuits together. The time they give you is much more than enough to finish these, so you never really seem hard pressed to disarm a bomb. Another instance where you'll use the stylus is a "battle". Occasionally, an enemy will try take your weapon, and logically, you'll resist. When this happens, you'll slide your stylus back and forth on the screen as fast as you can, and a meter on the side of the screen will tell you who's winning.

The campaign lasts a pretty decent length, and there's a checkpoint system, where when you get to certain points in the game, it'll save, and there are quite a few around, so you won't lose too much progress. You can then shut off the game and continue from there at any time.

On to the multiplayer portion of the game, and I'll get one thing out of the way first. There is no online play, which is quite unfortunate, and is one of the things holding this game back from being the best FPS on the DS. The game has single-card and multi-card play. Single card is a simple death match that you can play in a grand total of two levels. Multi-card has a bit more variety. There's death match, team death match, hunter/prey, and capture the flag. Nothing here is really as deep and exciting as it is in the console games, but it's pretty good stuff, although Metroid offers a larger selection of modes, and online.

Unfortunately, there's a lack of other things to do once the game is done with. You can play the campaign again at a higher difficulty if you didn't already start at the hardest, but you don't really get anything for beating the game, and because of a lack of Wi-Fi, unless you have friends around, there really isn't much left to do.

The game is pretty good as far as visuals go. It's among some of the better lookers on the DS, such as Dementium: The Ward and Metroid. Explosions and smoke looks pretty good, character models are fairly detailed, and there's a lot happening on screen in many places, although maybe too much, as the game does suffer a bit of slowdown at points. The DS doesn't have the best textures either, so you'll often find something like a pile of garbage, but it's a bunch of white, brown, black, and green pixels. Many things in the game do look pretty good though, and it's not all overly pixelated.

The audio is excellent. A fantastic soundtrack is squeezed on to the tiny DS cartridge, and there's a good number of voice clips in there too, and they sound good. The sound effects are on point too. Guns sound like guns, explosions sound like explosions, and you'll hear things like yelling when somebody falls of a high up place. There are even little additions like your character panting when you run for a bit, and they just add to the experience.

Pros
+Good looking DS visuals
+Fantastic soundtrack
+Excellent control
+Solid campaign
+Decent multiplayer

Cons
-No online support
-Lack of multiplayer modes
-Occasional slowdown
-Below average AI
-Lack of extra modes apart from multiplayer and campaign

Overall - 8/10

Call of Duty 4 is a great FPS for the DS, that just could have used a few more things to do beyond the campaign mode. A lack of online especially hurts, so if you don't have friends to play with, you might not want to consider this. The campaign is decent in length, and if you do have friends to play with, Call of Duty 4 is a good choice for a DS FPS. For online, you'll have to stick with Metroid. Call of Duty 4 gets many things right for a DS FPS, and in some ways, is better than Metroid. If a future Call of Duty game for the DS can expand what's been done here, we'll have a real winner, and hopefully, this can pave the way for more console style shooters to hit the DS.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/08/07, Updated 11/19/07

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