First person shooters are extremely commonplace in gaming today and many developers out there are aware that putting out a game in that genre is almost a sure thing for success. However few games in the genre have had as much success as the Call of Duty series. Born from strong roots in the Medal of Honor series, Call of Duty has seen some of the biggest strides in sales in years for a third party developer. The latest title in the series, Modern Warfare, finally breaks away from its roots in World War II to today, something the series has been needing to do for some time.
But is this newest title a rally to arms and wallets or is it simply a misfire? Read on and find out…
Call of Duty has always been well known for its narrative and intense storytelling through the eyes of the soldier players use, and Modern Warfare is no different. Infinity Ward introduces us to a world not unlike our own, showing us a Russian civil war between democratic loyalists and radical ultranationalists. At the same time, a coup d’état occurs in a small Middle Eastern country which you witness from the eyes of the ousted president himself as he is dragged off to be executed. Players take on the role of a newly initiated British SAS soldier for the majority of the game, with brief jumps to the point of view of a US Marine in the heat of battle. This title takes no prisoners and never relents in its story and rarely gives you breathing space before throwing you headlong into an encounter with the enemy.
The gameplay in Modern Warfare is outstanding for a shooter. Fast paced and tense even when in the pause menu, players will find the balance of weapons, levels, and other such items are well balanced, as no one weapon is superior to anyone else. The enemy AI is much smarter this time around, as they will seek cover and call out where you are and what you are doing. The difficulty settings are balanced quite well and accommodate anyone that wants to play, from people new to the genre to experienced veterans who stalk the internet at night searching for new victims upon which to lay down an unrepressed barrage of bullets.
The multiplayer component is fantastic as well. The online play encompasses over a dozen different modes to play with party sizes of up to 18 players. The map list is well balanced as well, with a couple being tributes to ones in previous Call of Duty games and most of them being redesigned versions of areas within the singleplayer. Modern Warfare utilizes a profile upgrade system similar to that of Rainbow Six Vegas’ persistent elite creation mode. The end result in comparison is much faster upgrades and more arcade-oriented gameplay. If you were a fan of the previous games I can guarantee you that Call of Duty 4 will keep you satisfied for a long time.
- Rating: 5 out of 5
Call of Duty 4 keeps up with its predecessors in terms of graphics and sound, pushing the envelope further and setting a benchmark at the same time. Infinity Ward did an outstanding job on the visuals for the game, providing a wide variety of environments to engage the enemy in with an excellent atmosphere in every single one of them. All the models, from the guns, to the vehicles, to the soldiers are supremely detailed, the soldiers detailed so far as to which you can plainly see the emotions on each man’s face in the heat of battle and know exactly what they are thinking. The game has excellent particle and gas effects, showing off some incredible explosions, the nuclear explosion in the singleplayer campaign simply drops your jaw every time you see it. All of this and more is at your fingertips at a stunning 60fps that almost never even slows down.
If anything however the audio portion surpasses the visuals if every way possible. Infinity Ward did an outstanding sound design for the game, and while the game sounds great on a simple left-right channel setup its astonishing to listen to in 5.1 surround sound. Put quite simply, nothing sounds quite like the impact of an RPG round against the hull of an Apache helicopter directly above you as it flies out of control and crashes just yards away. Sounds, ambient or otherwise, actively change as you move in and out of buildings of different frames and materials. Weapons fire is easily recognizable upon hearing them fired and are quite accurate to their real-life counterparts. The voice acting is very well done as well, with Infinity Ward’s favorite English commando Captain Price reprising his role in Modern Warfare as the leader of the SAS team. Of course your character doesn’t have anything to say as the silent protagonist, but the soldiers around you do it for you.
- Rating: 5 out of 5
Call of Duty 4 is one of those games that comes along and right from the get-go shows promise. While the campaign will run you about 6-9 hours depending on the difficulty setting you use, the game finds its heart in the multiplayer, and with the promise of downloadable content on the horizon, giving Infinity Ward’s history of additional material available, it’s fair to say that we’ll be getting content for at least a year or so. Utilizing some of the best graphics and audio seen on a console to date alongside well honed gameplay, Modern Warfare is a fantastic title that is destined to be on your shelf for some time to come.
- Overall Rating: 5 out of 5
Single and Multiplayer: 5
Technical Specs: 5
Overall and Replay Value: 5
Developer: Infinity Ward
Publisher: Activision
Genre: First Person Shooter
Players: 1-18
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