Gaming Signal: Review: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Review: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Well I am going to try to be as unbiased as I possibly can about this review but I admit I'm having a hard time doing that. I usually try to divorce myself from the "fun" you are having playing the game while writing the review to give you, dear reader, the skinny "4 r3@1z!" I admit that this time, with COD4, I can't do it. This game is REALLY GOOD. Infinity Ward's COD4 is where EA/DICE should already be with the "Battlefield" series of games but are unfortunately moving too slowly now that the EA (+4 Sceptre of Marketing) is still bashing heads at EA again to get them to release games way too early and with a support strategy "only a mother could love." But enough EA bashing!

Call of Duty 4 is by far the best implementation of FPS warfare I have run across to date. It is easily better than Halo 3 or Battlefield: 2142 in their respective multiplayer facets. Single player was non-existent in BF:2142, but the single player experience in Halo 3 is similar to COD4 in only one aspect, they are both short. Otherwise, COD4 is the new baseline for FPS as far as I am concerned. I say that with confidence as well and I haven't even played COD4 on the PC yet, but I will. I'm so impressed with COD4 on the 360 that I've added the PC version to my x-mas Amazon list.

Single player is short as I have said, but it is so diverse in gameplay that you are really playing a few different games in there. There is the standard FPS warfare play, then there is FPS sniping, then you are using a stationary gun in a surveillance airplane, then in other vehicles, its similar to earlier COD games in this facet. However, in COD4 they have refined all of these other game elements to a rich degree. So I hear you guys, you say "But Trent. What makes this experience more rich in player experiences over the previous COD games?" It's the little things. Things most developers don't even attempt. "Field of view" is the one that sticks out the most to me. When you true up the sights on a assault rifle, the FOV changes. The closer butt end of the gun becomes blurry while the sights and the target are all in a clear (vignette) where the peripheral vision is blurry as well. This is like shooting a real f-ing gun here. Yes I know this has been done before, but not this well. I'm impressed every time I experience it. COD2 even had this effect but I'll tell you whats different. In COD2 and every other game that has ever attempted it, once you are in the FOV and you move around, in the older games the FOV would not change. In COD4 the FOV adapts to your target. So if you move the FOV changes and you have to adjust a little. It feels "Right" for once and not a gimmick like earlier attempts at FOV.

To finish up with single player, the missions are varied and the situations and locale are very wide and changing, with little reuse of maps from earlier missions. In fact you are changing the protagonist character a lot. In typical COD fashion you follow a US and a UK special forces soldier and switch between the two story arc's a good deal and there is even a surprise in this facet as well. I won't give it away. My only complaint above was that the single player game was a little short, but I feel not that it did not need to be this way. In fact the (real world) loading times of these missions (the whole game for this matter) are so quick that I honestly wanted a little more "cut scene" in between the switch from US to UK soldier to beef up the scene a little and give me time to catch up on where we left off with the US or UK soldier last time the story arc shifted. I can't believe that I actually "asked" for more cut scenes. LOL!

Multi-player is where this game really shines. Perks, challenges, classes, custom classes, barracks in COD4 are all variations of "unlocks" in this game, but unlike BF:2142, COD4 makes them fun instead of just a reward for leveling. Think of these unlocks in a Crackdown kind of way that makes using the weapon in unique ways part of challenges you have to unlock. For example, one of the "Marksman" challenges is to get head shots using the weapons. Sounds simple.... it's not! Some of these take time, some of them are even tied to XBOX live achievement points. Others are just fun unlocks, but all in all I like the way COD4 does this over BF:2142.

Another facet of multiplayer that I think deserves a little discussion are the controls. They are simple, effective, and quick to execute. This is very similar to previous COD games and they had it right there too. I do not find myself having as much trouble playing an FPS on the 360 with a hand held controller with COD4 as I do with Halo 3 or even Battlefield 2: Modern Combat (the BF game franchise on the 360.) The only exception is the crouch button being the RED "B". I think it might have been better for crouch to be the integrated right stick button like in most other 360 FPS games. But honestly I consider this nit-picking.

The graphics and sound are top notch as always in Infinity Ward games. I must say that I think the BLUR and BLOOM are especially well handled in COD4 and the positional audio is really good. I would like to tip my hat to the texture designers of this game for making the opposing teams textures different enough to ensure that you are rarely going to shoot your teammate. The battlefield games still make that tough and they even have different colored text above the players, and I still wind up shooting a teammate every now and then. (Tim / JP, I shoot you guys for fun, its not a mistake.)

Negatives? Well I have maybe just this one. This game needed a "cover" system similar to Ghost Recon or Gears of War. In fact in the single player game, the enemy can use cover! The actual player... not so much. But with all the other perfect execution in this game. I can cope.

Overall COD4 is an excellent purchase. As I mentioned earlier I plan to let my family get me COD4 for the PC for xmas as the PC can support more players in a map at once and of course the benefit of a mouse and "WASD" for controls. (360 supports 18 players max and I think PC is 32.) If you are in to FPS games then I truly believe that COD4 is at the top of its genre right now.