Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Review

When I heard my doorbell ring the day I received this game, I knew it was going to be a great day. Upon receiving Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare from Infinity Ward, I loaded it up into my PLAYSTATION 3 and started getting into the action.

One word to describe this game? Explosive.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was first shown last year in a preview video soon after Call of Duty 3 was released. We all knew the game would live up to it''s hype, as every other Call of Duty game did well. There is no doubt, that Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is the best in the franchise though.

In Call of Duty 4, you start playing the title as the Special Air Service Regiminet, and move on to the United States Marine Corps. For new players, no worry is needed, ad they give you a full tutorial and even a fast paced training grounds where you have to follow what the commander says. Based on your speed and shot aim, you''ll get a reccomended difficulty setting for the game.

If your used to playing Insomniac''s Resistance: Fall of Man, you may have a bit of difficulty with the controls, it takes about a stage or two to get used to, and gun switching isn''t as easy as selection.

Call of Duty 4''s storyline finally branches off from the World War II fiasco and moves onto modern days. The game is about 6 hours long, but the impressive online play makes up for the short time.

The game features two story lines unlike the previous four that the earlier Call of Duty games had to offer.

You play as Sergent John "Soap" MacTavish of the SAS and others during the storylne to protect the world from a rogue enemy. You fight as a British SAS soldier as well as a U.S. Marine as the game moves on. The battles take place in the Middle East of the world with enemies such as Khaled Al-Asad.

The A.I. of the game has improved greatly since Call of Duty 3. They have more smarts, and you know, they usually take out most the enemies for you, so you need to beat them to it.

The game''s cut scenes and graphics are some of the most impressive graphics you''ll see on a console. What makes the cut scenes great are the interactivity of them, as you can look around before you jump the helicopter, or when your thrown in the back of a car, you can view the sights you pass by. Shadowing ndetail is almost perfect as well.

The game audio is consisted of mostly the Captain''s commands and gunshots. They certainly add the feel of reality to the game.

The completion of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare unlocks the new arcade mode, which is basically racking up points to get the high score, and it''s certainly worth it. You may get a bit addicted as well, they made it like crack.

Call of Duty 4''s online play boosts a heapload of maps and game modes including Old School, Team Deathmatch, and some over the top game modes like Headquarters (capture the flag sophisticated), Domination, and Sabotage. Other than that, to prove your the best, you can rank up experience points to show who the real gamer really is. Soon enough, you''ll get to Prestige mode which starts your rank at level 1 many times with the Prestige Insignia changing every time, giving you around 605 total ranks to achieve.

All in all, the game is jam packed with a load of weapons, huge maps, massive online play, an addictive arcade mode, and the satisfaction from developers at Infinity Ward that they''ve done a job well done.

Presentation: 9.4
Call of Duty 4 shows nothing but good looks in this marvelous first person shooter. With graphics exceeding expectations, it''s a sure buy.

Gameplay: 9.5
Call of Duty 4''s gameplay features nothing but fierce action, yelling commands, and the satisfaction of a game well played.

Graphics: 9.6
The game''s graphics feature nothing but magnificent looking 3D images in this new release in the franchise.

Audio: 8.6
The game''s audio is intense, and really makes you feel like your in the war yourself.

Replayability: 9.3
Unless your playing with a bunch of total jerks online, you can easily pick this game up, sign-on and get into some action that hopefully a 10 year old won''t be in.

Final Verdict: 9.2 out of 10

1 comments:

incredibilistic said...

Pretty good review. It would've been nice to mention the gameplay variety as you switch from SAS to USMC.

I found the hovering airplane scene (forgive me for not remembering the name of the craft but you know what I'm talking about) when you're dropping death from high altitude on unsuspecting enemies below all in a eerily realistic white-hot thermal view.

Also, you didn't point out that the game runs at 60fps making the action on-screen even more intense and oh so satisfying.

The animation was also top notch. When you clip an enemy in the chest as he runs towards you his legs slide from underneath him and his body falls and crumbles toward the ground is a guilty pleasure that never gets old. Or even better when they take out their sidearm to see if they can offer a little more pain in your world before they take their final dirt nap. Seeing them crawling away on their backs while shooting at you is pure genius. And I can't recall the amount of times I died getting blown up by a grenade the enemy was holding after I thought I got him only to walk by and...BOOM!!! We're both dead.

And what has to be one of the most movie inspired scenes in the entire game is the rescue mission on the jumbo jet. It's like Passenger 57 mixed with Die Hard. I tried playing on the harder levels but I just wasn't good enough. I could barely make it up the stairs in time let alone get to the room where the hostage was.

Overall, great game and 9.2 is a very fair score. And, as you mention, although the game is short every minute of it is action packed. Extra gold star to Infinity Ward for making even the load screens fun to sit through. Better than the most other games that make you stare at a black screen with a loading bar (I'm talking to you Uncharted).

One night I played I couldn't stop playing because the game never seemed to let me go.