Review: Call of Duty 4 (Xbox 360)

The 4th instalment of the Call of Duty series shows us that the series hasn't yet run out of steam. Considering the fact that Infinity Ward didn't develop Call of Duty 3 (developed by Treyarch instead) shows us that the team needed to spend a lot of time on their next big title, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

Infinity Ward has taken the series in another direction. They've tossed out the World War I & II theme and have brought the series to modern day. It's so modern in fact, that it's almost striking close to home by featuring a fictional war that is similar to the war happening in Iraq right now. You could call this USA & UK Vs Iraq: The Game.

Story

The story is a bit long to explain, but I'll give you the basic gist; a fictional war breaks out between USA, UK, Russia and a country in the middle-east, when a president is murdered by two sought after terrorists named Imran Zakhaev and Khaled Al-Asad. The fear and use of nuclear weapons become involved and we are left with a modern day war story that is both interesting and gripping.

Gameplay - Single Player

CoD4 is probably the most cinematic single player experience I've ever had in a FPS. You feel like you are playing out a great war movie. The single player introduces you to the game with an interesting tutorial that consists of shooting wooden boards and a fun run-and-gun obstacle course that you need to do as quickly as possible (My record is just under 20 seconds). Once you make your way through that, you are presented with your first live mission.
Unfortunately, CoD's single player is a short, linear experience. The game only took me 5 hours to complete on Normal difficulty. I am now replaying it again on the hardest difficulty (Veteran) and I'm happy to say that I'm getting a slightly different single player experience (from when I played it on Normal). Although the single player is short, it's 100% solid gameplay and quality from start to finish. It seems games these days are opting for shorter, quality experiences rather than longer, less-quality experiences - which doesn't bother me. While others may argue, I feel it's about the quality, not about the quantity.

The single player is very story driven and you are often jumping between a British S.A.S soldier and an American U.S.N.C soldier and although they are in different places in the world, they are fighting for the same goal. At one point, you will even jump back 15 years into the past to play another character in the game. While this is a weird story-break in the game, it's necessary that it gets told (and played) for the better understanding of what's happening in the story in modern day.
Infinity Ward has pushed the CoD series in a whole new (and welcomed) direction. WWI & WWII were getting a bit stale and bringing it into modern times was the next logical step. Although, with that said, at the back of my mind I am worried about what the future holds for this series. The only next step from here on would to be another modern day war game (Call of Duty 5: Modern Warfare 2?) or once again, move ahead with the times and go into future war (Call of Duty 5: Future Warfare?). Only time will tell.

Gameplay - Multiplayer

While the single player is a finite experience, the muItiplayer is an infinite experience. If you have a DSL connection and a Gold Xbox Live Subscription, you'll probably be spending more time on the multiplayer side of things. Infinity Ward have gone all out to bring us a complete multiplayer experience on the Xbox 360 that can only be matched by Halo 3.

The amount of depth in the multiplayer is both amazing and daunting and I can honestly say I've never seen anything quite like it. Firstly, it has both tons of maps and gameplay modes to keep you playing for weeks, months, if not years to come. Initially, you'll only have access to a limited set of weapons, accessories and skills to equip, but as you play and earn XP, these become unlocked allowing you to create better custom classes. It has a ranking system (a big skill number next to your name) that starts you off from 1. You increase your ranks by earning experience from playing, killing opponents and completing challenges (sorta like an RPG). A big experience bar at the bottom of the screen represents how much experience you have and is needed to 'level up' your rank (kinda like Diablo II). The challenges available to complete are various and range from 'kill 10 opponents through walls' to 'get 25 headshots with a sniper rifle' and completing them gives you extra experience points, which in turn, helps you level up faster, which in turn gives you more stuff.

Graphics

The graphics are a knock-out. I know there is talk on the inter-tubes about it not being true 640p or HD...blah, blah, blah - you WILL be hard-pressed to find a better and more realistic looking game on both the Xbox 360 and PC (with the exception to Crysis for the PC of course). It's runs at a gorgeous 60fps and has some really insane lighting effects. You will think you're playing a DirectX 10 game, but this isn't the case. The 60fps is really something you just have to see as it's so smooth and even when you've got sheer chaos on the screen, there is little to no slowdown.

Sound & Music

The voice acting is top notch. Infinity Ward went to great lengths to ensure that the game would sound authentic. Even the terrorists sound good and they don't even speak English. The music is great and overall it has an epic sound to it. This compliments the scale of the fictional war and at the same time, makes you feel important in the game.

Conclusion

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is a package that can be closely compared to Halo 3. It's got a short (but excellent) singleplayer and an awesome (and virtually infinite) multiplayer component. If you are looking for a powerfully compelling singleplayer experience and a multiplayer game that's going to knock your socks off, Call of Duty 4 is your game. If you've never played a CoD game before, don't worry - this game has nothing to do with the previous three games. Unless you really don't like FPS games, there is no reason to not buy this game, it's got everything.
OVERALL RATING: 92%