To bring breath back to this lifeless blog, I've decided to bring back my old reviews back from Gamespot that I posted about 2-3 years ago. They were slightly amateurish, but hey, they are good filler as I decide what I could do to make this blog worth it again. UNLIKE MY OTHER REVIEWS, this one was never posted on Gamespot. Instead, this was posted a couple of months after this blog was made on a separate website. This was my final official review of a video game, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.
I got COD:4 for Christmas and I’ve had high expectations for this game, and I wasn’t disappointed.
First, I’ll talk about the single player mode. The story is pretty much fighting a war and trying to end it. Now, I’ve had the game for about 4 days now, and I’d like to say the game is so hard, that even for a five-hour game, this will take a while to beat. The good thing is that there are 4 levels of challenge so it’s good for both pros and people that have never played a first person shooter before. And for a five-hour game, the campaign feels a lot different from other first person shooters. Most games try to make a place feel dirty by just adding lots of broken stuff everywhere you look, but it just feels like something has gone terribly wrong(don’t worry, you aren’t reading a BioShock review). I wouldn’t say that the characters are very deep or interesting, but they have great voice acting which really keeps you in the mood of what is going on in the game. The soundtrack doesn’t give the game an emotional feeling, but more of a dramatic mood. The enemy AI of the game is very smart, but you won’t see you allies helping you very much. I mean, they don’t shoot walls or anything, but they take cover most of the time and when they do pop out, they usually on shoot about 3 to 4 bullets and most usually don’t hit anything. Another thing that I don’t find bad, just very unrealistic, are scripted enemy pop-outs. I mean, you could sit in cover for about 4 to 5 minutes and then go out and more enemies will come out. But you could also take about 10 to 15 seconds in cover then come out for the same effect, so the game makes it feel like they only come out when you are open. Another thing that gives the same effect of unrealism is respawning infinites enemies that only stop respawning when you get from one place to another. Like in one level, I could spend the whole day killing enemies, and then get shot and die, or just run as fast as you possibly can from one place to another and not shoot ANY enemies and they will stop respawning. Sometimes I think of my allies as distractions more than actual allies. There is one level where there is a helicopter and there is a barn I have to get to. Once I waste almost all my bullets trying to kill the gunner, I desperately run towards the barn to get inside, only to find a scripted gunner come out and shoot me. I have been working on the same level for hours and hours and I still have not passed it.
One thing I would like to say though is that this game actually good use of special grenades(unlike most games), like a flash bang is very helpful at getting enemies to daze of while you start aiming at their heads. Or while enemies are coming you could throw a smoke grenade and place a claymore right next a door, then once the smoke goes out and they run through the door, BOOM. Sadly, weapons like C4s and Claymores are really only found useful in multiplayer games, whereas in single player mode they are usually only used for objectives like plant a C4 on something important and detonate it.
Now, even though the single player has different levels of difficulty to choose from, the multiplayer might not be the best place for beginners but something that someone will really get into. The reason I say that is this isn’t a game like Halo or Gears of War where there are weapons pickups and you will have to shoot a load of bullets to kill someone, Or if you have one weapon where even the inexperienced could get many kills. Nothing like that. This is a game where if you get shot by even a few bullets, you will die. It is a very fast paced game similar to Unreal Tournament but a little slower so that the sniper could be found useful XD. There is, however, the importance of having the right weapons at the right situations. Now that I think about it, it feels a lot like Team Fortress 2, except that you can mix them up to your play style. Something very rarely found in a first-person shooter is the integration of experience points. You get experience points for killing other players in multiplayer. The more experience points you get the closer you get to leveling up, like a role playing game. Once you level up, you unlock more weapons, attachments and perks. Perks are like bonuses to add onto your character. You can have three perks on your character at a time and you get to choose which ones you want. Like a perk called Stopping Power where your bullets have more damage, and a perk called Sleight of Hand where you can reload faster. There are also perks that let you hold more grenades. Attachments are like add-ons to your weapons to make them a little more useful, like a silence could be attached to make sure that you don’t appear on the mini-map when you shoot, or a red dot scope so you can aim better and not have to use the iron sights. The weapons in the game are very modern(hence the name Modern Warfare) and different from the weapons older Call of Duty’s had. They are split into 5 groups, Assault Rifles, Sub Machine Guns, Light Machine Guns, Shotguns, and Sniper Rifles. One game element which adds a whole lot of realism is being able to shoot through thin surfaces. So a bullet being shot through a very thick wall might not be able to penetrate a wall, or penetrate but it won’t be very damaging, and a bullet being shot through things like wood or sheet metal while lose a little bit of it’s damage but still be deadly. So now there is a difference between cover and concealment. There is also a system in the multiplayer called air support, where if you go on a 3 kill streak without dying, you can use UAV recon to have the mini-map scan for enemies for about 30 seconds, while if you go on a five kill streak you could call an air strike where a map of the level is shown and you could choose where you want to fire the air strike. So you could use an air strike in conjunction with a UAV to know where the enemies are and land a few bombs on them. If you get 2 kills from that or from your own fire without dying you go on a 7 kill streak where you can call a helicopter to come and support you(very useful too).
Just to include a little snippet about controls, you can hold down a button to look down the iron sights/scope/attachment, and fire. Or you could just press the fire button and fire directly from the hip, which is not as accurate(like Gears of War). You can also melee with you knife by clicking into the right thumb stick and switch weapons and reload. You can also crouch or go prone(lay on your stomach) by clicking the B button. And jump or climb over objects with the A button. Moving around is done by the left thumb stick and air support or perks(like RPGs, Claymores, and C4s. Don’t worry, other perks are passive) are used with the D-Pad. And the use the left and right bumpers to throw fragmentation grenades, flash grenades, stun grenades and smoke grenades(Sorry, but you can only have frags and one of the other three at a time).
Graphics are very cinematic and realistic(hehe, does that sound familiar to anyone?). The game also has a very cinematic feel. Just watch the intro and credits and it might remind you of a movie. And the final level(or the level after the final level) feels Soprano like. And the cut scenes give the game like an interactive movie, except deeper than that. When you get close up to sandbag walls though, it looks 2-d, but the environment looks very realistic, and the explosions are also very realistic. But there are some questionable rag doll physics, but they only popped up when I played split-screen games. You’ll see many people having their hands stuck inside a wall and hanging off of it in split-screen games. Though it destroys the feeling of darkness in Call Of Duty 4, it gives more of the feeling of hilariousness. Graphics look DirectX10 for computers but are still only DX9. Lighting also gives a great feel and realistic, though you will never see your own shadow. But these small mistakes are usually ignored because of the realistic graphics.
Sound design isn’t perfect, but is damn well close to it(also sound familiar for you G4 watchers?)! Bullets being fired, bouncing off of different surfaces and explosions being heard from afar are also very realistic. Music also gives this game a very dramatic mood, similar to the emotional mood in Halo 3. Voice acting is AWESWEEXCELENT! Even the intro of the game will make you say WOW! The voice acting gives you the feeling of being your allies but also makes you care about all of the characters in the game.
And now for the final verdict. One of the most anticipated games of the year did not let us down and then some.
Deep story, even for 5 hours(even more when you play on Hardened, a LOT for Veteran), fun and addicting multiplayer, not as much variety as a next gen game might truly have, but is still one of the greatest “interactive movies” of all time.
Gameplay: 9/10
Story: 9/10
Graphics/Design: 9/10
Extras/Variety: 8/10
Tilt: 9/10
Overall: 9/10
