A Must-Buy for Shooter Fans
Call of Duty is back and better than ever. Ditching the WWII theme in favour of “Modern Warfare” is certainly what makes this instalment stand out from the rest. With the change in theme you get to play as either a British SAS soldier or an American Marine - with the roles interchanging as the single player progresses. There is a marked difference between playing as either - as a marine you will find yourself with dozens of fellow soldiers at your side, taking on the enemy in a middle eastern setting. The SAS missions centre around a small team of the most elite counter-terrorist unit in the world, infiltrating installations and going up against hordes of Russian rebels across eastern Europe. The game is one of the most intense first-person experiences you will ever encounter; while the single player may be rather short, the quality of what is there makes up for it. Along with the fact that if you bump up the difficulty - it’s going to take considerably longer to finish. One of the reasons for it’s level of intensity is that it is a very linear game - there are never more that two ways to approach the next objective, so you won’t need to think about which direction you need to be in. As a result the game can throw as many set pieces as it likes at you, which while some might question as to whether that is a positive thing, here it is what makes the single player so fun to play.Enemy AI is improved as you would expect, they can be very aggressive and come right for you, or hang back and throw grenades at your feet. You and your teamates can throw grenades back, but then so can the enemy. Team AI is good and there are many times they save your life - especially on Veteran difficulty. There are parts when you notice enemies are spawning at a location and the only way to stop them is to actually move forward. While a little disheartening it is understandable, this isn’t a game where you win by sitting back like a sissy, this is run and gun gameplay where the only progress you’re going to make is with a pair.
Modern Warfare is about as varied as you could expect a shooter to be. You’ll encounter soldiers, helicopters, wild dogs, tanks and jeeps. You’ll take them out with RPGs, machine guns, pistols, sniper rifles, rocket launchers, grenades, flash bangs, SMGs, shotguns, C4, claymores, grenade launchers, helicopters, miniguns, an AC-130, airstrikes, bare hands and your trusty knife with it’s one-hit-kill. The AC-130 mission is something never done before: you’re in a gunship overlooking friendlies making there way through a town and it’s your job to provide them cover using the thermal imaging and a choice of 2 cannons and a rail gun. The result is a rather scarily realistic (as a result of the thermal imaging) demolition of the hapless enemies that rag-doll across the terrain when one of your shells hits.
While not set in WWII, the gameplay is very similar to what you have come to expect from CoD2 for example. Aiming down the sight plays a big role on and offline, and the style of the game has Infinity Ward all over it. Graphically, the game is very impressive. It is a wonder that the 360 can still be improving in that department with an eye-bleeding frame rate to match. Lighting and particle effects are spot on and the graphics are pretty much on par for the online mode.
The online mode is where you will spend most of your time (hopefully). This has to be one of the best crafted online shooter experiences to date, a multitude of maps come out of the box, a matchmaking system is implemented similar to Halo 3, and once you are in a round the gameplay is every bit as rewarding as in the single player - or more when you remember these are actual people you’re taking on. The perk system is a lovely way to mix it up with some dropping grenades when they die and others with deeper bullet penetration so no wall can save you. There is no cover system in the multiplayer but you really don’t want one - as mentioned bullets can go through walls, and you don’t want to be pressed up against one when the cover it provides is limited. Sniping is a great deal of fun and wearing a ghillie suit makes you almost impossible to spot when lying still in a field. I can’t tell you how many times I decided to just hide while 6 enemies walk right passed me. It’s moments like that that make the game special. Get a 3 kill streak and you’ll have yourself a UAV which will locate every enemy on the map (unless they have the UAV jammer perk); a 5 kill streak and you can call in an airstrike, a 7 kill streak and you’ll call in a friendly helicopter that will seek out the enemy and blow them to smithereens. Game modes are what you’d expect with Hardcore being a little different in that there is no HUD and increased damage. But essentially it is the same game type. Pretty much all the weapons including explosives and the knife can be used online, so you can do a whole lot of bad stuff to your adversaries.
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is a must-buy for any shooter fan and I highly recommend it.
