Call of Duty 4
First of all, let's start off by saying that if you like Call of Duty 2, or even Call of Duty 3 (made by a different developer), you will love the fourth entry in the series. Call of Duty 4 is an outstanding game that you'll enjoy if you're a fan of first-person shooters or fun, for that matter.
Let's start off with the options. The game features a campaign mode as well as an arcade mode, which is unlocked after completing campaign on any difficulty. The arcade mode is much like Halo 3's scoring mode, and it does add a challenge, but not one significant enough to lure you in for another go. You'll probably go through the campaign once, but if you want the achievements, you'll have to rush through it again to collect all 30 intel items and complete various tasks such as destroying a helicopter with an RPG, getting a certain amount of headshots in a row, etc. Once you've acquired a certain amount of intel items, you unlock a cheat, or a way to modify the campaign. Getting all of the intel items will respectively get you all of the cheats. These include the ability to play in a 50's-style sepia mode, a black and white mode, and a negative mode. However, my personal favorite is called "A Bad Year" which results in a hail of tires every time you kill an enemy, which is hilarious.
To unlock all of the achievements, you'll need to beat the game on Veteran, along with the epilogue. On the Veteran difficulty (the only difficulty that you get an achievement for beating), the epilogue tasks you with rushing through a terrorist-infested plane in under a minute, rescuing a VIP, and getting out before it explodes. This is definitely one of the most intense single player moments in the game, but unfortunately, due to the Veteran difficulty's AI being a bit -too- good, with their ability to shoot you if you even pop out for more than a second, this quickly becomes a frustrating chore that can take hours. Which brings us to the biggest complaint about campaign, which would be the incredibly accurate Veteran AI. Now, if you're playing on any other difficulty, except maybe Hardened, you won't know the frustration I speak of, and therefore, can enjoy your trip through the relatively short campaign. However, there are just too many sections where there are several dozen enemies to take out, and on Veteran, where even one enemy can pick you off with any weapon, it certainly is a pain. Even better than the aim of the AI is their arms. By that, I mean, on any difficulty, even while you're moving, or on top of a small hill, you WILL get a few grenade indicators popping up on your screen. On Veteran, this is made even worse in the sections with more enemies, and I have experienced parts where I have been buried in a barrage of literally six grenades every couple of seconds. On a difficulty where you have to hide from the enemy because of their ridiculous aim, getting killed by six grenades because you were playing the way you were apparently supposed to be playing is so frustrating that you will never want to play on Veteran again. Furthermore, the lack of any sort of cooperative play is a bit disappointing. As for the story, there isn't too much of one, and you won't be shocked by something new and different, but it does have its moments.
You play as Sergeant "Soap" MacTavish, with the occasional switch to Sergeant Paul Jackson. You also are presented with a first person mode of Yasir Al-Fulani, the president of the unnamed force you're fighting against. This is for purely story purposes, and without spoiling it, I will say that it is a very good way to tell a story. The enemy AI, aside from the aim and grenade throwing, is very good, flanking and running to cover as you would expect. And combined with the strong presentation and well designed missions, the campaign is worth a play on a lower difficulty setting, if only for a quick trip through a great set of missions. You'll use an assault rifle, primarily, and occasionally, the opportunity to use a wealth of different weapons will present itself. You will end up wishing you got to snipe a little more, use a high capacity light machine gun a bit more, or just use anything but your assault rifle. You do use different assault rifles, but you'll pretty much be using the same three every time, and since they feel so similar, it's a bit underwhelming.
The audio is great, and you'll be shaking when grenades explode all around you, or when you're getting pasted with enemy fire. The helicopters sound true to life, and if your volume's too loud, you'll be jumping out of your chair when you turn a corner and get perforated an enemy soldier. Guns feel and sound great when you shoot them, and they all sound different, which is hard to do when there are so many weapons in the game. The visuals are impressive and consistent, and the frame rate, well, you won't even remember what a bad frame rate is after you play this game. The frame rate is smooth and never drops enough for you or any other human to notice. The character models are great, but a little more variety would go a long way. You won't see too much of them, however; enemies die rather fast compared to other shooters, but it's more realistic that way.
The strongest aspect of the game is its multiplayer mode. Possibly the best multiplayer mode in a first-person shooter so far, Call of Duty 4 uses a ranking system in which experience gained from kills and points in matches will level you up, up to level 55. There are also challenges that grant you extra experience, such as getting a certain amount of kills with a weapon, or using your knife to kill a certain amount of enemies. Once you reach the experience requirement, you can enter Prestige Mode, which basically means you start over. As you rank up from rank 1 to 55, you unlock different weapons and different perks. Perks are essentially ways to modify your character to make him more deadly. You can have more ammo, grenades, or just gain the ability to detect enemy explosives. How about deeper bullet penetration or increased bullet damage? You name it, Call of Duty 4 has it. Finding the right perks to compliment your weapon and the game mode you're playing adds a little strategy to the game, and there are also attachments, such as a scope or a silencer, which increase your accuracy or cloak your movement on radar, which will prove useful in matches.
In actual multiplayer games, getting kill streaks is very important. For instance, getting three kills without dying gets you a UAV Recon drone for 30 seconds, marking enemy locations on your team's map. Five nets you an airstrike, which lets you pinpoint an area, then carpet bomb it. Using an airstrike in collaboration with a UAV is essential, because it allows you to see where the enemies you're bombing are. Finally, seven kills gets you a helicopter that goes around the map and shoots any enemies it encounters. It can be taken down with heavy fire and RPGs, but most players don't carry RPGs, so helicopters are a huge asset to have. All in all, multiplayer is an unrivaled experience, but you can't help but think it would've been better with any form of matchmaking. Getting destroyed by a team of 10th prestiges in your first game is a little harsh, but the game does its best to balance the teams.
Call of Duty 4 is a revolutionary game for the first-person shooter genre with its spectacular multiplayer, and with so many options and ways to play, you'll be hooked for quite a while. The campaign could have been longer, and a little less annoying, but you'll forget about campaign when you're immersed in the multiplayer, trying desperately to get that last level before you turn off the game. Call of Duty 4 is a triumph, and you would do well to add it to your collection.
Content: 9/10
Campaign mode and Arcade mode won't keep you too busy, but the multiplayer offers more than enough for you to enjoy.
Design: 10/10
The maps are beautifully designed, enemies constantly enter from helicopters instead of spawn points, and after another play through, you'll notice paths you missed the first time.
Audio: 10/10
Explosions are shocking, gunfire of each weapon is unique and sounds just like you'd expect; suffice it to say, any closer to the real thing and you'd be crying like a baby.
Visual: 9/10
Graphics are impressive, frame rates are smooth, but we've seen better looking environments and more variety in character models in other games.
Gameplay: 9.5/10
Getting kill streaks in multiplayer is rewarding, weapons are balanced, and outperforming your enemies with your customized class is a great experience.
Overall: 9.5
Let's start off with the options. The game features a campaign mode as well as an arcade mode, which is unlocked after completing campaign on any difficulty. The arcade mode is much like Halo 3's scoring mode, and it does add a challenge, but not one significant enough to lure you in for another go. You'll probably go through the campaign once, but if you want the achievements, you'll have to rush through it again to collect all 30 intel items and complete various tasks such as destroying a helicopter with an RPG, getting a certain amount of headshots in a row, etc. Once you've acquired a certain amount of intel items, you unlock a cheat, or a way to modify the campaign. Getting all of the intel items will respectively get you all of the cheats. These include the ability to play in a 50's-style sepia mode, a black and white mode, and a negative mode. However, my personal favorite is called "A Bad Year" which results in a hail of tires every time you kill an enemy, which is hilarious.
To unlock all of the achievements, you'll need to beat the game on Veteran, along with the epilogue. On the Veteran difficulty (the only difficulty that you get an achievement for beating), the epilogue tasks you with rushing through a terrorist-infested plane in under a minute, rescuing a VIP, and getting out before it explodes. This is definitely one of the most intense single player moments in the game, but unfortunately, due to the Veteran difficulty's AI being a bit -too- good, with their ability to shoot you if you even pop out for more than a second, this quickly becomes a frustrating chore that can take hours. Which brings us to the biggest complaint about campaign, which would be the incredibly accurate Veteran AI. Now, if you're playing on any other difficulty, except maybe Hardened, you won't know the frustration I speak of, and therefore, can enjoy your trip through the relatively short campaign. However, there are just too many sections where there are several dozen enemies to take out, and on Veteran, where even one enemy can pick you off with any weapon, it certainly is a pain. Even better than the aim of the AI is their arms. By that, I mean, on any difficulty, even while you're moving, or on top of a small hill, you WILL get a few grenade indicators popping up on your screen. On Veteran, this is made even worse in the sections with more enemies, and I have experienced parts where I have been buried in a barrage of literally six grenades every couple of seconds. On a difficulty where you have to hide from the enemy because of their ridiculous aim, getting killed by six grenades because you were playing the way you were apparently supposed to be playing is so frustrating that you will never want to play on Veteran again. Furthermore, the lack of any sort of cooperative play is a bit disappointing. As for the story, there isn't too much of one, and you won't be shocked by something new and different, but it does have its moments.
You play as Sergeant "Soap" MacTavish, with the occasional switch to Sergeant Paul Jackson. You also are presented with a first person mode of Yasir Al-Fulani, the president of the unnamed force you're fighting against. This is for purely story purposes, and without spoiling it, I will say that it is a very good way to tell a story. The enemy AI, aside from the aim and grenade throwing, is very good, flanking and running to cover as you would expect. And combined with the strong presentation and well designed missions, the campaign is worth a play on a lower difficulty setting, if only for a quick trip through a great set of missions. You'll use an assault rifle, primarily, and occasionally, the opportunity to use a wealth of different weapons will present itself. You will end up wishing you got to snipe a little more, use a high capacity light machine gun a bit more, or just use anything but your assault rifle. You do use different assault rifles, but you'll pretty much be using the same three every time, and since they feel so similar, it's a bit underwhelming.
The audio is great, and you'll be shaking when grenades explode all around you, or when you're getting pasted with enemy fire. The helicopters sound true to life, and if your volume's too loud, you'll be jumping out of your chair when you turn a corner and get perforated an enemy soldier. Guns feel and sound great when you shoot them, and they all sound different, which is hard to do when there are so many weapons in the game. The visuals are impressive and consistent, and the frame rate, well, you won't even remember what a bad frame rate is after you play this game. The frame rate is smooth and never drops enough for you or any other human to notice. The character models are great, but a little more variety would go a long way. You won't see too much of them, however; enemies die rather fast compared to other shooters, but it's more realistic that way.
The strongest aspect of the game is its multiplayer mode. Possibly the best multiplayer mode in a first-person shooter so far, Call of Duty 4 uses a ranking system in which experience gained from kills and points in matches will level you up, up to level 55. There are also challenges that grant you extra experience, such as getting a certain amount of kills with a weapon, or using your knife to kill a certain amount of enemies. Once you reach the experience requirement, you can enter Prestige Mode, which basically means you start over. As you rank up from rank 1 to 55, you unlock different weapons and different perks. Perks are essentially ways to modify your character to make him more deadly. You can have more ammo, grenades, or just gain the ability to detect enemy explosives. How about deeper bullet penetration or increased bullet damage? You name it, Call of Duty 4 has it. Finding the right perks to compliment your weapon and the game mode you're playing adds a little strategy to the game, and there are also attachments, such as a scope or a silencer, which increase your accuracy or cloak your movement on radar, which will prove useful in matches.
In actual multiplayer games, getting kill streaks is very important. For instance, getting three kills without dying gets you a UAV Recon drone for 30 seconds, marking enemy locations on your team's map. Five nets you an airstrike, which lets you pinpoint an area, then carpet bomb it. Using an airstrike in collaboration with a UAV is essential, because it allows you to see where the enemies you're bombing are. Finally, seven kills gets you a helicopter that goes around the map and shoots any enemies it encounters. It can be taken down with heavy fire and RPGs, but most players don't carry RPGs, so helicopters are a huge asset to have. All in all, multiplayer is an unrivaled experience, but you can't help but think it would've been better with any form of matchmaking. Getting destroyed by a team of 10th prestiges in your first game is a little harsh, but the game does its best to balance the teams.
Call of Duty 4 is a revolutionary game for the first-person shooter genre with its spectacular multiplayer, and with so many options and ways to play, you'll be hooked for quite a while. The campaign could have been longer, and a little less annoying, but you'll forget about campaign when you're immersed in the multiplayer, trying desperately to get that last level before you turn off the game. Call of Duty 4 is a triumph, and you would do well to add it to your collection.
Content: 9/10
Campaign mode and Arcade mode won't keep you too busy, but the multiplayer offers more than enough for you to enjoy.
Design: 10/10
The maps are beautifully designed, enemies constantly enter from helicopters instead of spawn points, and after another play through, you'll notice paths you missed the first time.
Audio: 10/10
Explosions are shocking, gunfire of each weapon is unique and sounds just like you'd expect; suffice it to say, any closer to the real thing and you'd be crying like a baby.
Visual: 9/10
Graphics are impressive, frame rates are smooth, but we've seen better looking environments and more variety in character models in other games.
Gameplay: 9.5/10
Getting kill streaks in multiplayer is rewarding, weapons are balanced, and outperforming your enemies with your customized class is a great experience.
Overall: 9.5
