A giant Dissapointment. This is Not OK
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is the latest edition to Activision's long-running Call of Duty series. Usually this brand name is set in the 1940s during WW2. However Infinity Ward has realized the falling of WW2 games and has made one of the games smartest decisions; move the game into the modern day. While this brings us to a time we can better understand with and fancier guns; did the game suffer or benefit from this. A little but mostly no.
Story-
Unusual for a shooter is that the story mode is actually the best part of Call of Duty 4. It borrows heavily from the War in the East going on now to weave a narrative that is far more engrossing then Halo 3 and many other other shooters. In the story you mainly play as a man codenamed "Soap" who works for the British S.A.S. who are sent on a mission to stop a terrorist trying to resurrect the Soviet Union. Meanwhile the Americans take a back-seat and get blown up by a nuke but somehow manage to make it out of there. The Story also ends in a way that isn;t traditional to the average game out on the market. In hopes of not spoiling it lets just say that the story just gets darker and darker. Its a refreshing touch to the overused "Happily-ever-After" scenario that almost every game has put the player through
Score- 8.6
Design-
Its a shooter. Most shooters do the point A to Point B formula which is very prevalent in Call of Duty 4. In fact its so forced that invisible walls are literally everywhere to the naked eye and cuts off places that any normal human being could pass. The only time you have the freedom to counter the enemy is really when you're engaging them. Uusually most battles will take place in towns where you'll have plenty of houses to hop around in and take out soldiers. However as it is a shooter the design can be forgiven a bit. What can not be forgiven is the insane amnount of balance issues. For one Call of Duty 4 tries to take on a more realistic tone and that includes deaths. This could have been a great idea if they had balanced it. Its pretty weird where you can die by getting shot in the arm with a sniper yet a shot in the chest from an Ak-47 will only yield damage. Whats ridikulous is how powerful every weapon is and then you get to the shotgun class; the shotguns are insanely underpowered. If you want to hit someone you literally have to be face-to-face and not even that will kill them. Sometimes it can take up to 3 shots with a shotgun to bring someone down but you'll already dead due to other guns. Another issue comes up the P90. This small gun is by far the most OP gun in the entire game. There are also other problems with the knife, perk balancing, and server problems. It all affects the game dramatically as people will spam these buggy tools online giving them an unfair advantage.
Score- 6.5
Gameplay-
This may not be Halo 3 but Call of Duty 4 manages to be a very generic shooter. The entire point of the game is to just push a button to aim and then press another button to shoot. Guns are the standarized guns you would see in any other game with nothing set to make them unique. While Soap gets a cool setup in single-player this is not transitioned into the multi-player mode; the only thing you can customize about your gun is its camoflouge and whats on top. Its dissappointing that Soap's gun was designed to make the game look like you could truly make your guns unique however you'll be sad. In every way this game manages to lack; there is only one type of gernade that damages, only the flashbang gernade is useful, and the perks draw more spammers then ever. Infinity Ward decided to be nice and sweet and take away your ability to create custom matches which means you're stuck with the pre-determined modes that are lacking. Only a few maps get old after a while and the new ones in the map pack aren;t very satisfying. Plus the promised DLC never arrived meaning this game is just going to keep getting boring. Fortune hits especially hard for PS3 owners as IW has claimed they will not be supposrting the PS3 version with any upgrade what-so-ever. People playing the game online are going to find this extremely aggravating especially newcomers. The fact that so many people camp, sneak up behind you, and the itch to run forward will get you killed a lot. If the death level was toned down a bit in online then it wouldn;t be so frustrating. Another dissapointment is the fact that they did not make use of the fact that they had 4 different factions to play around with. each faction could've had special bonuses, weapons, and perks but this was a giant miss. 16 players, how does this make CoD4 the number 1 multiplayer game when there are better games out (i.e. Resistance) that offer an excellent overall package. Call of Duty' s gameplay has hit the archaic stage and its online is already outdated by much better games.
Score- 5.3
Presentation-
There have been ugly games and then there have been some of the most beautiful games ever to be seen. Call of Duty 4 is an ugly game. This game can be described as plastic as a barbie. Every texture looks like it was literally made from plastic; clothes, tile, characters, and set pieces. It doesn't look photo-realistic at all and makes you wonder where the grand promises that IW promised went. Gun models look very nice with scopes that reflect. Lighting is also very nice being the only think that can be described as photo-realistic. Voice-Acting is a big miss here. Most characters shout out there lines giving them no emotion, there's a great repetition of one-liners, and the characters you take control of offer no voice so you really have no idea who the hell you are and why you should care. Strangely every character you be has no torso, feet, or anyother body part to speak of besides his hands. This is very unsettling and makes it feel more like you're watching a war movie then playing a game. Animations also prove to be unrealistic and repetitive. If you get shot with a full blast from a rifle or a gernade there is no reason you should get blast back; instead you fall to your knees, hold up your hands, and finally keel over.
Score- 4.7
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare had great potential. However a rushed development plan and annoying bugs ruined a game. While the game manages to have a very good story the gets hampered by bad balancing, terrible visuals, and an unsatisfying multiplayer mode. Overall this is definatly not a buy.
Score- 6.3
