Scripted sequences again? Oh boy!
This game actually blows ass. I tried it on the hardest difficulty setting and it wasn't bad, until I got to the TV station. WTF? Infinite respawning enemies, who spam grenades at you every 3 seconds. Why should I try and play it realistically when you give me no cover system and infinite enemies magically coming out of a door. The enemies just stream out of that door and never stop coming. I can sit back and snipe them and snipe them and kill again and again and they'll never lessen. Apparently, this TV station is inhabited by the world's population, and they've all turned to a life of terrorism apparently. There's no sense to this scenario. Why are terrorists infinite? Remember back to the good old Rainbow Six days, when a mission would have 6 or 7 tangos, max? The difficulty was in saving the hostage or killing them all without incurring a single casualty on your team. That was what was rewarding, not this nonsense of slaughtering hoards of faceless drones spawning out of a closet.
Fuck you Infinity Ward and the half-track you rode in on. I changed it to normal difficulty and now I can play it without getting the urge to punch my monitor.
And for a game that's supposed to be about modern warfare, there's no rate of fire selector or any ability to customize your weapon accessories. Crysis had those, and that's a game with fucking giant robot squids. Why wouldn't you allow us to change our rate of fire? Assault rifles and submachine guns all have this feature, and you're trying to portray many of these weapons in the game. Sometimes a situation might call for semi auto mode, like sniping at long range, while another might require full auto mode. Giving players choices is a good thing, it's not something to be afraid of. But no, Infinity Ward doesn't believe in giving the player any power. That's why every door has to be opened by an AI companion, instead of by the player. Remember the good ol days of Wolfenstein 3D and Doom, when you could actually open doors yourself?
COD4 also introduces new weapon accessories, like red dot and ACOG sights, as well as laser sights and silencers. The only problem is... you can't select which accessories to equip on your weapon. The game just sticks you with whatever random assortment it wants. You have no say in how your personal firearm will be customized. Customization of weapons is not difficult to implement in video games these days. Rainbow Six has done it on multiple iterations, as has Crysis. Customizing your gun generates a feeling of empowerment and individualization, and I simply don't understand why the developer felt that they should keep that away from the player. It's a baffling misstep and a shame, particularly because the weapon accessories themselves are quite well-designed and realized. The red dot sight looks great and feels authentic.
The campaign is one tightly scripted sequence after another. While this allows for intense and dramatic moments like watching a helicopter crash and barely avoid killing Captain McMillan, it also leads to severely limited replayability. You know exactly what's going to happen every time because it's all scripted to happen at a certain time and place. So really, there's no reason to go back and replay the experience, as it'll be the same as the first time. While I enjoyed scripted events when they first arrived on the FPS in the form of Half-Life... it's gotten incredibly old. Half-Life came out in 1998. Then we had Medal of Honor Allied Assault, which was made by the team that later formed IW. I thought MoHAA was a great WW2 experience. Then they made Call of Duty, which was also a great scripted game. Then Call of Duty 2, which was more of the same. I figured CoD2 was where it probably needed to end, they'd done all they could. But now they're back, and once again we're treated to linear scripted missions. I've simply had enough. It's time to play in more dynamic combat environments, with more freedom and tactical options and intelligence.
The campaign is also amazingly short, clocking in at around 7 to 8 hours. So yea, I'm not sure why everyone called it the best game ever. The presentation looks nice at first, but there's a lot that's retarded, and you'd think they'd have fixed their shit since this is the FOURTH game in the series.
