Purely fantastic, cinematic FPS masterpiece.
Call of Duty has become a franchise traded between two companies, Treyarch and Infinity Ward. This obviously creates much dispute between the fans of the series, often fans of one such companies offerings refuse to purchase the others. However, I think I speak for myself here, Infinity Ward have obviously outdone the competition with Call of Duty 4 : Modern Warfare.
The Storyline is based around the Present Day, in which a British soldier "Soap" Mactavish is selected to be a member of the British Special Forces the SAS. The basic premise of the story revolves around a Ultra Nationalist uprising in Russia, paired with a barbaric Coup detat' in the Middle East. The game follows parallel storyline, in which players also take the roll of a US Marine. These two storylines eventually interweave creating a fantastic cinematic experience rarely seen in a basic FPS game.
Graphically, Call of Duty 4 is wondrous. With stray bullets and rockets flying throughout the landscape, and characters facial expressions being extremely lifelike, these all help to immerse the player into a fantastic experience. However, it could be said that there is no destructible environments, which often damages the graphics beauty, when an RPG is fired into a wooden wall with no effect. Though players will easily forgive this with the visuals presented often being amazing, such as the opening seconds of some of the Middle Eastern levels.
After playing the first Cargo Ship mission, players will realize and hopefully enjoy the wonder that is Call of Duty 4 in action, the game play is similar to other FPS titles, as to be expected. However with often unique twists thrown in between to not only make CoD (Call of Duty) 4 stand out from the crowd, but to allow CoD to destroy the competition. Some of these said 'Unique' twists include controlling, a virtually entirely realistic Elite US gunship, crawling through irradiated Chernobyl and much more. The key game play experience will be easily picked up by anybody who is an FPS fan, and players will soon become one with the flow of this beautiful single player game.
However, the Single Player is not the only place in which CoD4 shines. The Multiplayer, is (depending on your tastes) described by some as the greatest online title to date. Again the gameplay is based around Key FPS rules, Team Deathmatch, Deathmatch, Players will immediately get the picture. CoD4 does not simply rip other FPS's off, it contains one of the largest rank systems to date, and one of the most customizable arsenals I have ever seen.
Players kill other players, and gain exp bonuses. These kills, if done in a row, also grant unique bonuses. Such as calling in a UAV Cipher, Air Strikes and even a Helicopter to support the player or his team. After matches, players exp from the match is pooled into the players overall exp. This helps the player rank up from rank 1-55, each with their own rank titles, Private, Staff Sergeant, Captain. Yet, it dosent even end there, once players reach rank 55, a Prestige mode is then unlocked, in which the player is reset to the original rank 1, yet with prestige level 1. If the player then reaches level 55 again, Prestige Level 2 is unlocked. Eventually capping at Prestige Level 10, only the Elite accomplish this task.
Call of Duty is not all perfect, even though it has obtained a 5 star score, is no doubt one of the top selling games ever, and is one of the most played online titles in the world. There are many people (myself included) who remain skeptical about the lack of destructive environments, the seeming dragged out rank system, unlike games like Battlefield 2. The main disappointment with Call of Duty 4, would be the length of the single player campaign. Buyers could become torn knowing that the campaign can be done, probably in up to 5 hours, especially if the Buyers lack online capabilities. If Buyers can overlook the shortness of the campaign, the dragged out rank system and the lack of destructive enviroments, which you darn well should! Then your in for a fantastic game, as Call of Duty 4, has one of the most amazing FPS campaigns to date.
- Luke
0 Comments