steve kwan user experience designer

Review: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

(November 17th, 2007 - 6:49PM)

(5 / 5 stars)

GSOD. Image taken from the Call of Duty website.

Summary

I just finished Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare's single-player campaign. It's short. In fact, it's shorter than either of Half-Life 2's episodes. That's pathetic for a full-length single-player game.

I've read that Call of Duty 4 also has superb multi-player, but I haven't played it yet. For the purposes of this review, it doesn't even matter. The single-player alone, despite being only about six hours long, is worthy of a five-star rating. It's possibly the most compelling six hours of video gaming that I've experienced in a long time.

Things I liked about Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare:

• The single-player experience is compelling.

  "Compelling" doesn't even really begin to describe it. Call of Duty 4 moved me. It made me feel something. That's rare for me, because I've played so many video games that there are very few things I haven't seen before.

  Call of Duty 4 is much grittier than the previous games in the series. The others were all World War II based, and of course the Allies were the good guys and the Axis were the bad guys. There's no room for moral ambiguity there, as it would be politically incorrect (to say the least) to imply that the Nazis weren't all bad. But in Call of Duty 4, the line between good and evil is a bit blurry.

  In the game's very first mission, you're dropped by helicoptor onto a freighter ship. You're informed that "the crew are expendable." I thought that was an awfully odd thing for the good guys to say. And when you rope down onto the boat and the crew sees you, you can almost see the surprise and confusion on their faces right before you mow them down. For a second, I had to think to myself, "What kind of person am I?"

  There are also some tremendous moments in the game. In particular, I was impressed by a short sequence at the end of the American campaign (you'll know it when you get there). It's about a two-minute mission that was totally unnecessary, but it adds tons of realism and emotion.

• The combat is exceptional.

  When you shoot people in Call of Duty 4, it feels like you're really shooting them. The blood splatter is great. The weapons are great. The bodies fall realistically. This is as close as you can get to actually being a Marine.

  It's also nice to have highly accurate weapons. The previous Call of Duty games were WWII-themed, and their weapons seem archaic compared to the ones you get in Call of Duty 4. It's nice to point and shoot and have the bullet go exactly where you wanted it.

• The graphics are superb.

  Although not entirely photorealistic, and although the character models look a bit cartoony, the graphics are stellar.

• I hear the multi-player is exceptional.

  As mentioned earlier, I haven't played the multi-player yet, but I hear it's fantastic.

Things I disliked about Call of Duty 4: Modern Warefare:

• The single-player experience is short.

  The single-player mode clocks in at roughly six hours. Normally if I paid $50 for a game and got stuck with a single-player experience this short, I'd be up in arms. But in the case of Call of Duty 4, I don't mind it so much.

  Sure, Call of Duty 4 is short, but what you do get is such great gameplay that it's worth it. Would you rather have twelve hours of mediocre gameplay, or six truly exceptional hours?

  Still, I would have loved another five hours of Call of Duty 4.

• The sound, although good, was not great.

  There's nothing wrong with the sound in Call of Duty 4, but I seem to recall playing Call of Duty 2 and being completely wowed by the sound effects. Call of Duty 4's, while good, were not fantastic.

Conclusion

Call of Duty 4 is one of the most immersive shooters I've ever played. If you're a fan of first-person shooters, either single-player or multi-player, Call of Duty 4 is a must-have.