When you decide to review a game like Call of Duty 4 (CoD4) so long after its release when it's already an incredibly popular game, then you're already at the point where you aren't even reviewing a game at all. You are simply telling people what you think and the people reading either want to know if you agree with them that the game is good, or that the game is bad. So if you want me to say I don't like CoD4, I would suggest you stop reading now! However if you want me to say that CoD4 is a kick ass, action extravaganza then you may have come to the right place, I guess you'll just have to read on to find out...
In the single player campaign you take up the role as either "Soap" (Why Soap?) MacTavish of the SAS or Paul Jackson of the USMC. The story lines of both soldiers take place simultaneously so you switch between the two throughout the game, you also have an interesting cast of NPC's who accompany you throughout your missions, while most of them are relativly stereotypical, the characters at least act and look like real people, with the exception being Cpt. Price, who you may recognise from previous CoD titles. He makes his return as a hard assed SAS squad leader, although its odd that Price has not aged a day since World War 2, by all rights he should be in a wheelchair eating nothing but mash potato and happily waiting for the next episode of Wheel of Fortune. The only reasons I can give for his unwarranted youth are either extensive plastic surgery or a deal with Satan, Dark Lord of all Sinners! I should also mention the actor who does Price's voice acting is none other than Bill Murray who plays Don Beech in "The Bill" I can imagine it now "Hello, hello, hello what's this? Nuclear weapons! you're nicked sunshine!"
The SAS and USMC missions play very differently from one another which helps keep the campaign fresh, the unique single player weaponry is also a nice addition as each one caters to the style of gameplay for both military forces, SAS usually getting suppressed weaponry like the Silenced M21 whereas the USMC get front line weaponry like the SOPMOD M4. Oh, and if you ever come across a new player online be sure to tell him he gets those weapons in multiplayer if he spins around a hundred times in one match! - its always a laugh. Also note that you can pick up pretty much any weapon dropped by friend and foe alike as well use a number of special weapons like the Javelin Missile Launcher, Claymore Mine and C4.
Now unlike a lot of games in the action FPS genre, CoD4 does a good job of breaking up gameplay segments, or bringing in different ways to handle objectives like "Defend this position" which gives the game a feeling of variety but still keeps gunning down nameless red shirts as fun as ever. But even when you are basically doing the same task over and over, CoD4 remains incredibly fast paced throughout the entire game, which is helped along by the brilliant controls which make advanced gameplay a lot easier to carry out, making that split-second decision to whip out your pistol and blast a terrorist in the face that much more satisfying.
The story is simple- maybe too simple.. Playing out like an average episode of "24" I was practically waiting for Jack Bauer to jump out of nowhere and jam a switch-blade between my fingernails until I tell him where the nukes are. As always Russians and Middle-Eastern evil doers are responsible, and I say Middle-Eastern because even though they are clearly from that region of the world, no specifics are mentioned, which is a shame because for all its odd plot developments CoD4 does maintain a strong sense of realism. The "cookie cutter" plot points may get on your nerves but there is no denying the atmosphere is pretty intense throughout the campaign and does help separate this game from others of its kind.
Multiplayer
While the single player will only last 7-10 hours depending on difficulty settings and player ability, the multiplayer on CoD4 is nothing short of fantastic. To say you are playing with human opponents, the fast paced action of the single player has transferred over incredibly well to multiplayer, this is enforced even more by the fact most maps are based on various locations throughout the single player campaign, so even if you are playing CoD4 multiplayer for the very first time, you should be familiar with the environments. The exception to the rule here is the Variety map pack which features 3 locations with completely new geography, but since you have to pay for those maps to use them, you should be OK for a while.
The addition of perks is another great thing about CoD4 online, let me explain. Perks are special abilities which can give you one of three "boosts" to your weapon class; which you can customise at a certain level. There are three different perk types and you can equip one of each, the first is an equipment perk which you can use to give yourself a special item or weapon attachment, the second are offensive perks that directly effect your combat ability such as being able to equip two primary weapons or increase your explosives damage, and the third category consists of support perks which can increase your hip accuracy or help you shoot through walls better. At first perks may not seem like much but as you progress in multiplayer you will learn that using your perks in the right way, in the right game modes, and even the right maps can give you a great advantage over almost any opponent. I cant express enough how much this adds to the online gameplay.
However I should warn you about some things that at the very least may annoy you, and at the most will have you strangling small woodland critters in anger!
Martyrdom: This is a perk that allows you to drop a grenade with 2 seconds left on the timer when you die. The problem is this perk is abused like hell, and at times can be impossible to get away from. This is not only frustrating but the enemy who uses it doesn't need to do anything to use this perk, and there is no way to prevent it. Now I don't want to be hurtful, but if you equip this perk you suck at this game and you know it. This perk not only gives an active reward for being killed but also punishes the superior player for having the nerve to kill you. This perk should be removed so people can safely get back to teabagging the fallen opposition as God intended.
Last Stand: This lets you have a shot at killing an opponent with your pistol when you get killed. I don't have much of a beef with Last Stand, I just get annoyed when I pack a full clip into someone's chest and they are still alive on the floor! This can happen because the game wont register my bullets when its carrying out the Last Stand character animation, put simply - it's horseshit!
Grenade Launcher: I don't even need to explain this one, this weapon is ridiculous! Basically allowing you get kills with little or no effort, this is such a cheap weapon and although I appreciate what Infinity Ward are trying to do by making a lot of weapons from the Singleplayer available in Multiplayer, however it fails on every level and allows noobs to actually convince themselves they are good at this game, this weapon can ruin Multiplayer games and it should be taken out.
Headquarters : Here's the deal with HQ, the name of the game is that you and an opposing team try and capture a neutral point, lets say the enemy captures the HQ, they don't respawn until the HQ is destroyed. Seems simple enough, fun for all the family. . .problem is the mode suffers from one fatal flaw. When you have killed an enemy team and destroy their HQ the game has a nasty habit of spawning the new HQ and the enemy team together, meaning; if don't get the first HQ capture you could easily lose the match 250-0 and you wont be able to do anything - or even put up a fight. By the time you can even run to that HQ it has already been captured and too many HQ games turn out this way.
Well I'm done now, you should have a good impression of what to expect from Call of Duty 4. If you enjoyed the review, be sure to leave a comment and the PIN number to your bank account.
Seeya next time.
Danny Wells