War.  Huh.  Yeah.  What is it good for?  Well apparently its good for selling tons and tons of videogames to obsessed FPS fans.  Say it again now.  Unless you’ve been living in a foxhole for the past few years you have probably heard of Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty series.  Just in case you need to be de-briefed, here’s the basic deal.  The CoD series thrusts you, a loyal patriotic soldier into the middle of a full blown war and it’s up to you to help your country, in this case the USA, triumph victoriously.  Up until now, the war that was repeatedly bashed into our heads over and over again was World War 2 and there’s only so much of that you can take before you get to something like Call of Duty 7, just press the button and bomb Hiroshima already.  So, running out of ideas… wait… I mean innovating on an already successful gameplay concept, Infinity Ward created Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is really just what it sounds like, a CoD game in modern times.  Granted it was a bit of a risk to take the series away from its comfortable WW2 based roots, but in the end they treated this game with the same care they did with all the other installments.  All the cool high tech gadgets of modern weaponry are there, from guns, to missiles, to tanks, and its bound to give a rush to all the adrenaline junkies out there.  But it’s easy to say that CoD4 is just like all the other CoD games but with a modern spin, so let’s focus on what really needs to be said, how the game is different.
First of all let me say that I was never a big fan of the Call of Duty series.  The reason being, the games seemed to just be a shoot fest in the end.  I couldn’t really get into the story, because it didn’t feel like there was any story to get into.  The games just took you from scenario to scenario and eventually you won.  That’s it.  To me, I think that it was an unfortunate oversight in a game that handled so well.
Luckily in Call of Duty 4 this isn’t the case.  The game tells one continuing story from many viewpoints, which is different from the jumpy perspectives of the previous Call of Duty games.  Personally, I still think they could have worked the story in a bit more, but that’s just nitpicking.  Truth be told they are getting a lot closer which is really all I hoped for. 
For all the nitpicking, the story writers did a great job, especially since this time around the story is essentially all built up from the ground up.  There is no other conflict to piggyback this on other than America’s standard hatred of people from the middle east, and former hatred of communists.  It’s your basic “Terrorists want to destroy the US by stealing Russian nukes” storyline, utterly racist and filled with Pro-US propaganda.  The thing is, that’s not a complaint, that’s a compliment.  If you are Call of Duty fan you BREATHE U.S. propaganda.  This game really gives you the whole “Stars and Stripes saves the day” feeling, which is what you should want from a Call of Duty game.  If you don’t like it, go play Halo or something.
Another thing of note is Call of Duty 4’s brilliant use of melodrama.  Even though the story can be lacking at points, the tiny bits of the story somehow have you caring a lot about everyone and everything around you.  Whenever one of your squad mates dies, you actually feel bad for him.  He is not a faceless AI drone like many other shooters provide you.  Instead he was a guy with a wife and kids and BLAM now he has no head.  Tear jerking.  I would like to say Kudos to Infinity Ward for really knowing how to tug on the heartstrings of people who are sensitive to themes like this.  It definitely makes the whole game worthwhile.

This is the point and time in a review where I generally have to get off my story critiquing high horse and start talking about the controls, and that’s actually a bit of a sticky situation for Call of Duty 4.  Aiming and firing is still basically the same thing as it was in all the other Calls of Duty.  Your character has a basic melee attack and everything is pretty much “put bullets in the other guy” except for a few environmental interactions here or there that require an action button.  Cover is still the best thing to happen since sliced bread had a baby with the Xerox machine, and you will need to use it heavily if you want to survive in this game.  Oh and of course, you can throw your enemy’s grenades back at them.  That’s awesome.

The real change in gameplay comes in the fact that the difficulty seems to be ramped way up from the other Calls of Duty.  There are way more enemies on the field this time, and most of them are a lot smarter too.  Enemies employ strategic troop movements, and use their environment for their advantage at all times.  For example, the enemies ALWAYS use cover.  If at all possible, the enemy will flank you which will lead to a quick character death.  It’s almost like playing chess in that you always have to stay several steps ahead of your opponent. Luckily you also have a few things going for you as well.  If you know anything about Call of Duty, then you know you aren’t a single, head banded, Rambo figure clearing out entire squads of enemy soldiers.  On the contrary you have your trusty squad with you.  Since your squad benefits from the same AI refinements that the enemy has, they have become completely and utterly brutal and in many circumstances will save your life.  Watching your teammates react as normal troops would is also a treat, and unfortunately you can get lost in watching them flinch away from bullets, which also gives you a ticket for a bus ride to death alley.

There was one more thing that my local gaming group insisted putting in this review, and that’s a paragraph about bullet physics.  Now I’m not a gun enthusiast so I wouldn’t know what the difference is between a normal nine millimeter bullet and a shot from a 45 magnum but some people out there do and for those people Call of Duty is a real treat.  Gone are the days of bullets stopping when they hit the nearest polygon.  Instead, bullets now go through walls and many other materials based on what gun you are using, and how far away from the wall you are.  As I said before its all greek to me, but the fact that 5 people out of an 8 person crowd went nuts when an enemy was shot through his cover, is a large enough ratio to make mentioning it worthwhile.

The FPS market has been changing recently, and with this change, it’s been shifting away from single player to focus on multiplayer based gameplay and with COD4 it kind of shows.  The single player in this game is ok, but its only 7 hours long, and that’s for me, someone who is notoriously bad at FPSes.  Also, it’s unfortunate that sometimes your teammates shoot you in the back, and even worse, sometimes you shoot your teammates in the back as well.  There’s no indicator as to who is a friend or foe other than their character model, so those of us who are looking for the magic green circle that says “shoot here” will be disappointed.  Also, since plugging your friend in the ass with a bullet sometimes ends a mission this can be really frustrating.  This might be an explanation as to why co-op play is mysteriously absent.
Well I’ve rambled on about single player for long enough, so let’s get to what you really want to hear about, multiplayer.  The multiplayer in this game is phenomenal.  You start out with 16 maps, and of course you can download more.  Internet play is amazing and I haven’t seen a game lag yet but then again I’m very picky about who I play with.  There are tons of game modes from death match, to more goal oriented modes.  What may be the most fun is the fact that you can change the rules you play by and by that I mean the rules of physics.  The normal mode is basic FPS faire where you jump very high, find weapons on the map, and plug your enemies full of bullet holes.  You can turn the game to “hardcore” mode however, and this makes it much more like “counterstrike” in a lot of ways, in that bullets to “real” damage (ie a bullet kills you) and you don’t get your useful game statistics and maps on screen to help you through different stages.  Luckily though there is one saving grace in CoD4’s multiplayer and that’s it’s respawn system.  CoD4 always respawns you in a safe place, far away from enemies and enemy fire, and near a teammate if at all possible.  This prevents you from coming back into the action just to get killed again.  As someone who is generally horrible at FPSes let me just say what a relief this system is.  Finally, I feel like I can at least have enough time in a match to get better, rather than being repeatedly shot in the face by pros.

The last thing I feel I have to mention about CoD4 is its class based gameplay.  Yes, borrowing elements from RPGs seems to be the flavor of the day and CoD4 is no different.  Your class determines your weapons and skills, but none of this is set in stone.  As you gain levels you get to alter bits and pieces of your class, and when you hit level 4 it’s a free for all as you get to make up your own classes to play the game exactly how you want to play it.  This unfortunately unbalances the game a bit, because it makes character building very MMO-ish.  By this I mean if you make a mistake here or there, you may be screwed later on when going up against someone with a perfectly built character.  Use a walkthrough people, it’s worth it.

I don’t really have a whole lot more to say about Call of Duty 4.  It’s a good game.  Even as someone who dislikes FPSes and who generally dislikes the Call of Duty series I can say truthfully that this is an extremely good game and every gamer out there deserves to at least rent it just once.  More hardcore FPS fans will get a lot of mileage of Call of Duty 4, and really that’s all we can hope for.  I mean the single player isn’t the best but if you really want a single player FPS that will wow you, play Metroid Prime 3.  Otherwise, Call of Duty is your game.