Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

by Darren Lee Taylor - 2007/12/31 10:18am

With so much emphasis on the latest Gulf Wars and conflicts in the east of late, it seems that a title of this nature already ascertains some criteria in terms of current publicity and propaganda, media warfare and potential freedom from the constraints of social deprivation. With the Sony power centre behind one of the world’s leading developers and publishing houses, it only seems right that a title of this magnitude, within the situational nature of current war, should do nothing but succeed with our old and new postmodern audience.

The game plays out like a cinematic movie, guiding the player on a set path of important military objectives within a fixed radius of positioning and grouping. The opening level, for one word or another, is absolutely breathtaking, with the on board particle effects of gushing water and pulsating steam vents, rapid gun fire and spraying blood, shards of metal and slippery walkways all glossy in the lighting, swirling and diving into a seductive emblazon of colour and definition; the rich processing punch of the mighty PS3 provides all of the detail and scope that the Call Of Duty series is renowned for; this really is one of the greatest opening sequences in a videogame of all time.

From then on the game never seems to let up, with each stage of a military world war strike on certain global terrorists taking the player on a journey of drama and operational discovery. There is an amazing level of attention to detail in the game, with enemy and ally AI really helping and hindering the player’s performance as you make your way from target A to target B. The missions are always straightforward, but never with the feeling of simplicity or ease, with a mix of style that fascinatingly compliments the way the current player alternates between certain choices and decisions, dictating the order and outcome of play. The engine powers every molecule and byte of the game’s underlying boiler room, and the results are months of painstaking work and development time to make a world look just as crisp, defined, absorbing and destructively beautiful as you could ever have imagined. Bullets can penetrate walls and doors, interior ceilings and floors become target ranges as you scout out the enemy forces with deadly weapons and mind blowing support facilities. With every corner or piece of flying debris and masonry you encounter, the more your sweaty fingers feel like they’re holding onto an AK47 rather than a controller… it’s that absorbing.



There will be many moments that will leave you in awe and disbelief as you stare lovingly at your screen. One such experience is in the eyes and shoes of a flashback scenario in Chernobyl, a deserted ghost town full of vicious military terrorists and corrupted global activists. Your mission is to wipe out and assassinate one of the world’s leading terrorist members while they are arranging a pickup at a ground base meeting within the deserted streets of a radiated and polluted environment. The amount of hostility and opposition is overwhelming, and armed with only a sniper rifle and your commanding partner, you are outnumbered and outgunned. Crawling through a field, covered in camouflage, avoiding the tanks and men nearby, you make your way silently through the field, taking out potential threats and quietly invading the camp of piled up bodies and broken machinery, finally making your way to the designated sniper point for your assassination attempt. By the time you’re in position to take him out, it’s against the clock, and with your shaking palms wandering all over the screen as the controller melts into your skin, you have little or no energy left to complete your objective. It’s only through sheer devotion to the storyline, and its carefully submitted precision, positioning and relevance to the main target, its graphical mind imprisonment and isolated chill factor of being alone, that you complete your intended mission without failure or casualty. It’s only whilst escaping to the pick up zone, carrying your comrade in one arm and holstering your weapon in the other whilst outrunning hundreds of military opponents, with a final sniper showdown at the climax, that you finally realise that this game is something special.



There are three acts to complete in COD 4. With the single-player not taking much longer than ten hours or more, it’s the multiplayer and added reward systems that keep you playing for at least another 30 hours or so. The single-player will drive you to find and collect every hidden laptop scattered throughout the levels, and every last headshot, limb shot, multiplier shot and vehicle bonus will grant you extra skill points which you can then use to upgrade your character online, and your respective weapons for all of those classic multiplayer matches; capture the flag, domination and assault. Connection time and online play is rarely affected by slowdown or a drop in frame rate, and as such, the smooth transition from one moment to the next compliments the quality of the final product.

With so much activity in this package, it’s hard to fault the title at all. However, we have some niggles and various problematic occurrences during the main game, such as the ability to be able to get stuck on certain scenery or drop through floors. Although this only happened once or twice to us, it could detract from the experience, as does the inability to be able to command your AI partners a la Mass Effect. Some may argue against those points, but either way, this is yet another quality title on the PS3, that although not exclusive, is certainly a great game for the graphical on-screen magic, enhanced orchestral score and solid multiplayer activity. Simply superb, a must-have FPS title that ended 2007 with an almighty bang… well done Infinity Ward.