Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Review

First of all a revelation for those people who do not know this yet: my dad plays video games. These days this is not an entirely astounding fact, the so-called 'casual' gaming market has added to its ranks many people's parents and various family members who may have previously shunned gaming as a pastime; and whilst my parents do now own a Wii, my dad primarily plays his Xbox 360. He loves his 360 in fact, and, much to my chagrin, got his way before I got mine. Not all games grab my dad's interest, shooters by and large are his thing, and his big love when it comes to those are World War II shooters. Fortunately for my dad there's a lot of the buggers.

As much as I love me a good shooter I've never been a huge fan of the World War II based FPS trend. It's not that it doesn't interest me, but nothing about it leaps out and grabs me, and these days it does feel like something that's was done to death two years ago. Don't get me wrong, I think there's some great WWII FPS games, but a lot of really naff ones too. My dad, however, boy does he love the World War II stuff and of the many he has played the Call of Duty games are probably the ones he's ploughed the most hours into. On a trip back to see my parents last year, around about this sort of time of year actually, my dad was showing of his new game and new favourite, Call of Duty 3. I joined him in playing some online games and I must say I rather liked it. I had no 360 so hadn't gotten into the online console gaming thing yet, but I liked it. The controls felt decent and the online worked pretty well (when you could finally connect to a game).

And so it was that when my parents got me a 360 last Christmas the first game they got me with it was Call of Duty 3, and I had no complaints on that front. This was my first proper introduction to the Call of Duty series. And I'll confess I enjoyed. Some elements of it annoyed me, but for the most part it was a decent enough story and some intense fire-fights. I had fun. I heard a lot of talk that Call of Duty 2 was a better game, and on spotting a bargain price somewhere I decided to give a go. And I liked it too. Some highly frustrating checkpointing and a couple of incredibly bastard hard bits (Hill fucking 400 being a notable example) aside, it was a good FPS. Not astounding, but solid and rewarding.

So with two enjoyable games from the same series, the next in line due to be made by those behind Call of Duty 2 (which I would consider the better of the two), naturally Call of Duty 4 was on my 'keep an eye on' list. Then the teaser trailer for Call of Duty 4 hit and took me a bit by surprise. What's this? Gone is the World War II setting; it was to be set in the current day. I was surprised, after all it's not often a company takes a potential cash cow series and takes a risk with it (hello EA I'm looking at you). This was a promising first step. All the news that followed only served to build my excitement for the title; and when the beta hit I had a feeling something special was on the horizon.

My dad's reaction was that "it looks interesting". Being a fan of the series so far this one was evidently on his radar too, but I couldn't help but note a little bit of a disappointment, or rather a lack of excitement, given that the game had moved away from his favoured conflict as a backdrop (though there's been 476 WWII based games released since then, so I think he's OK).

Fast forward a few months to the present day and I've now had a chance to complete Call of Duty 4's campaign and invest an unhealthy number of hours into the multiplayer aspect. Seeing as I'm a games geek I like to read reviews from various sources, see what people are saying about a game, and one of the few criticism to be levelled at the game was the length of the single player campaign mode. What?

I don't quite understand where this impression came from that a game has to take at least 50 hours or OH MY GOD we're being ripped off, cheated of gameplay, yadda, yadda, blah, blah... oh would you shut the fuck up already. Since the games industry just loves to look up to it's cousin the film industry so often, let's draw a comparison there: I pay the same £7 to go see a 3 hour film at the cinema (that's a movie theatre dear American readers) as I do to see a 90 minute film. And you know what, I have no problem with the duration as long as it's a good film. If it feels like it needed to be longer, then that's a valid complaint. Equally so, if it's been padded out with needless shite, also a valid complaint. At the end of the day, I want a film to entertain me for its duration and if it does that, job done, I am a happy customer.

The same counts for games. I don't expect any sort of certain length, I want a game that is going to continuously entertain me throughout. Much as I'll watch a good film over and over, I will play good games more than once.

So yes, Call of Duty 4 is not the longest game in the world, and if you pick one of the easier difficulty levels you could probably burn through it in a handful of hours. But however long it takes, I pretty much guarantee you'll have a good time. The single player is brilliant. It features a coherent and involving story that is well told and makes excellent use of the fact it's a game to use elements of that to tell it. It even touches on the current political climate and some of today's fears. I felt involved from beginning to end, and quite surprisingly for an FPS got to a point where I rather cared for the characters. I'm not an arsehole so I won't be writing any story spoilers, but it's good. Very good.

There's clearly some bugs in the checkpointing system, and a couple of bits of the game fall the wrong side of the bastard hard fence (two words: Ferris wheel), especially when played through on Veteran mode (when it says: "You will die", they ain't kidding, you will, and lots), but all in all, a thoroughly enjoyable game with some of the best missions I've played in an FPS to date (All Ghillied Up being one particularly worthy of praise).

Once completed you unlock an arcade mode and some cheats, neither of which I've played with yet, but it's always nice for companies to throw stuff in to add to the replayability of a game. To be honest the campaign as it is warrants another play through, and something I've started on already.

And as if the high-quality single player wasn't enough Call of Duty 4 introduces one of the best multiplayer experiences you'll find around. It is truly brilliant and I've had an excellent time playing (which probably explains the large hour count next to my time spent with it) either with a bunch of mates, or with a bunch of randoms. Some excellent game modes that offer a nice range of gametypes, and a number that promote actual team play (Headquarters being a bit of a favourite with the GFF crew). One element that I really like is the unlock and challenge system, whereby you earn XP and progress through ranks, and the way it opens up the incredible wealth of options without swamping you with too many choices.

I'm not going to explain it in full here as to do so would be to add considerable length to this already lengthy piece and I'm sure you'll find countless places that already do a good job of summarising it. But essentially you unlock options over time that allow you to tweak your set up to suit your style of play. And once you hit level 55 you can sacrifice it all for a fancy symbol next to your name (and having done this, I can now say that at no point is someone new at a disadvantage because they don't have any of the unlock elements, in fact I've come to prefer some of the earlier guns).

A quick mention to the maps as well: 16 are provided out of the box and whilst a couple are definitely the weak links of the bunch, none of them are outright objectionable, and some of them are really well thought out and make for excellent games in any of the varying game modes available.

But my opinions aside, to me the real test for this game came from elsewhere: had it won over my dad? The answer is a resounding yes. He's loving the multiplayer, lots, and has even progressed most of the way through the single player campaign (something he doesn't necessarily do, especially if he hits hard bits and gives up). Impressively the game has also managed to win over my sister's Halo-fanatic boyfriend (he has a 7th Column tattoo, that level of Halo loving) who admitted to me the other day that he's preferring the multiplayer in Call of Duty 4 over Halo 3, which is quite something.

At the end of the day first person shooters don't float everyone's boat, so don't expect this to win you over if they're really not your cup of tea. Equally so, if you've not got on with the Call of Duty series, it's worth bearing in mind that despite the change in setting this still feels like a Call of Duty game, albeit with some significant improvements. However, those who do enjoy a good shooter, everything about this game deserves your money. In the midst of a season rife with great games hitting the shelves Call of Duty 4 easily holds its own and even manages to stand above the majority of the crowd. I have to say that I do keep finding myself putting it back in the machine despite having completed it and having a stack of other titles to play.

So Call of Duty 4 is simply a good game; no, scrap that, it's a great game.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Indeed. Checkpoint bugs are a strange thing, and I have no idea what causes them. I hit it at two annoying parts, so I dunno. It makes some of the annoyingly difficult Veteran parts EXTREMELY hard.

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Even if you don't replay a game, I honestly don't see what you have to complain about if the game is really good. I'd much rather have a game that's consistently great and driving forward than one that pads out the fun bits with tedium or horrid back-tracking type nonsense. I also don't want every game to take 20+ hours to complete, I've got other shit to do and other games to play.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Just got to play this game a couple weeks ago and it was amazing. I especially liked the Epilogue, Mile High Club. I tend to enjoy fast paced missions more than the slower, stealthier missions. But I definitely enjoy the tension of the ghillie mission. I played at a friend's house and am wishing I myself had the game.

I would consider this probably the best first person shooter I've played.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?