Introduction
Seeing as I complain about how other's reviews are, I decided to take on the game I just finished, Call of Duty 4.
Background
In CoD4, you play 4 people, who all go through romps in Russia and the Middle East, killing people. You also play a guy who gets killed in the opening. You guys know how this works.
Story
The story was much better than I was expecting from Call of Duty, seeing as the previous two had none. It starts off with you trying to assassinate a high-ranking Middle-eastern official, but the game quickly turns to you trying to prevent a global nuclear war. There are several good twists that will drop your jaw.
Graphics
The graphics are very nice. The high-poly models, the high-res textures, and the lighting make a nice looking game. Not only does it look good, it is appealing. The only graphics gripe is the HDR, which is good, just not as good as Valve's.
Sound
Duh. It's Infinity Ward. These guys are the ones who fired real WWII era weapons for their first two games. The sound is still solid as ever, with the weapons all giving a satisfying BOOM or POW-POW-POW when fired.
Gameplay
Ah, the meat of any game. If you've played the first two (I haven't played 3, so I don't know what that's like) CoD games, you know what to expect. If you've just woken up from a coma that you had in 2002, I'll give you some general information. Call of Duty revolves around fast-paced action. It blends tactical gameplay elements, such as iron sights, with arcade game elements, like regenerating health in 2 and 4. This one played out fairly the same. There were some VERY epic battles, like the final level, but some of the more epic parts were also very frustrating. This is definitely the hardest of the three CoD games I've played. The bad guys will massively swarm you, and just keeping coming. The AI is good. It reminded me of FEAR, although these guys were a little more likely to charge you. Infinity Ward decided to try something new, by adding alternate routes to the same location. In theory, this sounds nice. I, personally, found it aggravating for enemies to come out of this side alley I didn't notice was there. The bad guys keep popping out at you from areas you didn't see. It seems that they keep spawning until you move forward. Also, your guns can now shoot through walls. That sounds nice, but that leaves you very little cover in some areas. You can hide behind a car, but before you know it, the car will blow up in your face, sending you 5 minutes back into the past.
The one thing I hated most about CoD4 was the checkpoint system. You'd get through some big battle, and just as you turn the corner, WHACK. Some guy hits you, and you're dead. Guess what? More often then not, you'd be sent back to before the battle. I hated this kind of thing. Then there's the fact that simply moving to a certain area means the difference between a save and none. I seriously hated that checkpoint system.
Level Design/Variety
Overall, this game has little variety; you shoot stuff. But, the shooting is very fun. Sometimes, there will be different things you have to do, such as carrying people, or... well, that's it. But there is also variety in the shooting. In one mission, you control the minigun, 40mm cannon, and 105mm mortar on an AC-130 gunship. In one of the missions, you control the minigun for a short, and I mean short time, to defend your landing zone. In some missions, you can call in helicopter support or airstrikes to help you out. Overall, there is enough variety to keep the game fresh until you complete it.
The level design was good. It was fairly linear, with different routes to get to the same location, but it kept you going into the action. The areas all look very nice and authentic. The TV station mission is especially good, with little touches to make it feel like you are taking down a real propaganda horse.
Atmosphere
The game's atmosphere makes you believe you really are the main players. The one thing that got me about the atmosphere was how anti-war the game is. In CoD 1 & 2, whenever you die, you are greeted with a quote about war. Some are pro-war, some are anti-war. In Call of Duty 4, all the quotes are pretty much anti-war. They go beyond quotes. They tell you what it costs to make a B-2 bomber, a Javelin rocket, and an F-15. And WHO THE HECK IS ROBERT MCNAMARA? I swear, they got half of their actual quotes from that guy. I wish they had a little more variety, and the anti-war messages were odd for a war game.
Overall
Overall, the single player was very fun, but had several nasty hiccups. It got to be incredibly frustrating during parts where you were completely surrounded. It wasn't long either. I finished it in five and a half hours. If you buy it, you had better get it for the multiplayer, too. There is some replay value to be had, but not enough to justify $45 for singleplayer only. If you want it for single player only, I'd go with "Rent it."
Seeing as I complain about how other's reviews are, I decided to take on the game I just finished, Call of Duty 4.
Background
In CoD4, you play 4 people, who all go through romps in Russia and the Middle East, killing people. You also play a guy who gets killed in the opening. You guys know how this works.
Story
The story was much better than I was expecting from Call of Duty, seeing as the previous two had none. It starts off with you trying to assassinate a high-ranking Middle-eastern official, but the game quickly turns to you trying to prevent a global nuclear war. There are several good twists that will drop your jaw.
Graphics
The graphics are very nice. The high-poly models, the high-res textures, and the lighting make a nice looking game. Not only does it look good, it is appealing. The only graphics gripe is the HDR, which is good, just not as good as Valve's.
Sound
Duh. It's Infinity Ward. These guys are the ones who fired real WWII era weapons for their first two games. The sound is still solid as ever, with the weapons all giving a satisfying BOOM or POW-POW-POW when fired.
Gameplay
Ah, the meat of any game. If you've played the first two (I haven't played 3, so I don't know what that's like) CoD games, you know what to expect. If you've just woken up from a coma that you had in 2002, I'll give you some general information. Call of Duty revolves around fast-paced action. It blends tactical gameplay elements, such as iron sights, with arcade game elements, like regenerating health in 2 and 4. This one played out fairly the same. There were some VERY epic battles, like the final level, but some of the more epic parts were also very frustrating. This is definitely the hardest of the three CoD games I've played. The bad guys will massively swarm you, and just keeping coming. The AI is good. It reminded me of FEAR, although these guys were a little more likely to charge you. Infinity Ward decided to try something new, by adding alternate routes to the same location. In theory, this sounds nice. I, personally, found it aggravating for enemies to come out of this side alley I didn't notice was there. The bad guys keep popping out at you from areas you didn't see. It seems that they keep spawning until you move forward. Also, your guns can now shoot through walls. That sounds nice, but that leaves you very little cover in some areas. You can hide behind a car, but before you know it, the car will blow up in your face, sending you 5 minutes back into the past.
The one thing I hated most about CoD4 was the checkpoint system. You'd get through some big battle, and just as you turn the corner, WHACK. Some guy hits you, and you're dead. Guess what? More often then not, you'd be sent back to before the battle. I hated this kind of thing. Then there's the fact that simply moving to a certain area means the difference between a save and none. I seriously hated that checkpoint system.
Level Design/Variety
Overall, this game has little variety; you shoot stuff. But, the shooting is very fun. Sometimes, there will be different things you have to do, such as carrying people, or... well, that's it. But there is also variety in the shooting. In one mission, you control the minigun, 40mm cannon, and 105mm mortar on an AC-130 gunship. In one of the missions, you control the minigun for a short, and I mean short time, to defend your landing zone. In some missions, you can call in helicopter support or airstrikes to help you out. Overall, there is enough variety to keep the game fresh until you complete it.
The level design was good. It was fairly linear, with different routes to get to the same location, but it kept you going into the action. The areas all look very nice and authentic. The TV station mission is especially good, with little touches to make it feel like you are taking down a real propaganda horse.
Atmosphere
The game's atmosphere makes you believe you really are the main players. The one thing that got me about the atmosphere was how anti-war the game is. In CoD 1 & 2, whenever you die, you are greeted with a quote about war. Some are pro-war, some are anti-war. In Call of Duty 4, all the quotes are pretty much anti-war. They go beyond quotes. They tell you what it costs to make a B-2 bomber, a Javelin rocket, and an F-15. And WHO THE HECK IS ROBERT MCNAMARA? I swear, they got half of their actual quotes from that guy. I wish they had a little more variety, and the anti-war messages were odd for a war game.
Overall
Overall, the single player was very fun, but had several nasty hiccups. It got to be incredibly frustrating during parts where you were completely surrounded. It wasn't long either. I finished it in five and a half hours. If you buy it, you had better get it for the multiplayer, too. There is some replay value to be had, but not enough to justify $45 for singleplayer only. If you want it for single player only, I'd go with "Rent it."
