Call Of Duty 4 Review

I love World War II games. I don't care who know it. Yes, I know that there are way too many out there, and people are getting sick of them, but some of my favorite games were based on WWII. Games like Day of Defeat, the Medal Of Honor games for Playstation and Playstation 2. You can't tell me that the opening scene in Frontline wasn't awesome and made you want to cry at the same time.

I didn't play the original Call Of Duty for the PC because I was getting more into console gaming. But when the Xbox 360 came out I got Call Of Duty 2 from my Boss for Christmas after playing it at his house and playing the demo for a couple months leading up to the launch on the kiosks at Best Buy and Wal-Mart.

Playing Call Of Duty 2 must been one of my favorite times playing a game ever (Other than playing Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic) The graphics were astonishing and mind blowing, sitting in the glow of my new 720p/1080i-p 62" DLP. The 5.1 surround sound of rain and thunder and boots tromping around in the mud coming out all speakers. On the edge of my seat with my flask, taking drinks every time my limp body fell to the ground after being shot in the head by a Nazi. One of my most proud achievements is beating Call Of Duty 2 on Veteran...it took me a couple of months. That was the first time that I decided to play every game on the Hardest difficulty setting ...because it gave me a challenge that I didn't have before.

After the tragedy that was Call Of Duty 3 (because another company developed it) I was a little weary. I also heard that they were going to go modern day and not do WWII. This excited everyone but me. I was happy with where the series was, as long as it gave me the same experience that CoD2 did, but with new levels.

Call Of Duty 4 came out and Brady was really looking forward to it. So we hopped on our bikes and headed over to Games-4-U and picked up copies. We both threw in our discs and started to play. We tried to do Co-Op campaign mode, but they didn't make it. But whatever, so we both started at the same time and it was almost like a race, I was about a minuet behind him and he would reach a cut scene and then I would a few seconds later and we would have overlapping audio...That was funny.

The story line was Generic Modern Day terrorist hunt story. Nothing really special. The gameplay was flawless and the controls are tight and responsive. All the guns are modern and up to date. Meaning that there are powerful weapons that can shoot through walls and such, so it gives you a little more to think about when you are hiding behind a stack of logs or a wall.

The single player mission got really hard and almost cheap at a few points, but wasn't terribly controller throwing difficult. But the ending ...after the credits ..where you are on an Airplane and have 60 seconds to complete a final mission. Well... I watched one of my best friends, Brady, throw his life away for 4 days...litterally...non stop 4 day weekend trying to beat that one mission. I opted not to play that level after seeing him beat it and then just go play online.

Online Play....Well, this is right now, no doubt about it. The game to play online. It's beaten out Halo 3, Team Fortress 2, and every other game. The online ranking system is great, and you have to do well and play quite alot to unlock all the guns in multiplayer. Rainbow Six Vegas 2 copied this system and also put it into the single player mode too, which I thought was quite nice.

Now, the only thing bad I have to say about this game, is that I watched my friend Brady waste his life on this game. There is nothing wrong with playing a good game alot. But when you ignore your friends and don't hang out because you want to play this game online everyday for over three months ....something is a miss. It almost got to a WoW (World of Warcraft) point. Thank God he got rid of his xbox 360...yet he did get a PS3 and got the game so that he could play with his brother... Oh well, I have nothing against Brady or the game, I just hope people realize that it is just a game and isn't more important than real life.

Likes:

Call Of Duty Gameplay

Tight and responsive controls

Multiplayer ranking system and unlocking of guns

Dislikes:

Modern day setting (But that is just me, everyone else loves this setting and hates WWII)

Story wasn't as good and didn't really have an emotional tie with the characters or story

Wasn't as challenging as CoD2 (just felt cheap at some points, with respawing enemies)

Online play can suck the life out of your loved ones....keep an eye on them.

Overall: Buy. If not for the great single player mode, which you can't just blow through on Veteran, but the multiplayer is the best out right now, and is fetching around 40 bucks if you trade it in, since it is in such high demand.