Call of Duty 4: Reviving the War Shooter

Activision and Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty franchise produced two fantastic World War II shooters for not only the PC, but also for the Playstation 2 and Xbox 360. After the second game, Infinity Ward decided that a change in scenery was needed for the next game. Treyarch handled development of Call of Duty 3, which again took place during World War II. But then all of a sudden, we were treated to this.



A shooter that was going to take place in modern day was going to be coming for our systems. The runup to the game was enormous and soon enough the game was released and the praise was funneled directly to it. To put it straight, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare has to be on the shortlist of greatest shooters of all time.

You start in the game as “Soap” Mactavish of the SAS, as they go to get information on a possible nuclear device that gets lost when the ship is sunk. Then you take control of Marine Paul Jackson, looking to take down the terrorist leader in the Middle East (No not Bin Laden). You go through a rather abbreviated, yet compelling campaign mode where you are trying to prevent Russian Ultranationalists from doing damage to America.

But the meat of CoD4 is in the multiplayer, which while challenging, is MUCH MUCH MUCH fairer than a certain other popular Xbox 360 shooter. There may be some glitches that some folks have exploited, but overall it’s a better experience than Halo or other multiplayer games where if you know one trick you’re good to go.

The first impression you get from Call of Duty 4 is with the graphics, and they look stunning. Everything is rendered beautifully in high definition and the details of so many things, you can’t help but be impressed with graphics, even if they aren’t the first thing you look at. The sound design of the explosions, the bullets whizzing around and the banter only adds to the intensity of the situations that you are in. In addition, the controls are simple to use and aren’t over complicated by anything that goes on.

The bottom line, if you haven’t already played this one, go get it and play it through before getting the sequel, which I will review at another time.