Call of
Duty 4 Review
By Leslie Kivett
Game: Call of Duty 4
Console: Xbox 360
Developer: Infinity Ward/Activision.
Xbox Live: Yes.
ESRB: M for Mature.
Call of Duty 4 tells the story of 2 Soldiers. 1 in the 22nd SAS Regiment (Soap Mctavish) and the other in the USMC First Force Recon operative (SGT Jackson) . As the story goes, a Russian ultranationalist named Imran Zakhaev wants to return his home country to the times of the Soviet Union by leading a group of Rebels against the current Russian Government. Not long after, portions of the Russian army begin to side with the rebels causing the government to be outnumbered and out gunned. Imran, knowing the U.S. would not let an overthrow like this happen ,provides funding for a Coup in the Middle East, which is controlled by an ally named Khaled Al-Asad. In order to draw attention away from Imran's activities in Russia, Al-Asad assassinates the countries president. (the exact country is not specified as to not show any relation with the war in Iraq). Now, as the SAS Regiment soldier, you must investigate and stop the Russians. As the USMC operative, you must find and interrogate Al-Asad. Good luck.
Call of Duty 4 is a traditional First Person Shooter. With an array of Weapons spanning from the M16 to the P90 and the AK-47-U. You will be blown away with amount of weapons in this game along with the variation in rate of fire and steadiness. Also,if you are out of ammo, or just need a quick way to kill, use a knife by licking the right stick in. This proves very useful in close combat situation. Sniping is interesting as well. As normally, the sniper rifle can be used from the hip (useless) or from the scope. However when using the scope, the corsair is shaky. To balance it out, the player must hold down the Left control stick to make the soldier hold his breath. I thought that was rather interesting. Another cool thing is the ability to shoot through some walls like drywall and tin. However, other walls like concrete and brick walls cannot be shot through. This added a sort of realism to the game. Other gameplay features include: Being able to throw grenades cross map, Random head shots when aiming at an enemies torso or legs, Bullets that just don't seem to do any damage what so ever, enemies that don't die, and being shot out of no where. On-line, gameplay seems to get shaky as well. For example, grenade explosions seem to span out more than they appear to. A grenade warning indicator shows when a grenade is nearby so you can either run away, or throw it back. Running away is preferable to throwing it back because the grenades tend to blow up in your hand. Anyway, the grenade seems to kill you even when the indicator is gone. I don't know if that is involved with the recent problems with Xbox Live or just the game. Also, head shots seem to be obtained by being shot in the back and side. Not major problems, but still worthwhile to fix.
Astounding. The graphics are simply astounding. It feels like your in the war yourself. Something I noticed that I thought was a nice touch, was the you can see the reflection of what is behind you in your sniper scope when you have it at your hip. This actually proves useful. I have seen an enemy in my scope and turned around just in time to knife them. Car explosions look like a movie. In fact, the graphics look so good, that when my Grandmother walked in the room I was playing in, she asked me what movie I was watching. That ought to tell you something about the graphics.
Many different on-line modes are active in Call of Duty 4, such as: Team Deathmatch, Free for All, Domination, which starts each team with 3 flags and whichever team captures the most and has them in their possession at the end wins, Ground War, which is big team battle, Sabotage, which makes you take the bomb to the opposing teams base and detonate it., Etc, etc... The game starts you out with 5 default classes: Assault, Special ops, Heavy Gunner, Demolition and Sniper. Once you rank up to Rank 4, you gain the ability to create your own classes. Which allows you to customize weapons as well with scopes, silencers and different camo patterns. Also, you have the ability to assign Perks. Perks are advantages you can give your soldier. Perks include abilities like Faster Running, more breath for snipers to aim with, more ammo, double rate of fire, eavesdropping on the other team, more health and things like that. Each created class gets 3 perks. choose wisely. Perks and weapon choices can go hand in hand to create the perfect soldier or they can totally disagree with each other. If you create a class that works well for you, you should rack up kills. A 3 kill killing streak gives your team A UAV, which is a scan that goes over your radar that lets you see where you enemies are. 5 kills give you the option to call in an airstrike. 3 bomber fly by to drop bombs on the selected area. If you have a UAV active when you call in an airstrike, you will be able to see where all the enemies are to drop bombs on. 7 kills results in a helicopter being called in to kill for you. Finally, ranks are traced by military ranks such as Private, Corporal, Sergeant, Lieutenant, Captain, Major and so on. As you achieve these ranks, you also unlock more weapons and challenges to go along with those weapons. The normal challenges for a weapon include 125 kills with that weapon and 25 head shots with the weapon. Each Challenge awards new attachment for the weapon and XP. XP is what you must get to level up your rank. If all the challenges for a Weapon class (Shotguns, Assault rifles, SMG's, Light Machine guns, sniper rifles) are completed, all the weapons are turned gold. They don't do anymore damage than a normal gun, they just look cool and make people envy you.
In the end, Call of Duty 4 is the ultimate first person shooter experience. Very realistic, awesome graphics, great multiplayer, and a good story. With the exception with a few minor glitches, this game is almost perfect. Infinity ward has a real winner here.
I give Call of Duty 4 a 10 out of 10.
Game: Call of Duty 4
Console: Xbox 360
Developer: Infinity Ward/Activision.
Xbox Live: Yes.
ESRB: M for Mature.
Call of Duty 4 tells the story of 2 Soldiers. 1 in the 22nd SAS Regiment (Soap Mctavish) and the other in the USMC First Force Recon operative (SGT Jackson) . As the story goes, a Russian ultranationalist named Imran Zakhaev wants to return his home country to the times of the Soviet Union by leading a group of Rebels against the current Russian Government. Not long after, portions of the Russian army begin to side with the rebels causing the government to be outnumbered and out gunned. Imran, knowing the U.S. would not let an overthrow like this happen ,provides funding for a Coup in the Middle East, which is controlled by an ally named Khaled Al-Asad. In order to draw attention away from Imran's activities in Russia, Al-Asad assassinates the countries president. (the exact country is not specified as to not show any relation with the war in Iraq). Now, as the SAS Regiment soldier, you must investigate and stop the Russians. As the USMC operative, you must find and interrogate Al-Asad. Good luck.
Call of Duty 4 is a traditional First Person Shooter. With an array of Weapons spanning from the M16 to the P90 and the AK-47-U. You will be blown away with amount of weapons in this game along with the variation in rate of fire and steadiness. Also,if you are out of ammo, or just need a quick way to kill, use a knife by licking the right stick in. This proves very useful in close combat situation. Sniping is interesting as well. As normally, the sniper rifle can be used from the hip (useless) or from the scope. However when using the scope, the corsair is shaky. To balance it out, the player must hold down the Left control stick to make the soldier hold his breath. I thought that was rather interesting. Another cool thing is the ability to shoot through some walls like drywall and tin. However, other walls like concrete and brick walls cannot be shot through. This added a sort of realism to the game. Other gameplay features include: Being able to throw grenades cross map, Random head shots when aiming at an enemies torso or legs, Bullets that just don't seem to do any damage what so ever, enemies that don't die, and being shot out of no where. On-line, gameplay seems to get shaky as well. For example, grenade explosions seem to span out more than they appear to. A grenade warning indicator shows when a grenade is nearby so you can either run away, or throw it back. Running away is preferable to throwing it back because the grenades tend to blow up in your hand. Anyway, the grenade seems to kill you even when the indicator is gone. I don't know if that is involved with the recent problems with Xbox Live or just the game. Also, head shots seem to be obtained by being shot in the back and side. Not major problems, but still worthwhile to fix.
Astounding. The graphics are simply astounding. It feels like your in the war yourself. Something I noticed that I thought was a nice touch, was the you can see the reflection of what is behind you in your sniper scope when you have it at your hip. This actually proves useful. I have seen an enemy in my scope and turned around just in time to knife them. Car explosions look like a movie. In fact, the graphics look so good, that when my Grandmother walked in the room I was playing in, she asked me what movie I was watching. That ought to tell you something about the graphics.
Many different on-line modes are active in Call of Duty 4, such as: Team Deathmatch, Free for All, Domination, which starts each team with 3 flags and whichever team captures the most and has them in their possession at the end wins, Ground War, which is big team battle, Sabotage, which makes you take the bomb to the opposing teams base and detonate it., Etc, etc... The game starts you out with 5 default classes: Assault, Special ops, Heavy Gunner, Demolition and Sniper. Once you rank up to Rank 4, you gain the ability to create your own classes. Which allows you to customize weapons as well with scopes, silencers and different camo patterns. Also, you have the ability to assign Perks. Perks are advantages you can give your soldier. Perks include abilities like Faster Running, more breath for snipers to aim with, more ammo, double rate of fire, eavesdropping on the other team, more health and things like that. Each created class gets 3 perks. choose wisely. Perks and weapon choices can go hand in hand to create the perfect soldier or they can totally disagree with each other. If you create a class that works well for you, you should rack up kills. A 3 kill killing streak gives your team A UAV, which is a scan that goes over your radar that lets you see where you enemies are. 5 kills give you the option to call in an airstrike. 3 bomber fly by to drop bombs on the selected area. If you have a UAV active when you call in an airstrike, you will be able to see where all the enemies are to drop bombs on. 7 kills results in a helicopter being called in to kill for you. Finally, ranks are traced by military ranks such as Private, Corporal, Sergeant, Lieutenant, Captain, Major and so on. As you achieve these ranks, you also unlock more weapons and challenges to go along with those weapons. The normal challenges for a weapon include 125 kills with that weapon and 25 head shots with the weapon. Each Challenge awards new attachment for the weapon and XP. XP is what you must get to level up your rank. If all the challenges for a Weapon class (Shotguns, Assault rifles, SMG's, Light Machine guns, sniper rifles) are completed, all the weapons are turned gold. They don't do anymore damage than a normal gun, they just look cool and make people envy you.
In the end, Call of Duty 4 is the ultimate first person shooter experience. Very realistic, awesome graphics, great multiplayer, and a good story. With the exception with a few minor glitches, this game is almost perfect. Infinity ward has a real winner here.
I give Call of Duty 4 a 10 out of 10.
