My oh my. I’ve been sitting here for two days now thinking of something to write about Call of Duty 4, do I do a review? A good ‘ol moan? Well, I’m going to do a bit of both, so be ready.
The first thing that really jumps out and takes you by the throat is that this is a Call of Duty game. Well no dur, I hear you say, but this is one of the most important aspects! I went into the single player with a certain amount of fear and trepidation that this wasn’t going to ‘feel’ right. I wanted the lovable characters, hordes of enemies and soiled toilets that I’ve came to expect from the CoD series. Guess what? I wasn’t disappointed. From the get go this is CoD at its very finest, your thrust face first into the action, you run to some cover, pop a few shots off and see your men mercilessly gunned down. Bliss.
But. And a big but. This lack of real change, while a blessing in most parts, is the games biggest, and buggiest, flaw. Let me take you back to CoD 2, there was what, 4, maybe 5, enemy models? I could live with that, they all wore uniforms and it would make sense that they would look similar. But rag tag Russians all looking the same? I don’t think so. There are maybe 3 or 4 enemy models for each of the enemy teams and these don’t differ all that much. There’s a guy with his face covered, on both sides, a guy with a beret and sometimes a guy with a helmet, again, on both sides. Though this may sound picky, it really starts to annoy towards the later parts of the game where everyone looks the bloody same!
Anyone remember those checkpoints in CoD2 where you’d die as you got it? Having to start the entire level again, especially on Veteran, was a pain in every gamer’s ass. Well it’s back and I simply cannot understand why. No other game I have ever played has this problem, only CoD. Admittedly it doesn’t happen as often as in previous games, but it happened to me on two separate occasions, once near the start of the game and once right at the end. Both times I had to start the whole level again, both times I punched the wall. I’ll be demanding an explanation from IW and I’ll make sure to let you guys know the root of this evil.
Last and no means least of the flaws is probably the most annoying one. Constantly respawning enemies. If you see a house, run in it. Count the amount of bad guys in there and then load to the previous checkpoint. This time, sit outside and shoot the bastards as they come to windows, how many in the house? In the name of a fair review, I tried this and counted 36 bad guys in a building that only had 6 in. I know this is necessary on the easier difficulties to make the gameplay a bit more substantial, but on Hardcore or Veteran, it’s just plain irritating. Some parts of the game require you to advance on a house from bloody miles away and having a constant stream of enemies running at you makes things no end of hard.
I bet you think I’m going to list all the things that make this great now don’t you? Well I’m not, that’s not how I believe reviews should be done. It’s a trend that made me stop buying gaming magazines, they either completely hate, or love, a game and there seems to be no middle ground. While I may seem a little hypocritical here, I’m not saying I hate the game, I love it, but not to the extent that I let it cloud my vision to the point of being a moron. I will tell you the good points of the game, but not in the intensity and depth of the flaws.
First and foremost, the graphics/looks/whatever you want to call it. In my opinion, without the amazing visuals, this game wouldn’t be half as good as it is. It’s the subtle things that make all the difference, such as dust swirling around as a helicopter lands or vegetation flattening underfoot. While tanks exploding, helicopters crashing and buildings being reduced to rubble are breathtaking, they are expected in a war game and we see them without batting an eyelid. But take a moment and look at the way you, and everything else, interacts with the environment. Bullets rip the place apart, bricks crumble, glass smashes and by the end of the fight, that house you were using for cover has been reduced to a ruin, the entire thing shot to pieces. I want to go deeper into this but sadly; it’s one of those things where you have to see it to believe it.
Now then, let’s get into the gameplay shall we? There’s one word to use here methinks, non-stop (or is that two words?). The start is a little slow, with a dull training mission and a ridiculously easy opening level, but once the first level of Act 1 begins, you’re thrown into the thick of it. Within 5 minutes, you’ll have stealth killed some guys, sniped some guys and got into your first meaty firefight. From then on, there’s barely a second where you’re allowed to breathe. It’s awesome is all I can, and need to say really.
Before I end this review, I’ll take a few lines to explain the multiplayer, which happens to be a very different beast than the single player. First of all, this isn’t for the fain hearted, if you want to be good, the hours are going to slip away. You start with a few basic guns and perks, but by playing more and more and racking up the points, you can unlock a massive variety of guns, each with their own unique strengths and weaknesses and tons of perks, most of which are fairly pointless, but there are a few hidden gems in there. Again though, without actually sitting down and playing it, it’s hard to describe.
And here it is, my first of many reviews here at Frontier Gaming, hoped you enjoyed it.
Inferno here, I’d like to take a minute to talk about TF2 because this is quite simply the best class based shooter I have EVER played. When I first approached TF2 (hurrah for betas!) I looked upon it just like any other class based shooter, in the sense that I’d end up only enjoying 2 or 3 classes whilst the playtime of the others slowly declined before vanishing off the face of the earth entirely.
