Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PS3) > Reviews > PS3 Game, Call of Duty 4

Author's product rating:   

Playability & Enjoyment	Excellent - very playable game
Originality	Good
Graphics	Excellent
Sound	Good - relevant music & effects
Difficulty & Complexity	Quite a simple game not too complicated

Advantages:	exciting new  levels
Disadvantages:	None

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

Call of Duty 4 is enough to make a jaded gamers jaw drop. You might think you've seen it all, but then Infinity Ward's latest war pageant rolls out some new trick, and it's like discovering the joy of gaming all over again. With a single player experience this spectacular, and with this much multiplayer content, here's a shooter you won't want to miss.

The gunplay is as good as it's ever been, with a new emphasis on being able to shoot through walls (this takes some getting used to in multiplayer!). The friendly and enemy AI are lively and exciting, with plenty of killing and dying all around you, accompanied by frantic chatter and Hollywood-ized war sounds. And, of course, the graphics are amazing. Infinity Ward knows not just how to build levels, but how to paint them with color, light, and character. The developer's talented artists seem to relish the opportunity to finally break out of the theatres of World War II and into the wide modern world.

As a story, Call of Duty 4 is a solid Clancy-esque politico-thriller, grim and uncomfortably topical. Their previous historical games always felt like a contrived tour of the Greatest Hits of World War II, but these set pieces tie into a central narrative, complete with a cast of characters. It's told mostly from the perspectives of an American and a British soldier whose storylines eventually converge. There's even a nicely developed back story and an astonishing third act twist.

Furthermore, Infinity Ward takes some tired conventions and makes them exciting again. The tutorial, the "tram ride", the turret mission, and the stealth mission are all present, and they're each done in a way that not only avoids cliche, but that also makes them stand out. The tutorial is a quick training session for a mission and then the mission itself, which plays out with you tagging along for a boat ride like you've never seen in a videogame. Longtime gamers might remember the crashing ship from Jedi Knight. Here's the next-gen version.

The "tram ride" concept started with Half-Life. The idea is that you ride through a series of staged scenes, not unlike a Disney ride, that collectively establish the setting. In Call of Duty 4, it's not quite what you'd expect. This isn't the last time Call of Duty 4 will having you asking, 'Wait a minute, can they do that?'

The turret mission is, unexpectedly, one of the highlights of Call of Duty 4. You're shooting from within the safety of an AC-130 gunship, listening to radio chatter about a situation unfolding on the ground below. It's a sobering commentary on modern warfare: remote, brutal, and efficient. And although the sound and visuals might be described as modest - here are no garish colors or fancy 5.1 subwoofer busting blasts! - this is one of the most vivid interactive presentations of the face of war in the era of CNN and the Internet.

Finally, the stealth mission is a wonderful surprise and a great narrative device. Unlike most stealth missions, it's not even that aggravating. The annoying bits of Call of Duty 4 don't come until the very end, at which point you're relentlessly funneled through the crossfire of a hundred hallways stocked with a thousand bad guys. But at least it all wraps up with a bang to reward you for slogging through that final level. And who knows what the heck is supposed to be going on in that epilogue?

The multiplayer is easily strong enough to be a standalone game. It's every bit as good as recent multiplayer gems like Quake Wars, Team Fortress 2, and Halo 3. With the arrival of Call of Duty 4, this will be a difficult season for the wallets of gamers who like to go online. At its core, the gameplay is identical to the slick Call of Duty 2. But the real hook is an experience point system that lets you unlock new weapons and special abilities called "perks". You then mix and match these to create your own classes. Perks range from the usual (extra health, extra damage, longer sprinting) to some really inventive tricks like getting in a last shot when you've been killed or being invisible to enemy radar scans. An "Old School" mode litters the map with weapons and perks for the taking, which makes for some great Quake style deathmatches. Watch out, Unreal Tournament 3! Call of Duty 4 isn't afraid of all-out action.

During the course of a match, getting a string of kills will unlock radar scans (presented as unmanned aerial vehicles), air strikes, and a ruthless helicopter that circles the battlefield and guns down enemy players. The maps are tightly constructed and finely detailed, with a wider range of sizes than the previous games. There's even an included mod that will let you tweak settings and set up variations on the basic gameplay.
Call of Duty 4 has a lot of new features like by raising the single-player bar and also including a full-featured multilayer game with its addictive leveling system, Call of Duty 4 isn't just a rehash with a number after the title; it's one of this busy holiday season's must-have titles. Plus since its designed to be played on the PS3, I'm sure the graphics wont let you down.