|
|
Review Ratings
|
A Review By:
Steve Peto
Date:
4/21/2008
|
|
Gameplay:
|
|
|
Graphics:
|
|
|
Sound:
|
|
|
Value:
|
|
|
Overall:
|
|
Call of Duty 4 – PC
In 2003, although it feels longer than that, Call of Duty (hereby known as COD) flew onto, and then swiftly flew off of the shelves. Five years and three incantations later (including some expansion packs) we were presented with Call of Duty 4 – Modern Warfare. The thing to note about this was the Modern Warfare portion of the title as up to this time all off the games focused on World War 2 which has been pretty much done to death and so it was with anticipation and baited breath that we awaited what was on offer as the guys behind the series pulled their arses collectively into the 21st century.
The game is played from several allied viewpoints and you will be taking to the field as both a member of the Special Air Service (SAS) and a US Marine; the campaign itself taking you from a sinking freighter in a storm, or donning a snipers ghillie suit to take out a target through to a nuclear missile command centre.
Visually the game is stunning; the details within every aspect of the game are superb with everything from clothing to tiles on the walls looking realistic, this is true of both single and multiplayer options. My PC is getting on a little now and I was worried that it would look pretty poor on my system (see spec at the bottom), I have to say that it is able to run very well without making my system crawl to a halt which was pleasing.
However I do have a gripe. The single player game was disturbingly short. I would say it is about half as long as most games of this genre should be. it isn’t as if the levels themselves are longer than usual to make up for it and after spending out the money on the game it is disappointing that they didn’t push out a few more levels for us to get our teeth into, although I suspect that they will be bringing out expansion packs to give us COD addicts another fix, but really that is no excuse to sell us short on the levels we are given.
Control wise, everything is fairly straightforward, we have the standard W, S, A, D for forward, back, left and right. Q and E allow you to lean left and right around corners. You can only carry two weapons and a time and you can press 1 or 2 to change those weapons. V is a melee attack which you will mainly use to fight off dogs and there are various other number buttons used to choose different things, such as claymores, grenade launder (secondary weapon to a assault weapon) and my personal favourite calling in an air strike. The F key being an action key to undo ropes, grab detonators, that sort of thing. I found the standard keys easy to use without being fiddly although you can change that key setup if you choose.
Something that I did like is that there are no health packs dotted around, the middle of the screen starts to go red and the pictures jolts around as you get shot which is very disorientating, so you need to haul arse away from the enemy in order to recover, obviously if you stay under sustained fire then you will die. We still have the grenade indicator from the earlier CODs, you can pick these up and throw them back if you are quick enough or get blown into dog chow if you are not and valuable milliseconds can be wasted deciding whether to grab it and throw it back on run away out of the blast range.
There is also no quick save or quick load with this game, it will save itself at regular points but you cannot save the game yourself. I like this as it means you cannot save after every 2 seconds of game play and progress through the levels that way; you instead have to go back to the previous save point and start from there.
Finding your way around and doing your objectives are easy enough, there is a compass at the bottom of the screen with a yellow indictor that tells you which way to go, you can get to that objective in maybe a couple of ways and whilst the game is not massively linear I wouldn’t say it is that open to allow too much deviation from the route that is intended. On top of the indicator you have the rest of your team around you; they can sometimes prompt you to do something in order to progress in the game. The voice acting for your colleagues is superb and really adds to the overall atmosphere of the game.
Multi Player
This is where COD4 comes into its own really, and the longevity of the game has been massively increased. You can play a variety of online maps each of which have been stunningly created, some you will like better than others for sure but each brings its own challenges to overcome.
You can play various modes of game including TDM (Team Deathmatch), Free for All, Sabotage, Domination, Headquarters and Search & Destroy You get a little map (in non hardcore mode) down in the bottom left which shows you were your team mates are and red dots appear on the map when an enemy fires his weapon* or the UAV is launched**.
You have a preset number of weapon load outs and five spaces in order to create your own weapon load outs (you get these after increasing rank and points). As you play more games and get more points you will unlock other features which are called perks, they may be a skill such as dead silence or a weapon addition like a silencer or a under slung grenade launcher. Although at certain points you actually unlock different guns too as you increase in points and therefore rank; the highest rank on the PC is level 55 after which you will have all the guns and possible add-ons with which to tweak your custom load outs. *There is a particular weapon/perks loadout that enables you to stay invisible when a UAV is launched and that is basically having a silencer on all your weapons and the UAV Jammer perk (and maybe dead silence to keep you quiet) [some of these perks will not be available when you first play online].
On top of this you can complete various challenges, there is a long list of these which include things like “kill 2 enemy with one claymore” or “150 kills with X weapon” and 150 head shots with X weapon” these challenges award you with points once achieved, although bear in mind that some challenges are mutli levelled. For example you may be asked to get 25 headshots with the M16, once you do that you achieve level 1, then it will asked for 75 headshots with the same weapon, that would achieve level 2 etc. Some of these challenges are really difficult, others you will achieve just by playing the game regularly online.
Something else that has been added is the UAV (to pin point where people are), airstrikes and Helicopter. After playing online for a while and increasing your skill you (well at least I) found these frustrating as you only need to get a small kill streak in order to get an airstrike, if you are on a map with a good number of people (ive seen maps with 50+ people) then you will find airstrike after aistrike or chopper after chopper coming into play, and the choppers especially seem to be annoyingly accurate.
Lastly you will find some servers that are “hardcore” servers. These make the guns more deadly and dispense with some HUD options such as the map (unless a UAV has been called in) I actually find these better than the non-hardcore maps but I guess that is down to personal preference.
Overall:
I do recommend this game even with the criminally short single player campaign. The Multi Player action with its perks, points and prizes steals the day and that coupled with the stunning visuals will ensure fantastic longevity.
----
Spec:
2 GB Corsair RAM
512Mb ATI X1950 Pro AGP Graphics Card
3.2 Ghz P4 Processor
Dell UltraSharp 2007FP 20.1-inch Black Flat Panel LCD Monitor
Logitech Speakers
This page has been read:
99
times
<< Back to Games Home