Breaching a house with the assistance of night vision goggles in campaign
After spending the last 7-8 days playing through Call of Duty 4′s single player campaign, I’ve completed all 1000 Achievement points to the game and am considering moving on. But the multiplayer itself is so addicting and fun that I may just keep playing! Why is the Call of Duty 4 multiplayer so fun? Read on to find out!
Intro
For those new to the Call of Duty series, here is some back story. Call of Duty 4 was developed by Infinity Ward, the team responsible for Call of Duty 1 and Call of Duty 2. Infinity Ward was originally part of the 2015 development team that created the first Medal of Honor game for the PC. But due to differences in maybe the direction that the publisher, EA, wanted to push the Medal of Honor series, Infinity Ward was formed. Call of Duty 1 came out for PC and was very successful, as it was quite well done (even mentioned in an episode of The Office). Because the first one was so well done, Microsoft went into a deal with Infinity Ward to make Call of Duty 2 the main 360 launch title.
With the 360 market as their primary target audience, Infinity Ward made gameplay changes from Call of Duty 1 to 2 that were more suited for the console audience such as the replacement of health kits with regenerating health. The game was a huge success on the 360, as it got many strong reviews and was the first 360 game to hit 1 million sold. It was also the top selling 360 game for the 360 until Gears of War was released one year later.
Activision, the publisher for Call of Duty, had a different company (Treyarch) develop Call of Duty 3 for consoles only shortly before Call of Duty 2 was even released. Because of that, Call of Duty 3 was released one year after Call of Duty 2 was released. Many people enjoyed the scope of the expanded multiplayer capabilities of Call of Duty 3, but they felt that the campaign lacked the charm and polish of Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty 2 campaign.
With Infinity Ward announcing that they would be behind Call of Duty 4 and that it would be set in the present time, many fans, including myself, were salivating at the mouth. We knew how good Call of Duty 2 was and wanted to see how the game would feel given a modern warfare update. Fans were not disappointed.
One of the main villains in the game
Storyline and Premise of the Game
The subtitle of the 4th Call of Duty game, Modern Warfare, provides the storyline and premise of this game. Unlike the three previous Call of Duty games which took place during World War II, Call of Duty 4 takes place during the present, allowing for more advanced weapons and gadgets. In the game’s campaign you primarily play the role of two different characters, an SAS Sergeant nicknamed “Soap” MacTavish, and a US Marine Corps Sergeant named Paul Jackson who are deployed in two separate parts of the world to thwart a Russian ultra nationalist who is rising to power and trying to acquire nukes. It’s all typical “first person shooter” storyline fare where the storyline sort of takes a back seat to the action but you don’t really care because this is an action game, not a drama.
The single player campaign consists of about 20 different missions in a variety of different locales. Infinity Ward did a good job of not making the game feel monotonous. This may be due to the fact that the game on Normal difficulty can be beaten in about 5 hours, and that is the biggest criticism of the single player campaign. But try playing the game on the hardest difficulty, and you’ll easily be playing the campaign for over twice that amount of time (due to both moving slower and more frequent reloads) as it gets insanely more difficult. I played and beat the game my first time through on the hardest difficulty and didn’t feel the length was as short as people complained about.
For those new to the Call of Duty series, the game differs from other first person shooters in that the campaign in Call of Duty has always been an “on rails” scripted shooter. This means that you’re basically on a ride – there’s generally one path that you need to move towards beating each level and when you get to a certain spot, it triggers for an event to happen or for enemies to spawn.
There are positives and negatives to a scripted shooter – the main negative of the game (which really becomes apparent at higher difficulty sections) is that the AI infinitely respawns and that your squad mates can take damage but won’t die unless they are scripted to. For gamers more experienced with other FPS games, they may be surprised to find themselves in a building to building firefight indefinitely because the enemies that are killed will respawn unless the player actually moves forward into the enemy spawn point to stop the spawning. It’s not as intuitive as taking cover, killing each enemy you see, and coming out when the coast is clear. In Call of Duty 4, the coast is rarely ever clear except for small gaps between respawn times.
The strongest positive I can think about for this scripted shooter is that the game play and storyline can be presented in a lot more impressive way since events and enemies only appear when scripted to instead of having enemies populated everywhere across a map. The sniper level is probably the best level in the game and only due to the fact that it is scripted. I don’t want to give away any more of the level, but for all the annoyances that people may find with scripted enemy respawns, the scripted sniper level counters that.
Ever played a sniper part in a game where you had take into account wind resistance? Here’s your chance.
Having played through both Call of Duty 2 and 3 on the hardest difficulty, I’ve come to understand the nuances of a scripted shooter as opposed to a non-scripted one and adjusted my style of play differently. I’ve learned that flash grenades sometimes are more effective than frag grenades because in a scripted shooter, most of the time it is more important that you gain ground and prevent enemies from respawning. And of course, if possible, I’ll let my AI teammates do the shooting while I lay low since they won’t die when they get hit – they’ll only be stunned.
Pretty sneaky guys, but I’m onto you
Game Mechanics
Practically everyone has played first person shooters before, so the easiest way for me to describe the mechanics of the game will most likely be to compare it to other FPS games. To me it feels like a mix of Call of Duty 2, Counterstrike, Battlefield 2, and Rainbow Six: Vegas. The game essentially feels just like Call of Duty 2 with a modern combat skin change along with the weapons found in Counterstrike, Battlefield 2, and Rainbow Six: Vegas. However, the game play has more of an arcade-like movement and feel, more along the lines of Counterstrike than the slower tactical nature of Battlefield 2 and Rainbow Six: Vegas. In Call of Duty 4, you do not have any control over your scripted teammates; they do their own thing and often times will not take any type of initiative unless you progress forward.
With the jump to present day technology, a wealth of “toys” are available at your disposable throughout the campaign and are assigned to the d-pad. On some missions you will have access to the night vision goggles, C4, Claymores, air strikes, helicopter support, anti-tank missiles, etc. Unlike in Rainbow Six: Vegas where you can pick your loadout of weapons and gadgets at the beginning of each level, your starting weapons and “gadgets” for each level are already predetermined. The only way to use different weapons than what you start with on a level is to find them off downed enemies or in enemy weapon stockpiles.
Call of Duty 2 was the first game I remember with the “Aiming down the sight” feature, an auto aim assist function in the campaign that is practically necessary to beat the game on the hardest difficulty. With any non-sniper rifle weapon you use, if you hold down the Left Trigger, you will look down the sight of your weapon. Not only will looking down the sight of your weapon provide you with a more accurate shot, it will also auto-lock your gun onto the nearest enemy target’s head as well. When faced with a situation where you’re going up against five different enemies shooting at you from cover positions, aiming down the sight makes it possible to drop all five enemies without having to spend too much time aiming for each one. Just quickly tapping the Left Trigger to lock onto one, kill it, and hit the Left Trigger again to lock onto the next nearest target.
Call of Duty 4 uses a checkpoint save system along with “duck and cover” health regeneration. I remember when I played Call of Duty 2 originally on the PC, the idea of not looking for medkits to gain more health seemed quite strange to me. But nowadays I find it more convenient to not have to worry about finding health packs – and given the large number of 360 FPS games that use this now, it seems the trend is here to stay.
In Multiplayer when you are killed, you can view the killcam to see how you were killed
Multiplayer
For anyone complaining about the short length or inadequacies of the single player game on any forum I’ve visited, they’ve always been met with “Play the multiplayer – that’s the real meat of the game.” I can’t help but agree here. While the Call of Duty 4 campaign may be considered “satisfactory” by some critics at best, I don’t see how anyone couldn’t enjoy the multiplayer in Call of Duty 4.
Prior to Halo 3, I never really cared much for online multiplayer for FPS games as I found them to be pointless. But with Halo 3′s intense stat tracking and easy to use matchmaking, I was hooked. Call of Duty 4 also features an easy to use matchmaking system, but instead of Halo 3′s intense stat tracking, Call of Duty 4 innovates in a different, yet extremely addictive element: an RPG-like level up system which allows for not only weapon and skill customization, but an Achievement-like “collection mentality” as well for not just 360 CoD4 players, but PS3 and PC CoD4 players as well.
In Call of Duty 4 multiplayer, every player starts at Level 1. At Level 1, only a limited number of weapons, Perks, and Challenges are available to the player. Each kill and assist in a game gives you a certain number of experience points, winning a match gives you a bonus number of experience points, and completing Challenges award experience points. A certain number of experience points will allow you to rank up to the next level, maxing out at level 55. For each level you gain you either gain access to more weapons, more perks, or more Challenges to complete.
Challenges in the multiplayer game are Call of Duty 4′s own “multiplayer achievements” with tangible rewards. For example, one challenge may be to get five kills while in Prone position. Completing this Challenge will give extra experience points. People have learned that mastering each weapon Challenge is the key to ranking up quickly. Not only does mastering weapon challenges give significant experience rewards, but these challenges also award more accessories for the weapon itself. For example, if you were to kill 25 players with the AK47, you’d complete the first AK Proficiency Challenge, allowing you to equip a Red Dot Sight on your AK47, along with 100 experience points. If you kill 50 more for a total of 75 kills with the AK47, you’d complete the second AK Proficiency Challenge, giving you access to the silencer for the AK47 as well as a few hundred experience points.
Call of Duty 4 allows you to create your loadout based on how you play best
Perks are the main customization function of your multiplayer character. You have a total of three different perk slots, and as you level up you are given access to more Perks. Only Perks from slot 1 can occupy slot 1, and so on for slots 2 and 3. Here are all the perks available:
Perk 1
RPG-7 x 2 – Rocket Launcher w/2 Rockets
C4 x 2 – Remote Detonation Explosive
Special Grenades x3 – 3 Special Grenades
Claymores x 2 – Trip mines
Frag x 3 – 3 Frag nades
Bomb Squad – Can see enemy Claymores and C4
Bandolier – Extra ammunition
Perk 2
Stopping Power – Increased bullet damage
UAV Jammer – Do not show up on UAV
Sleight of Hand – Faster reload
Double Tap – Quicker rate of fire
Dual Wield – Ability to bring 2 primary weapons, no pistol. Must be used separately, not in tandem.
Juggernaut – Increased health
Sonic Boom – Bigger explosive damage.
Perk 3
Steady Aim – Increased hip fire accuracy
Last Stand – Allows a few shots with a pistol after being initially killed
Martyrdom – Drops a grenade when killed
Deep Impact – Allows for deeper bullet penetration
Iron Lungs – Hold breath longer
Extreme Conditioning – Sprint longer
Dead Silence – Make less sound when you move
Eavesdrop – Hear the other team
For my “primary loadout” with the Carbine I go with Claymores in the first Perk slot, the UAV jammer on my second Perk slot, and Deep Impact for my third Perk slot. Claymores allow me to set up defense behind me should I decide to camp somewhere while the UAV jammer makes me invisible to the scanner (more on that later) and Deep Impact gives me an easier time of shooting through walls to kill people. It is a more conservative style play but also produces the best results for me.
If I feel like going terrorist style I’ll go with my “alternate load out”: AK47 and the following Perks: the RPG-7 x 2, Stopping Power, and Martyrdom. This second loadout favors a more “crazy style” play since the AK47 does more damage but has less accuracy than the Carbine and forces me to attack enemies at a closer range. Being at a closer range, I want the Stopping Power Perk for more damage and Martyrdom means I drop a grenade every time I die. If people kill me and don’t move away from my corpse, they will get killed too.
With the Last Stand perk, if you kill someone when you’re already mortally wounded, it’s 20 points!
As you can see from the Perks, every player has their own setup and that’s what makes it so fun. I’ve heard that some people use the “Sonic Boom” perk (bigger explosive damage) and Martyrdom (drops a grenade when killed) for super terrorist-style play. What they do is cook a grenade in their hand (pull the pin out of the grenade but hold it in their hand so it will still explode), run into a group of enemies and get killed, dropping a second grenade with extreme explosive power for massive killing.
Besides the addictive experience leveling system in multiplayer, the multiplayer game mechanics are also very polished. Matches are played to 750 points with each kill giving a team 10 points. In Team Deathmatch, there is no respawn timer – if you die you can get right back into the action for the twitch gamers. I must admit that sometimes to a fault I’ve used the no respawn timer feature to my embarrassment – respawning quickly only to die again and again.
Get five kills without dying and call in the air strike
On the opposite end of the spectrum, killing and not dying also awards the player’s team several impressive benefits. Getting 3 kills in a row without dying allows a player to call in a 30 second UAV radar, which points out all the location of all enemies throughout the map (unless they are using the UAV jammer). Getting five kills in a row (cumulative with the 3 kill UAV radar award) allows the player to call in an air strike on any location of the map, killing enemies that are out in the open. Often times someone with an air strike will ask if any teammates can turn on their UAV, as the UAV can help guide the air strike to best potential location. Seven kills in a row allows the player to call in a helicopter, flying around the map picking off whoever it see with a massive chain gun. The helicopter is quite difficult to take out, and often distracts the opposing team from the other players on the ground.
A friendly helicopter in multiplayer will appear green on your radar
Here are the following multiplayer modes available in the game, and there is match-making for each game type:
1. Free-for-All – Every man for himself.
2. Team Deathmatch – Use teamwork to kill opposing players and reach score limit.
3. Team Objective – Domination and Search & Destroy. Capture flags in Domination, with respawning. Destroy and defend objectives in Search & Destroy, no respawning.
4. Team Tactical – Small team Deathmatch and Search & Destroy.
5. Search and Destroy – Much like Counter-Strike’s bomb planting mode, there are two teams: attackers and defenders. Attackers try to plant a bomb at one of two bomb sites, and defenders try to defend the bomb sites. If explosives are planted, defenders must defuse them. Players only have one respawn per round. A round is over when all players on one team are killed, or when the bomb explodes or is defused.
6. Headquarters – A laptop spawns somewhere on the map. Your goal is to capture the laptop for your team. If Team A captures the radio, they must defend it from being destroyed by Team B. Team A only has one respawn until the laptop is destroyed or the max time limit for the laptop is reached. Team B respawns at set intervals. Team A earns points for every second the laptop is held. To capture/destroy a laptop, you must stand in the area of the laptop. The more players, the faster you destroy it. A new laptop spawns when time limit is reached or the laptop is destroyed.
7. Domination – There are flags at certain points around the map. All flags start neutral. Teams battle to hold the most flags. Game ends when the time limit is reached, or the score limit is reached.
8. Sabotage – Similar to Search and Destroy, only the bomb is neutral and there are objectives located in both teams’ bases. Each team’s goal is to take the bomb and blow up the objective in the enemy’s base. The bomb carrier can fire his weapons, but his position will be announced periodically throughout the game. Also, unlike Search and Destroy, players have unlimited respawns as opposed to just one per round, although it is not instantaneous like Team Deathmatch or Free-for-All.
9. Team Hardcore – Hardcore Team Deathmatch and Search and Destroy. Limited HUD, extra bullet damage, friendly fire on.
10. Old School – Old School TDM and FFA. No classes. Weapons are pickups, health is increased, and jumps are higher.
11. Oldcore – Old School pick-ups and jumping. Hardcore limited HUD and extra bullet damage. TDM.
12. Ground War – Big team games-TDM and Domination
What’s also cool about the multiplayer matches are that teams stay balanced from one round to the next. What happens is that at the end of a round, all players are arranged in the order of how many points they scored in the previous round. Then the players are split up, according to points, onto two teams such that both teams have an evenly balanced number of stronger and weaker players. It’s a simple yet ingenious feature that allows one to never feel like their team always sucks. Just play the next round on the same server and the teams will continue to rebalance from one round to the next.
In Veteran difficulty, every checkpoint you hit is a welcome relief.
Achievement System
At first when I learned that Call of Duty 4′s 37 Achievements were only for the single player Campaign, I was pretty happy. I don’t like games that have a lot of multiplayer Achievements because when you play online, there may be players simply trying to get those Achievements and not really helping out. But with Call of Duty 4′s easy to use match-making, I’ve found myself spending many hours in multiplayer and wishing there were even just a few multiplayer Achievements. For example, it would have been nice for there to be an Achievement for reaching level 55 in Call of Duty 4 (the max level).
The campaign Achievements are very well thought out though. I appreciate that there several Achievements for beating the game’s different levels so one feels like they are progressing through the game, but also a whole set of Achievements for Veteran difficulty (including the epilogue stage that not everyone can get through). Then of course there are the Achievements that you don’t even really think about that unlock as you’re playing such as surviving a dog attack, killing two enemies by blowing up a car next to them, killing an enemy while blinded by a flash bang, etc.
I respect the way the Achievements were set out in Call of Duty 4, and still am not sure if I really wanted some multiplayer Achievements or not. On the one hand, if they were in the game, they would have inevitably been boosted for but on the other, I feel spending all this time in multiplayer with no actual Achievement to be playing for is a thing of the past. It’s like I’m just playing the multiplayer for the fun of it! Crazy, I know.
After beating the campaign, Call of Duty 4 has an arcade “score attack mode” not unlike the Halo 3′s metagame
Final Thoughts
Call of Duty 4 is a great game. Some have already started calling it Game of the Year. Having gone through Bioshock and Halo 3 recently, I must say that although Call of Duty 4 doesn’t hold up against Bioshock’s amazing single player experience or Halo 3′s impressive multiplayer stat tracking and video sharing, Call of Duty 4 has its own charm and belongs in any 360 owner’s collection. It has a pretty diverse yet entertaining campaign mode that can be beaten quickly on easier difficulties or challenge you greatly on the harder ones while the multiplayer has new addictive gameplay elements that will have you coming back for just one more level. Even when you max out at level 55, you can opt to go “Prestige Mode”, resetting your level back to 1 but a symbol will be next to your name to show people that you have given up all the weapons and perks you’ve earned just to start over again. You can go Prestige mode and start over a total of 10 times, with each new time adding another symbol to your name allowing for a very lengthy multiplayer experience if you enjoy playing online with a goal in mind.
I give the game an A (make it a B though if you do not have access to multiplayer). While the multiplayer is awesome, there are things that could have been made better in the game: the campaign could have been lengthened to maybe 8-10 hours on Normal difficulty, and Infinity Ward could have allowed for better stat tracking whether it’s online through a website like Halo 3 or even in-game. You can see your own multiplayer stats in the game lobbies such as your own kill/death ratio, your win/loss percentage, etc. but you can’t see anyone else’s. And you can’t even see other people’s Challenges either in terms of how many they’ve completed. It’s like people are doing Challenges just for the unlocks and experience points but it would have been nice to be able to show off what you’ve completed to. It’d be like playing an MMORPG without having the ability to inspect another player’s gear – keeping up with the Joneses is important in such a game as this, one billed to challenge Halo 3′s multiplayer depth. Still, the most important element of a game is fun, and this game has it in spades. Whereas I found Halo 3 frustrating to play at times, I’ve always found Call of Duty 4 to be fun and I highly recommend it for your multiplayer fix.
