Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Game Review: Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare




I was originally planning not to review Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare. For starters, you can't really classify it as a horror genre, and normally I hate war games. But, every century or so my brain demands to try something different. Maybe in the next ten years I'll play a campaign game. Or I'll finish playing Red Dead Redemption. So why did I decide to review this game? Well, two noteworthy points, but first here's a summary of the plot.

Things go boom. A lot.

Oh, you want something more? Okay...um.....Russia has a nuclear weapon and is in cahoots with a certain Middle Eastern country. Which one? Couldn't tell yeah. Because, you know, if the game developers actually named where this is it might be a little awkward.

Anyway, there is little-to-no characterization in this game. Your main character is 'Soap Mactavish.' Hey, his first name is Soap, and he's brand new! That means he gets picked on...for the first ten seconds. Then he's just as interchangeable as any other character. Trust me, the only hint of characterization comes just before characters need to dramatically die. If you think I'm being unfair because this is a first-person army shooter, I've seen Call of Duty Black Ops, so I know they are capable of making three-dimensional characters.

Gameplay-wise, it's both entertaining and challenging at the same time. I went for the usual Rambo approach of charging into battle screaming at the top of my lungs-and then being shot from a million directions. Although even the most thoughtful tactician will probably have to reload more than a couple of times, often dying from a grenade or a bullet that seemingly comes out of nowhere. This game is relatively short, but what else do you expect from a first-person shooter? There is also a good variation such as a stealth level which keeps it from being repetitive. It's a minor gripe, but the number of times I had to reload did get annoying after a while. But hey, it's 'modern warfare' and therefore very realistic. Such as when my character can very realistically respawn every five seconds.

There are really two note-worthy scenes. One happens after someone thoughtlessly set off a nuclear warfare in an admittedly chilling scene-although after just playing Fallout, I kept expecting the main character to go find a bunker somewhere. The second one actually happens after the credits, when a gang of terrorists take over an airplane.




Um...yikes, guys. When was this game made again? Although this is an inappropriate (and random) scene, the critique in me has to wonder how both the terrorist and the anti-terrorist forces happen to be on the same plane at the same time. Must have been a special discount that week.

Final Grade: 3 out of 5. Lacking in plot and characters, but it makes up for it with macho action.

And no, I'm not going to review the multiplayer. Why? Because I'm feeling anti-social.


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