Call of Duty 4 (First Impressions)

[Xtreme $niper]

Today turned out to be a snow day for me, so I took the opportunity to play Call of Duty 4 for a few hours. These are my first impressions:

It's hard to describe this game in text, so it's a wonder how those reviewers even managed to publish articles about it... So I'll try to put my thoughts into categories.

Graphics:
One of the first thing you'll notice about COD4 is the graphics. Throughout all the mayhem and constant action, this game never, ever takes a frame rate hit. When you get hit by an enemy, your view will twitch up to simulate being taken aback by the power of the bullet. When you're standing in front of a tank, the heat from the armor causes the air around it to "whisp" about just like it does in real life (take for example an asphalt road on a hot summer day), and if you stand in that heat, your view will go whispy with it. When grenades go off, you see the bodies fly into the air and hit the walls with realistic physics (thanks, Havok engine) and if an enemy launches an RPG, the smoke trail it leaves behind takes you right to the source of the enemy... Unless of course the wind blows the trail away.

In certain parts of the game you take on different perspectives (trying not to give away too much here).

This part may be viewed as a SPOILER so don't read if you care: One such perspective is from a gunship waaay up into the clouds, to cover friendly troops below. I can't explain how realistic looking this thing is. I tried to find an example picture from even real life footage, but no such luck. I can only explain it by saying its like when you see footage of the US army looking down on a field somewhere with an infrared thermal camera, and the view has a crosshair where they can fire weapons from. Yeah, regardless, it looked like real footage.

Another cool thing is that before every mission, there's a CGI that shows you the situation you are about to encounter. If you're in that air ship for example, it shows you what each gun you have at your disposal is, and the specs about it. I particularly don't care since I'm not a gun nut, but it's a nice touch.
END SPOILER.

The weather effects are nice. When it rains, it pours of course. When you're on a ship during a storm, the ship sways side to side heavily and so you definitely feel that as you're playing. It affects your aim.

ANOTHER SPOILER!
When the ship starts to sink, you're forced to run for your lives to the deck to escape. The ship is obviously starting to go sideways, and your controls and view is definitely impacted. This was by far some of the best interactive cinematics I have ever played through. I felt like if I did one wrong thing, I was done for. Falling off, and plummeting into the water.
END SPOILER!

Overall, the graphics are some of the nicest I've seen. They definitely compliment the action in the game.

Audio:
I'm not going to say much here, but I do have one thing to say. Even though I don't have surround sound, the audio coming out of this game is amazing. Put it up loud, and just take in all the sounds of radio communication, rockets going off, tanks moving in the distance, enemies yelling to each other, guns firing, grenades rolling, and explosions tossing everything around. There is a large contrast between a battle scene and a stealth scene (as it should be), and there is no music that might take you out of the experience.

Oh I also wanted to point out how convincing the voice acting is. When your commander is yelling at you to do something, he's yelling at you. You feel intimidated through your TV. It's that good.

Controls:
I played this on an Xbox 360 so I'll talk about the controls for a 360 controller. If you're played any other FPS on a console, it's the same deal. Right trigger to fire, left trigger for aim (there is no dual wielding), right bumper for grenade, left bumper for special grenade. One of the four face buttons for melee, another for jump, another for action/reload, and another for changing weapons. Overall, there is no difference between this and other FPS games in the control department. The only thing I can think of is that it has a nifty little aim helper that only comes into use when you are in the process of zooming in. As you are zooming in, if you are looking in the direction of an enemy, it will lock on to the target for you.

There's two things about that though: 1. If the target moves, your view doesn't follow. 2. Once you kill the first target, you have to quickly zoom out and back in to re-lock to another target.

It's definitely not a cheat, because it's only there to briefly guide you since console FPS games are usually tough for aiming.

Gameplay:
There is nothing to hate or even dislike. At the most, you can ask why you only get to throw back grenades sometimes, but not other times. I still haven't figured that out yet. If you've played a Call of Duty game before, then this is fairly similar. Of course, some mechanics are different now that you are in modern warfare, but I mean the general concept is still there.

There is no health meter; you can assume you are at full health until you start getting shot at. If you get shot too many times back to back, you'll probably die if you don't find cover immediately. If you get shot a few times but not enough to die, your screen edges will glow a blood red and the game will inform you that you are hurt and you need to find cover. If you sit without getting shot for long enough, your health will regenerate and you can go back into battle. This is, again, not any form of "cheap" mechanics. Halo uses this as well, and it works fine. To balance you not having a health bar, you just die quicker if you play recklessly.

That's not to say the game doesn't encourage you to play recklessly, though. This game is non-stop action. If you're not pecking off enemies with a sniper rifle, you're knifing them at close range. If you're not mowing them down with a machine gun, you're tearing their tanks about with fancy rockets. If there are no weapons firing or explosions going off for more then 2 minutes, then you must have put the game on pause. There are a few "stealth" style missions, but that consists of avoiding a helicopter's spotlight, and then avoiding some people's flashlights. However unlike other games, if you get caught it's not game over. You are forced to face the consequences for your actions. They found you, now you have to fight them. Although fairly linear in gameplay, they still give you some room to make your own decisions.

You have an initial objective as you begin your mission. As you progress, that objective may get altered, or be added to due to unforeseen events occurring during battle. No one mission is similar to another. In one you might need to use night vision, in another you may need to take down a heli-copter or a tank, and so on.

Summary:
I haven't played multiplayer yet so I can't talk much about that (though I did participate in the beta, and that was a blast so I can only assume it's the same or better). From what I've experienced so far in the single player missions, this is a definitely must buy for anyone who even remotely likes FPS games. There's so much to do, and the cinematics are Half Life 2 style (the camera doesn't leave the perspective of your player) so you never feel detached from the game.

Overall, I'm very impressed so far. Let's hope things just get better from here.
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[Xtreme]

I've played the game on my roommate's XBox 360 and I was definitely impressed.

While the graphics aren't flawless or totally consistent, they are a FAR cry better than ANYTHING else I've seen on the 360. Stylistically and objectively (i.e., lack of jaggies, smooth models, textures, etc.). If you really try, of course, you can find graphical anomalies, but during game-play it's rare that anything you encounter won't feel top-notch visually.

The sound is absolutely great. On an expensive 5.1 system, the sound is powerful enough to rock our apartment's walls, immersive enough to make you jump if you're not paying close enough attention, and accurate enough to save your @ss if you can't see exactly where that attack dog is coming through the thick grass.

One of the games best assets, though, is its wedding of tactical combat with all-out havoc. It's tough to describe, but COD4 seems to hit the spot that satisfies both the stealthy and the chaotic aspects one would expect of a perfect contemporary military-centered FPS.

The only thing I, personally, would have liked to see would have been less linear game-play. It isn't horribly linear - you aren't stuck to killing enemy A, B, and C and then moving on, killing D, F, and so on. But you DO move from area X to area Y and you have no choice about that; still, on the way, details and things can change according to your combat actions. As far as level-to-level, progression, though, you're in linear mode all the way.

Overall, I'd say this is easily the 360's best FPS. [Speaking of the single player mode:] Yes, I think it's more immersive and is a better shooter than Halo, but I'm not a huge Halo fan. Still, I'm very impressed, and plan on buying the game myself even though my roommate has it. That says something.

[ruyss]

I've played COD4 on a friends computer, only the multi-player though, because he doesn't care about the single-player. So I have no comments on the single-player because I haven't played it yet :p .

The multi-player is great though, it has great gameplay so everything is fine and it's a lot of fun. The only thing that bothers me is the achievements. You have to complete certain goals to unlock all weapons and a lot of other advantages. Now this is fun right now, but imagine being a new player next year, you'll be there with all the basic weapons while everyone around you has all the best weapons and all other bonuses unlocked. I have my doubts that this will be fun for new players in the future. My friend was 'farming' headshots so he could unlock the next weapon (farming = playing with one friend, shooting each other 29 times and then restart the map, this over and over to unlock the next weapon). My guess is they tried to add some MMORPG elements to CoD4, which is fun at first, but I have my doubts about it and I'm hoping this won't come back in other games.
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[Xtreme $niper]

I definitely have to agree about the perfect combination of stealth and chaos in the same mission. I for one am not a fan of super stealth games like Splinter Cell. I hate dying super fast if you accidentally step on a stupid branch or something silly like that, but Infinity Ward definitely got the combination right.

One second you're being as quiet as you can as you crawl through the thick grass and sniping distant enemies, the next you're fighting off what seems like hundreds of enemies (dogs and helicopters included) within minutes of each other.

I don't have surround sound so I had to trust that my team mates would kill off the dogs before they got to me if I didn't see them, and they did save my butt on numerous occasions. It definitely feels like the AI is human, somehow... Whether it's because of the almost perfect voice acting, or because everything is like an interactive movie... It just felt good.

As for the linear gameplay aspect, I kind of agree and kind of disagree. While I did notice that the story would direct you from one place to another (fairly subtle) they still gave you the choice of how to approach a certain situation. If you felt like you had the gun power to take on a hoard of enemies, then you could easily give away your cover and make yourself known to the enemy. You'll be in for one hell of a firefight though. Or, you could stay hidden and you'll never have to encounter that huge firefight that would probably end with you dead. This is better than a "Game Over: Mission Failed" if you're spotted, like how it is in some other games.
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[Scott]

This game is incredible, I traded in an average game (Halo 3) for a superior game and everything about it is enjoyable. I am hooked with the online play and all the different challenges, game types, weapons, customizations etc.

I have yet to find in anything which I don't like, everything is great from game play to graphics to online play. I haven't played much story mode but I think it's pretty good, it isn't quite a run-and-gun game and it isn't entirely stealth.
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[ClickFanatic]

I played the PC demo and I am actually quite impressed (also by the fact that my PC was very capable of running it at good settings).
The demo is not very extensive, so I can't confirm all the things mentioned. But I think I will be playing this game quite often soon.
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[Xtreme $niper]

[Scar]

The videos and screenshots of it look amazing. However i couldn't play it. I got it and installed it, but then i got the video card error. So now i just have to buy a new video card that supports it. which i need to do anyways

then i'll be a huge fan of it. I loved t he other COD games. and i always wanted them to be in modern times, and now it is. WOOT.
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[ClickFanatic]

I heard the next CoD will be taking place during the Second World War again. Is that so?
I think WWII has been done often enough by now, can't we just move on?
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[Scott]

[Scar]

[ClickFanatic]

[Xtreme $niper]

Well the problem here is that there are two different development teams working on Call of Duty games. Call of Duty 4 is done by Infinity Ward (the rightful developers) while Call of Duty 5 is going to be doing by some company called "Treyarch". God knows what good that will do, but it seems they're already lacking in the creativity department by going back to the old roots of the series.

I don't even understand why they do it. It just makes them look bad. Call of Duty 4 is an amazing game that will forever have great replay value (I just took it over to a friend's house again, after it became an instant hit a few nights before). Most people won't know that there are different developers working on Call of Duty 5, so that's going to look bad on Infinity Ward.

Regardless, I hope they don't screw things up, and I can't wait for Call of Duty 6, which is hopefully done by Infinity Ward again!
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[Soki]

I've played Call Of Duty 4 on a friend's xbox360, only the multi-player online (Xbox Live) though, because its more fun xD. So I have nothing to say on the single-player mode. The multi-player (Xbox Live) is great though, it has great gameplay so everything is fine and it's a lot of fun. The only thing that bothers me is the achievements. You have to complete certain goals to unlock all weapons and a lot of other advantages. Now this is fun right now, but imagine being a new player next year, you'll be there with all the basic weapons while everyone around you has all the best weapons and all other bonuses unlocked. I have my doubts that this will be fun for new players in the future. My friend was 'farming' headshots so he could unlock the next weapon (farming = playing with one friend, shooting each other 29 times and then restart the map, this over and over to unlock the next weapon). My guess is they tried to add some MMORPG elements to Call of Duty 4, which is fun for ever!!! Also, there is this prestige or w.e its called that when you reach level 55 you have the option to start over but get a better badge or rank picture w.e the thing that sucks the most is that you have to unlock everything over AGAIN!!! Yes, that does suck doesn't it? That is why I think its not worth it really...just a waste of time...I played Call Of Duty 4 about 7 hours that day...I just couldn't stop at all!!!

My Rating: 9.5/10 for this game :]

(I did take most of my posts from the other guy, but it is what I was going to say)

[Luth]

I love this game. I have to say this is probably the best game they have made so far. However one thing I dislike is the fact that single player seemed much funner then multilayer, though multilayer is still fun. Graphics and sound in this game is stunning, game play is simple yet complete. All in all I have to say this is a must by for and FPS fan.