Call of Duty 4

The makers of the game that revolutionise World War II combat from Medal of Honour has now turned their attention to modern warfare. In 2003, Call of Duty is probably one of the first to offer authentic weapon targetting with the players using the genuine "iron sight" and reticles of weapons for aimed shots rather than just some cheap zoom in crosshair. After 3 or 4 installments of the series, the team had probably exhausted the list on which WWII battle they should work on. However, CoD 4 is ain't any history lesson since the storyline is fictitious with modern inspirations from the Iraq War and Somalia. Nevertheless, the wide-ranged of authentic arsenal of modern weapons like the M4A1 carbine, AK-47, G3, MP5 and RPGs were interesting. Now, players get to try on the iron sights of modern weaponry with the M16 bringing some memories back for me personally..lol. Oh, and check out the Javelin anti-tank missile! It really makes you feel the awe of how much rocket launchers have improved since the days of the Panzershreck or the Bazookas. Btw, one missile cost around US$80 000 and it was said to be very effective in hunting down Iraqi tanks during the war.

I've finished the single player campaign and I must say, the gameplay experience was excellent although short. The game's "Mature' rating certainly points out that it is gonna deliver some really serious stuff in combat warfare. The wide range of colourful vocabulary from the accented British S.A.S and the blood splatter on the walls from headshots and bullet sprays are some of the stuff that helps CoD 4 earn their audience rating..lol. From the start to the end, CoD 4 captured the combat experience very well and maintaining the adrenaline. Graphics wise, it was truly one of the best eye-candies I came across. Human facial model features were thoroughly detailed. The whole level of Prypiat in Ukraine was modelled authentically on the real-life location in Chernobyl with the eerily famous ferris wheel. Of course CoD 4 don't have any mutants like S.T.A.L.K.E.R roaming around, just some legions of whacko ultranationalist armed with Ak-47s swarming all over the area. On the experience line, CoD 4 again offers something new this time, "death" simulation! They actually produced specially scripted level scenes just to allow players to helplessly feel the grasp of "death" and the seconds just before everything would come to an eternal blank. Very creepy too and it could give the players the shudders. Some interesting plot twist also came from those "death" scenes.

The one small thing that I would be critical about the game is that it sometimes forces you to take the initiative to storm forward so as to get the game script moving. For instance, especially in the US Marine missions, unlimited amount of enemies will come streaming in if the player do not take the initiative to storm forward to certain checkpoints. Technically, the player won't run out bullets (since the floor is packed plenty with fallen corpses) and so, camping would just meant that he would be locked in some eternal firefight. This problem doesn't arise much in S.A.S operations though since they are covert-ops in a specific area instead of an all out war that the USMC engages in.

Overall, CoD 4 is a brilliant game in every aspect especially the FPS experience and probably one of the best I played in my life. It gets me going to research more on modern weaponry too!..haha. They really should get an expansion set going :)