Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare - PC Review

[MRG]

Greetings all,

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is an excellent game.

It is by far one of the best FPS games I have ever played. I highly advise everyone to go buy it as soon as you finish reading this. While I have yet to play a game in the "Call of Duty" franchise that I didn't enjoy immensely, COD:MW, is easily my favorite of the series. With it's excellent gameplay mechanics, crisp graphics & well done audio, I have little doubt that COD:MW will be a classic.

The story is told from a perspective of a British 22 Special Air Service Regiment operative (Soap MacTavish) in Russia and an American 1st Force Recon operative (Paul Jackson) in the Middle East.

The Russian ultranationalist, a man by the name of Imran Zakhaev, is set on returning his homeland to the times of the Soviet Union by revolting against the current government and seizing a nuclear weapons stockpile. Zakhaev has the support of several rogue divisions of the Russian army, but he knows the United States would never allow this to happen and so funds a coup in the Middle East, organized by his ally Khaled Al-Asad, to draw attention away from Russia. Zakhaev, Al-Asad, and their seconds-in-command, one of which is Zakhaev's son, soon become known as The Four Horsemen. The British and U.S. governments discover the plot while monitoring Zakhaev's recent activities, and quickly initiate a police-action to quell the uprisings in both regions. During the conflict, a Russian nuclear weapon is unexpectedly detonated by Al-Asad's forces in the capital city of the Middle Eastern region, catching a large portion of the invading Marine forces in the blast radius. Sgt. Jackson, delayed from escaping the blast radius due to the last minute rescue of a downed Cobra pilot, is aboard one of the helicopters caught in the blast radius. Although Jackson initially survives the crash of his Sea Knight helicopter, he later succumbs to radiation poisoning and dies. Al-Asad, however, escaped to one of his strongholds in Azerbaijan, but is later executed by Captain Price when he and his SAS squad learn that Zakhaev supplied Al-Asad with the bomb.

It is at this point, when Price hears the name 'Zakhaev', that the game enters the flashback portion. The flashback, told from the perspective of Price, tells the story of an infiltration mission into the Chernobyl Zone of Alienation (Prypiat) to assassinate a Russian ultranationalist. Price, then a Lieutenant with the SAS, is paired up with Captain MacMillan to carry out the assignment. Together, they sneak past several guard stations as well as tank and infantry patrols in order to reach their shooting spot. Once in position at the top of a hotel, the target, identified as Imran Zakhaev, is shot by Price. Zakhaev survives, however, and only loses his left arm. The ultranationalist forces track the shot and begin to pursue them across the Zone of Alienation. During the chase, a pursuit helicopter is shot down and crashes, injuring MacMillan and forcing Price to carry MacMillan the rest of the way. The pair finally reach the extraction point and engage the ultranationalist forces in a stand-off until the helicopter finally arrives and they are able to escape.

Back in the present, the British SAS squads in Russia attempt to capture Zakhaev's son to learn of his father's whereabouts, but he shoots himself at the last second. This incurs Zakhaev's wrath, and he launches two ICBMs in desperation at the American East Coast. A joint strike force of the SAS and the USMC breaches the missile launch center, and is able to abort the missile impacts. During their escape, Zakhaev and his troops intercept them, and begin executing any survivors of the initial strike. Griggs is killed trying to pull Soap to safety and Gaz is executed by Zakhaev. They are on the verge of executing Soap, but are distracted by the arrival of a loyalist helicopter. At this moment, a heavily wounded Captain Price slides his pistol to Soap. Upon shooting Zakhaev and his guards, the Russian Loyalist reinforcements arrive, but Soap is the only confirmed survivor of the escape, although the end cutscene fails to show if Price is dead or alive, leaving it open to the player to guess. After the final cutscene, a short news message plays, mentioning "nuclear missile tests" in Central Russia and some "leadership struggles" between the Russian government the ultranationalist party, and then reports on the failed attempt to locate a Russian cargo ship lost at sea (that the SAS infiltrated in the Prologue), which may indicate that the police actions in Russia were conducted in secret, away from public knowledge. After the credits roll the player is also given the chance to play through an airplane hostage-situation epilogue mission, Mile High Club.

Graphics
Lets take a look at the visuals behind COD:MW. The game simply looked amazing on my old 6800 Ultra AGP video card with all settings on high @ 1024x768 with x2 AA. Yes, I am aware that 1024x768 is the lowest setting that a gamer will accept, but keep in mind of my limited hardware. So even though I am running at that resolution, I have all other settings maxed out as much as possible. In fact, the game ran & looked so good, that I exited out to the options screen on more than one occasion to see if some setting had been lowered or reset, just for the sole reason that the game ran way better than I expected & much better than the demo did. (Though the demo itself did run ok.) The enemy solders, while more or less similar looking, were very well detailed. The same could be said about the soldiers that were on the "Good Guys" side throughout the game. The weapon skins for all of the weapons were very well done with obvious attention to detail. The amount of detail that went into the creation of each map was nothing short of amazing. The amount of clutter that is prevalent on each map does an excellent job of immersing you into the game. Of giving you the feel that you really are in some unknown town in some third or even fourth world country. The terrain while excellently done, is more or less static, with the slight exception that some items can be destroyed, such as mission critical objectives & other items scattered across the gameworld. some of which can be used to your advantage. What they are, i'll not say. I'll let you find that out for yourself. Needless to say, the game looks fantastic. You'll not be disappointed.

Audio
Following the games visuals such as I mentioned above, the audio found in COD:MW, is top notch. With each weapon sounding different as it's fired, you'll quickly learn to distinguish incoming enemy fire to that of your teammates. With the constant chatter going on from both sides & the overall very convincing wartime ambient sounds, you'll quickly get lost ingame. The first time I was taking cover behind an M1A1 as it slowly advanced through a destroyed town, all the while with the machine gun in it's turrent firing like crazy as the tanks turrent swept back & forth, only to hear the tanks crew come to animated life as they saw incoming enemies equiped with RPG's up on the second story of a building. As you hear the tanks commander ordering the gunner to bring the main cannon to bear on the building itself & then it opened fire with it's main gun, shaking the ground & causing my screen to shake & my virtual ears to ring, I just sat there in awe as the buildings entire front was blown off & the enemies inside sent screaming to Allah.

Gameplay
I have a close friend at work that is female. My wife is friends with her. Actually I introduced them to each other & so needless to say, hers & my friendship is strictly platonic, so please keep your comments to yourself. Well a few days ago I went over to their house to work on their home PC & found out that her husband had never gamed on a PC before. While he did have a computer at home, he never gamed on it. Never thought to even try. What made it all the better was the fact that he was a console gamer. (Conversion Time me thinks) When I went over I brought my tower & my 5.1's. The real topper was the fact that he had a 50' flat screen LCD HDTV. After I hooked everything up to his big screen TV, I turned on my computer & changed my audio settings to 5.1. Then I went ingame. As the intro video played, I glanced at my friends husband. I could have blown a whistle next to his ear and he would never have heard me, he was that focused on the video. Once ingame, I set the controls & gave him a brief rundown as to how to use the mouse & keyboard, I then sat back & let him play. I ended up playing COD:MW for over 6 hours at my friends house with her husband. With the audio cranked up & pumping from the 5.1's, we took turns after every death to progress through the game. What we saw as we progressed further & further, made me realize just how awesome a game COD:MW really is. The first time I zoomed in with my 20mm while circling high above in an AC-130H Spectre gunship & blew an unknown enemy to pieces, was a classic moment in gaming. Not to mention when the next second I zoomed back out & sighted an incomming enemy armored vehicle and so switched to a "slightly" larger caliber weapon & sent a round from my 105mm cannon right smack dab into the lap of the driver. Damn. Looks like I may have forgotten to mention one of the most important aspects about the game, one that plays an extremely important part & that is the ability to shoot through soft material, such as sheet metal, thin walls, wood & plaster. It used to be that you could hide behind a potted plant to take cover when you attacked an enemy in his office. I mean what respectable game does not have some mission where you take cover behind a potted plant in some office? Well in COD:MW, if you hide behind a potted plant, it'll stop the first round if you are lucky, but not the ones to come after it.

Multiplayer

The multiplayer mode in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare includes a class system which has five preset classes with default weapon load outs and perks assigned to them, as well as allows users to create five custom classes where the user can customize their weapon load out and three perks to assign to their soldier. The five default classes include Assault, Special Ops, Light Machine Gunner, Demolitions, and Sniper. Only two of the default classes are available to a first time player; the rest are unlocked as the player gains more experience online and gains higher rank. Create-a-class can be unlocked at level 4; players can name and save their own custom classes for quick access in multiplayer matches.

Experience Points (XP) are earned by either killing opponents or completing certain objectives, such as defusing the bomb in Sabotage. The amount of XP gained varies depending on the type of match the user is playing. When the user gains enough Experience Points their rank/level increases. The highest attainable level is 55, which unlocks Prestige mode (which is only available for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game). In Prestige mode, the player can trade in their rank and start over at level 1, in exchange for a special in-game insignia by their name.[7] The player can trade in their rank and start over at level 1 up to ten times, with the prestige insignia changing each time, effectively giving the player 605 total ranks to achieve.

Most of the new weapons and perks that players can use to outfit their custom class are unlocked as they gain higher ranks, but there are also a separate number of challenges associated with each weapon that subsequently open up new add-on gear as players complete them. These unlocks, such as camouflage or attachments for the weapon are unlocked after attaining a certain number of kills or headshots. Completing these challenges also gives the player XP.

Game modes

* Free-for-All - Every man for himself.
* Team Deathmatch - Use teamwork to kill opposing players and reach score limit.
* Team Objective - Domination and Search & Destroy. Capture flags in Domination, with respawning. Destroy and defend objectives in Search & Destroy, no respawning.
* Team Tactical - Small team Deathmatch and Search & Destroy.
* 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.
* Headquarters - A laptop spawns somewhere on the map. Your goal is to capture the laptop for your team. If Team A captures the laptop, 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.
* 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.
* 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.
* Team Hardcore - Hardcore Team Deathmatch and Search and Destroy. Limited HUD, extra bullet damage, friendly fire on.
* Old School - Old School TDM and FFA. No classes. Weapons are pickups, health is increased, and jumps are higher.
* Oldcore - Old School pick-ups and jumping. Hardcore limited HUD and extra bullet damage. TDM.
* Ground War - Big team games-TDM and Domination.

There are many reviews out for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. Each one says something different about the game, but at the same time, they all say the same thing & that is, that the game itself is excellent. Can so many people be wrong? I think not. At least not with this game, where it really is as good as everyone is saying it is. My "only" gripe about the game is the health system. Like in all of the COD games, take damage & you'll begin to see red. Take too much and your whole screen goes red and then you die. While novel, it tends to lean too much towards the game feeling arcadish. Too bad they could not have implimented some type of healing process. Such as medics running around healing others or you having to run to a medic. It makes it all too easy to run out, shoot, get hit, hide, let the red fade & then repeat.

Official Website:
http://www.callofduty.com/

Official Demo:
http://files.filefront.com/Call+of+Duty+4+Modern+Warfare+Demo/;8774322;/fileinfo.html

Final Score: - 4.5/5

-MRG

 

[Lucid]

Awesome review, man, I can't wait to get my hands on this game.

 

[Alan00000]

Yeah this game is Awsome!!!

 

[BigBoss7556]

I wasn't exactly looking forward to this game originally, but now I think I might actually get it. The demo was kind of fun.

 

[CyberPitz]

I've never enjoyed a CoD until I played this game. The multiplayer is frantic, and just downright fun. I don't quite care for the Single Player, but I don't care for too many of those these days, so that doesn't mean it's bad. My biggest gripe is the sniping You gotta steady your rifle a good 3 seconds before it's even usable to shoot haha....oh well, still a fun game. The experience system is quite fun.

Now, I've never seen that "hardcore" mode or anything...is there a reason for that?

 

[jimbo118]

were all the spoilers necessary in the storyline description? Maybe you should put in brief note there before people read it?

just got the game yesterday, its a blast, just finished the second act, i would have liked a few more U.S missions though.

 

[MRG]

were all the spoilers necessary in the storyline description? Maybe you should put in brief note there before people read it?

just got the game yesterday, its a blast, just finished the second act, i would have liked a few more U.S missions though.

My apologies to you Jimbo, if I gave anything of the story away. The things that I mentioned in my review, were only added after I had seen screen shots of them on various sites. So in reality, I have no control over which sites you have visited & which screen shots you may or may not have seen.

I'm looking forward to mods that might be released.

-MRG

 

[Mutley]

AMAZING game, best I've ever played online and the singleplayer is awesome, despite the over the top story, it is still really interesting and incredible - the cast sequence when you're in the car, is a mega jaw-dropper.