Special thanks to Armando Rodriguez for the following review:

The best multiplayer experience on the PS3 today.

The Call of Duty series is one of the most successful first person shooter series and probably the best of the World War II-based shooters. Now Infinity Ward takes the series on a new direction with Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare. The new game in the series replaces the historical setting with modern times, where terrorism and Middle Eastern conflicts rule the news broadcasts. And you know what? It was about time!

Gameplay

This is the meat and potatoes of the Call of Duty experience. The game offers single and multiplayer components. The single player’s Campaign Mode is the best in the entire series. The modern setting helps you better identify with the game’s events. The basic premise of the story involves a Russian terrorist with stolen nuclear warheads and his association with a Middle Eastern terrorist that leads a rebellion in his country. Sounds like something you could see on CNN any day of the week.

You play as three different characters, a member of the British SAS, a member of the United States Marine Corps and in two missions, as a sniper from the British SAS. The campaign offers a very intense experience. It feels like a real war since you are never alone. The AI is very competent and in some cases amazing. The firefights seem to be never ending, you will see allies and enemies alike seeking cover, tossing grenades and working like a team. Besides firing your weapon and tossing grenades, that range from frag grenades to stun grenades to flash bangs, you will get to call in air strikes, use night vision goggles, plant explosives, snipe a target from a very long distance, provide support fire from a helicopter, participate in a high speed chase and much much more. It’s too bad then that the campaign is so short. If you have any sort of experience with first person shooters, it will take you anywhere from 5 to 8 hours to beat it. But trust me, they will be among the best hours you put into any videogame. I also applaud Infinity Ward for the direction they took with the story. War is unpredictable and catastrophic and the way the campaign moves showcases this aspects. People die, things go wrong and even when you reach the “happy” ending, it doesn’t feel so happy at all.

Once you beat the Campaign Mode, you can revisit it in a harder difficulty, replay some missions in order to find the hidden “Enemy Intel” pieces to unlock cheats or play trough the Arcade Mode. The Arcade Mode is unlocked once you beat the Campaign Mode and it gives you the ability to replay missions from the Campaign Mode with an “arcade feel”, you get points for kills and even get a score multiplier for killing in rapid succession. You also get bonus points for things like head shots and blowing up vehicles.

But the true “must buy” reason for this game is the multiplayer. Yes, you can play in split-screen or LAN, but the meat and potatoes are online. This is the closest thing to Battlefield that the Playstation 3 had right now. You can play classics like Free-for-All and Team Deathmatch and more involved games like Domination, which is basically the same thing as in Battlefield 2 on the PC. The object of the game is to capture control points. You pick a class, pick your weapons and out you go. Classes are the typical for the genre: Assault, Sniper, Demolitions and so on. You get experience for capturing control points, killing people, kill assists and so on. Once you reach a certain amount you are promoted to a new rank, which unlocks new weapons, attachments and perks. What are perks? Perks are variables you can equip. One perk gives you extra grenades, or access to an RPG rocket launcher. It might give you more stamina for longer sprints, more health, the ability to deal more damage, better bullet penetration and more. You can pick 3 different perks for your character. Also, once you hit Level 4, you can create your own class, in which you choose the weapons and perks for the class. Add challenges, things like getting 25 kills with a weapon or 25 head shots and the multiplayer component has tons of replay value. Of course, gameplay experience will vary depending on your connection speed, but thus far, my experience has been very positive. The level up system is very addictive and the firefights capture the intensity of the single player experience.

Graphics

This is the best looking first person shooter on the Playstation 3. The character models look amazing, the scenery is very realistic and the explosions are sensational. Everything moves smoothly with barely any slowdown. Bullet holes are visible for entire levels and they do not disappear. Smoke and debris fly in multiple directions after explosions. Enemies react realistically when you shoot them. And the levels are really well designed, with broken buildings and cars, mountains of debris and trash and small fires almost everywhere. It truly feels like a war zone.

Sound

The voice acting is superb. The British sound British, Americans sound American and so on. All the voice performances range from good to great. The music also kicks in at the right moments to truly immerse you in the experience. And the guns sound very realistic. In multiplayer it is possible to find where the action is at just by using the sound of bullets and explosions as a guide.

Lasting appeal

The single player experience is short. Unless you want to beat the Campaign on every difficulty or get really hooked in the Arcade Mode, it won’t last you long. It is the type of campaign you want to experience more than once though. However, the multiplayer component is addictive and immersive and is very easy to find a good match online. I expect to be playing this game online until Call of Duty 5 comes along.

Fun Factor

With a deep multiplayer component and one of the best single player campaigns ever created, this game is really fun. You will find yourself saying “just one more match” more than once. If only the campaign where a bit longer...

Overall 9.5 [ Amazing ]