A change is as good as a rest, so they
say. In Infinity Ward's case, a change must have been absolutely
essential for its own collective sanity, having worked solidly on World
War II shooters for longer than can be strictly healthy. The fruit of this welcome shift in direction brings us bang up to
date with by far its most engrossing, varied and ambitious offering yet.
Modern Warfare is the product of a confident developer; one which knows
what it's good at, but evidently giddy with the chance to try out
different things. In common with its previous efforts, it's a game that understands
the power of maximum cinematic intensity, but also knows when to turn
the dial down and bring in the kind of cloying on-the-edge tension more
readily associated with Ghost Recon or even that lost classic Hidden
& Dangerous. As a consequence, it's by far the most well rounded
Call of Duty game, with an exciting yet coherent blend of gameplay
styles.
Check point
In common with most modern day war games, Call of Duty 4 picks at
the scab of the West's ongoing insecurities for an excuse to shoot an
awful lot of people in the face. Deranged 'Ultranationalist' Russian
hatches evil plan to destroy FREEDOM? Check. Access to an illicit
nuclear arsenal? Check. Based in the lawless Middle East? Check. A
sympathetic, faceless nationalist army ready to do his bidding for no
logical reason? Check. Dozens of nuclear weapons heading for the East
Coast of the United States unless you don't do something to stop the
'Four Horsemen' of this demented apocalypse? Check.
Although, once again, told through the eyes of the Americans and
the Brits, the interwoven storyline builds a greater sense of character
(and therefore purpose) than many war games manage.
As you might expect, the dismantling of entrenched terrorist cells with evil plans of mass destruction
requires a) very best soldiers and b) lots of high powered weaponry.
So, from the Brit side you'll follow the events of the hilariously gobby
British 22nd SAS Regiment, as well as various "Ooorah"-spouting
personnel in the United States Marine Corps 1st Force Recon. None of
that is especially important once you're embroiled in the nuances of
each mission, but as a means of framing each mission in presentational
terms, it's quite engaging, even light-hearted at the most unexpected
moments. And, for once, the Brits don't have cut glass accents,
favouring the more comedic potential of the kind of propa' geezers you're likely to get the wrong side of if you spill their pint.
The environments still lack that vital element of
destructibility, but the overall detail levels and the quality of the
character models more than make up for that.
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - Mission #9
Technically, things have moved on a bundle, too, with some
wonderful levels (the deserted, depressing depiction of Chernobyl a
particular highlight) and a great deal of environmental variety helping
to make it an enjoyable game to play through. As you might expect,
Modern Warfare has a bullet point list of fancy dynamic lighting
effects, real world shadows, depth of field, yadda, yadda, but as boring
as these things sound, the game looks absolutely lovely. Admittedly,
certain things don't look that great close up (such as vegetation), and
you have to say that the geometry's stubborn resistance to damage is a
touch old school, but in terms of atmospheric effects it deserves
nothing but high praise. As ever, the particle effects are staggering,
with some of the best smoke and explosions ever seen in a game, and
aligned with superb lighting, excellent attention to detail and
convincing, fluid character models, Infinity Ward has built on
everything it was already renowned for.
Penning the script
For the most part, of course, you won't be able to ignore some of
the bits that don't quite work - such as the fact that your squad is
clearly indestructible for the sake of the story. You'll also quickly
notice that your basic role in the game is to pick off a certain amount
of respawning enemies so that the tightly scripted action can move
forwards. Down tools, and your usually reliable team mates will simply
ignore certain key targets until you nail them - so you can't just rely
on their efforts to get you through.I hope that gear's waterproof. But while the core combat remains largely within the same framework
of where it has always been, you'll notice certain AI improvements,
such as a tendency for your AI buddies to take up cover far more
convincingly than before, along with other nice touches, such as the way
they'll react intelligently to dangerous situations. They won't just
stand there gormless while a grenade goes off in their face, for
example, but will flee and take up better cover, or - better still - lob
it back at the disbelieving enemy. Other little things help make it a
better spectacle, like the slick way they'll move to one side if you
decide you want a cover point - nothing essentially game changing, but
nice little tweaks that you'll appreciate.
If previous Call of Duty games could be criticised for anything it
was their tendency to start offamazingly well, and then settle into a
continuously intense but monotone groove for the most part. And while
Modern Warfare does indeed have the obligatory stunning opening level
(in this case set on board a ship), the level of consistency throughout
all three 'acts' is nothing short of staggering. Rather than merely
breaking up the action with the old on-rails fallback, there are all
manner of intriguing scenarios to deal with, from spectacular flybys,
manic car-chase set-pieces, and tense sniper-based stealth, to fighting
all-or-nothing battles against the clock. Infinity Ward has long been
admired for its cinematic action, but Modern Warfare takes it far
further in that direction - for the good, in my opinion. Very little of
the game feels tacked on in the name of variety, and for that you have
to hand it to them.
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