Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Written by Jason Cisarano  on June 25, 2007

First Impressions: The Greatest Generation gets a 21st century facelift

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Across a lot of platforms, the Call of Duty series has long been the gold standard against which other shooters are judged. On the PC, the original game gave a great single-player campaign with jaw-dropping scenes straight out of a Hollywood blockbuster. Who could forget the first moments of the Battle of Stalingrad level and running up that hill with a fistful of ammunition and no rifle? The United Offensive expansion brought the multiplayer system into its own with the addition of the rank system, unlockable abilities and driveable vehicles, not to mention the Base Assault gametype. And of course Call of Duty 2 was a launch title for the Xbox 360 and showed the world what the next-gen console was capable of doing at 60 FPS in HD. Now it's time to enter the fray once again with Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, and here's the scoop on some improvements and drastic changes to this old favorite.

First and foremost among the changes is the new setting. Most every fan of the series knows by now thatЧfor better or worseЧCall of Duty 4 will be set in a present day fictional conflict and will include all the weapons and equipment of the modern battlefield. So for the first time we're going to see UAVs and helicopters in Call of Duty. Meanwhile, we're going to lose some great old hardware like the Springfield M1 and Mauser K98 rifles. The MP44 and MG42 will have to give way to their descendants, the AK47 and the M60. It's a little hard to take, since Call of Duty has always excelled at recreating the legend of WWII and making the player a part of the larger-than-life image that now surround battles like Pegasus Bridge, Sainte-Mшre-╔glise, and El-Alamein. It was a chance for everyone to play John Wayne and run-and-gun their way into a little piece of herodom.

Infinity Ward is well aware that the face of battle has changed, so they've concocted a scenario that'll allow for balanced play and stand-up fights between two relatively conventional forces. On the one hand, players will inhabit the roles of a US Force Recon Marine and a British SAS trooper. On the other side are a combined team of Russian and Middle Eastern forces. The story is that a Russian ultranationalist longing for the good old days of the USSR has buddied up with a Middle Eastern dictator, apparently following the old dictum, Уthe enemy of my enemy is my friend.Ф Hopefully this will play out better than it sounds, although the video released so far doesn't do much on this front. The bad guys are looking disappointingly stereotypical behind their mirrored sunglasses and ski masks.

While the exact causes or location of the war aren't clear yet, we do know that this time around, the plot will be important to the single player campaign, and the devs have brought in some television writing talent to round out the story. They've also done away with the chapter structure familiar from the earlier games: the new game will move more seamlessly between scenes the way a movie or TV show does. It sounds like the missions will be plot-based, rather than the strings of loosely-related objectives the earlier games used. It's also been reported that there will be no traditional load screensЧlevels will load in the background during briefings that keep the story and action going.

Gameplay will be more varied this time out, with players running missions ranging from all-out assaults to defensive operation, from combat patrols to stealth infiltrations. Levels demoed for the press so far have likewise shown a wide variety of locations. One of the first had players sneaking onto a ship at night under heavy seas and a rough storm with a small commando force. Another mission features a full-on helicopter assault on an enemy camp, with troops fast-roping into the hot zone. One of the most talked-about scenarios puts the player into an AC-130 gunship at night and has them giving fire support from 25,000 feet in the air in situations that will be eerily familiar to anyone with CNN or a YouTube account. As this might suggest, players will no longer be limited to playing the two main characters mentioned above. They'll also get the chance to step into other people's shoes for side missions, including that AC-130 gunner, a tank commander, and even the enemy for a short time.



As great as the single-player campaigns were, it's really been the multiplayer that's kept Call of Duty alive for so long, and Infinity Ward is doing a lot to add features to keep the on-line play interesting. The two most promising new features involve a character class system and an experience system. When players first jump into the multiplayer action, they'll only find two character classes available: Assault and Special Ops. As they play and earn experience, they'll unlock other classes like the Heavy Gunner and the Demolitions expert. These classes determine the primary weapon the players will carry, what attachments that weapon will have (e.g. a scope), and what sidearm and grenades they'll have available. Also unlockable is the ability to customize your own character class by choosing a weapon, custom camo skins for the weapon and up to three Уperks.Ф

Perks are definitely one of the big additions to the new multiplayer game, and it looks like there will be a lot of them to choose from in three different flavors: stats, equipment, and ability. Stat perks will give a boost in areas like health, endurance, weapon stopping power and the like. Equipment perks can give characters gadgets like C4 charges, a silencer or a GPS jammer that keeps him off enemy radar. It's the third category, the ability perks, that sound the most interesting and varied. There will be a stealth perk to allow characters to move silently. A martyrdom perk will allow a dying character to pull the pin on a grenade with his last gasp and take a few of the bad guys with him. A last stand perk will do much the same thing with a pistol, allowing players to squeeze off a few rounds as they bleed out. The fast loading perk allows quicker magazine changes. And the eavesdropping perk allows a player to hack into enemy voice chat.

Another set of unlockables require players to accomplish specific challenges during battle. For instance, having runs of 3, 5 or more kills without dying can allow players to unlock things like radar, artillery strikes and helicopter fire support. Other challenges involve things like getting a certain number of kills with a particular weapon, getting a kill while blinded by a flashbang, taking an enemy's weapon and later killing him with it, or sprinting a total of five miles. It sounds like the devs over at Infinity Ward have put their heads together and come up with dozens of different challenges and rewards.

If all of this sounds a bit gamey or arcadish even in a game never really known for realistic gameplay or combat tactics, you aren't alone. Infinity Ward is certainly listening, too. They're built in a few multiplayer options like no HUD play and increased bullet damage to add a bit more realism. They're also adding some realistic physics that will distinguish between cover and concealmentЧmeaning that hiding behind a board fence or plaster wall probably won't give you much protection from incoming gunfire.

Speaking of realism, Call of Duty 4 is definitely going to crank up the graphical realism, taxing next-generation hardware across the country in the process. There's a laundry list of graphical goodies out there that the game will include, everything from HDR lighting and normal mapping to dynamic day/night cycles and amazing reflections on all sorts of metal and glass surfaces. Improved particle systems mean better looking smoke, rocket trails and fire. Screenshots and the teaser trailer suggest that the game will have extensive depth of field and motion blur effects. Little details like dust in the air, flying insects, and waves of visual distortion rising from a hot tank exhaust complete the effect.

This stuff is probably most amazing for the detail it gives the various characters, making them look more realistic than just about anything that's been in any game so far. Characters will self shadow, meaning that rifles and arms and so on will cast shadows on the characters' own bodies. Normal mapping will give clothing and other fabric realistic texture. The animations shown in the trailer are extremely detailed and realistic, making the characters seem almost alive. And the models and skins themselves will be extremely detailed. You'll be able to see the characters sweat, and you'll be able to read the time on their watches. No matter what the gameplay turns out to be, this will definitely be one good-looking game.