This review is long overdue; I’ve been playing this game since the day it was released way back in November.

If you’re familiar with any of the other Call of Duty games, you know they’re stellar WWII first person shooters. Little known fact: I was cofounder of one of the largest Call of Duty 1 sites way back in the day. Unlike the previous games, Call of Duty 4 takes place in the modern age… A really good thing since WWII is far overdone by now. Many were unsure if they were going to be able to pull off this change of setting, but they have and then some; they have created what I believe to be the best console game out right now. Note: I no longer count games from old systems… Mario 3 still remains the best game of all-time, ever, and forever.

I was a beta tester for the game so I was accustomed to the multiplayer before the game was even released. Wanting to take advantage of my… advantage, I started out playing multiplayer solely. After going through all of the ranks and choosing “prestige mode”, I then began single player. For that reason, I’ll be addressing them in that order.

The multiplayer is amazing. There are a few small things that could be worked on, but overall it is the most fun I’ve had online since Counter-Strike. The game works on ranks. You start at 1, earn experience by killing people, accomplishing various tasks, and winning games. With new levels come new abilities and guns. Once you reach 55, which took me about 60 hours, you’ve gotten everything and are given the option to enter “prestige mode.” This gives you an insignia denoting that you’ve done this, and you begin back at 1. This process can be done 10 times, so in essence there are 550 levels. If it weren’t for this feature, I would have likely stopped playing  while back, as the ranking up really draws me in. It forces you to use different weapons, varied tactics, and also forces you to get better as you’ll start off with all the beginner weapons again.

The only flaw I really see in the multiplayer are sniper rifles, which are not powerful enough and incredibly inaccurate. To top it off, there is a killcam (people can watch how they died from their killer’s perspective) so you can’t stay in one spot too long.

Many others complain about the spawning system, which tries to find an open area of the map to spawn your team so your “territory” moves as enemies take it over. The downside to this is sometimes a team will spawn behind you if you’re out on your own. I’m not quite sure what people are looking for, so I’m overlooking this as a flaw. From the days of Counter-Strike, I remember all too often getting stuck in a spawn area that has been overrun with enemies since the spawns did not rotate… This solves that.

On to single player. I began playing on the hardest level since I appreciate a challenge. Unfortunately, rather than coding a smarter AI, the developers simply added more enemies spawning indefinitely from certain points. Rather than killing them all (you can’t), you’re forced to make a dent in their forces and cross some imaginary trigger line that causes them to stop coming out. Not fun.

The story is pretty decent; the US has attacked a foreign nation (Iraq and Russia, but they don’t say that), screwed it up (sound familiar?), and must rely on British special forces (SAS) to save the day. I wasn’t dying to know what happened next, but the whole plot hit close to home so it made me laugh… Bravo, devs.

The two parts I really loved were an AC-130 mission, and a final mission that I will choose to not spoil. The flying mission puts you inside an AC-130, basically a flying battleship, tasked with clearing the way for some guys on the ground. My hat is off to the developers for including this mission… it seems like it was quite an undertaking; I believe it ran on a separate engine than the rest of the game? Anyway, it was a blast (pun intended) and really pumped me up. The final mission is actually a bonus mission… One of the hardest levels I’ve ever played. You’re forced to use incredible accuracy and speed. If you try this level on anything but the hardest difficulty, you’re ruining it for yourself.

9.7/10 – Could use smarter AI, but a must-buy for everyone with an Xbox 360