The Call of Duty franchise is known for producing the most visceral, realistic World War II games this side of a TV screen. From authentic weapons and vehicles to historically accurate battles and settings, the suffocating wartime atmosphere developer Infinity Ward incorporates into the COD games makes shooting Nazis and ending Hitler's regime more fun than it probably should be.
With Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Infinity Ward has taken the series down a completely new path. The 1940s setting, the Nazi enemy, and all the historical influences have been ditched for a shooter that reeks of contemporary wartime.
The campaign has the player assume multiple roles, one a rookie British SAS soldier and the other a United States Marine, as they try to hunt down a Russian ultranationalist by the name of Imran Zakhaev. Zakhaev wants to return Russia to her former glory by overtaking the current government and obtaining nuclear weapons for protection against the West.
The story, while engaging, is not revolutionary. The narrative definitely gets stronger and more cohesive toward the game's fantastic third act, but many of the early missions feel unnecessary to plot. That's not to say that for the first two thirds of the game the campaign aren't fun ("Death from Above" comes to mind as an incredible first act mission wherein players must protect a friendly unit by dropping explosive projectiles on enemy soldiers from an AC-130 gunship), it's that the story feels stale from time to time at the onset.
In their quest to end the Zakhaev threat, players will traverse the snow-covered battlefields of the Altay Mountains, the claustrophobic city streets of the Middle East, and the thick foliage on the outskirts of Western Russia. The attention to graphical detail in these varied environments brings the game to life. Rain falls, trees sway, bullet holes smoke, vehicles explode, and on and on.
From top to bottom, Call of Duty 4 is beautiful. Perhaps the best representation of how much the graphics add to the realism and the gameplay is when camouflage is used. On more than one occasion, I've lost sight of friendly units only to find them lying prone in the tall grass stalks at my feet.
While the graphics give Modern Warfare its size and shape, the sound is really what gives it scale. The frantic combat dialogue in multiple languages, the authentic and fully realized individual weapon firing and reloading effects, the ambiance created by hearing a fighter plane or helicopter buzz just outside the visible war zone, the heavy pop of a grenade going off at your feet – all of these sounds and more work in tandem to force you into a constant and heightened sense of battle readiness.
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