My Opinion of Call of Duty 4

We all know what Call of Duty. It is has been one of the most popular first person shooters since 2003 (The release of the first one). Being a big game fan myself, I decided to buy the latest release "Call of Duty 4".

Single Player:

I stop by Gamestop and pick up a copy. I head home and install it, all is going well. I installed it and headed straight for the single player campaigns. For the most part, the game has a very good plot & story line but it is a bit confusing when you switch characters. The lack of vehicles in the game makes it very disappointing as it can get extremely boring just shooting.

The good thing about the campaign mode is that it won't bore you. There are always new and exciting missions that keep you pumped and ready for the next mission. After about three days of playing the game on and off, I had finally completed it. It's fun and there are some very thrilling parts. I enjoyed how much the game contrasted to real life. In one of the missions you are set out to snipe a leader and it is quite amazing to see that Activision took into account the curve of the earth, the wind speeds, and much more. It is nice to see realistic details like these in games. Every bit helps. Now the single player was fun, so the multiplayer has to be a blast! Wrong!

Multiplayer:

When I first started playing multiplayer I have to admit, I was having fun. There was no lack of action, no matter what server you played. Every map had a different layout and you learned something new every time you played. The implementation of radar, helicopter attacks, and jet attacks made it a good incentive to stay alive and obtain more kills. The leveling system is pretty interesting too. Being able to upgrade your weapons as you gain levels is nice, but not for the noobie. Most new players would have to face against much more powerful weapons and gear that would leave you helpless. So it is definitely difficult to start playing multiplayer without a few friends to show you the ropes.

Now, this wasn't it. Here come the cons. Along with obtaining gear with each level you gain, you also have the ability to select "Perks" which are basically extra specialties you get such as "Extra Health", "More Powerful Bullets", "Longer Range", etc... These perks are nice until I found one in particular that pretty much ruins the game. Any previous Call of Duty 4 player knows exactly what I'm talking about. Martyrdom. Martyrdom gives the player the ability to drop a grenade on death. Now you may be wondering how this ruins the game. Well, it pretty much takes away necessity of having any skill. Any player could get the perk "Martyrdom" and run on top of you, get killed by you, then take you down with him. The grenades in Call of Duty 4 have ridiculously long range and are very powerful. So any FPS lover can quickly understand how this becomes a problem. Another con is that after playing for a while, the maps become repetitive, and as I have mentioned before - there are no vehicles. The lack of vehicles makes it very boring to play over and over.

The final and leading con I see about the multiplayer structure Call of Duty 4 has is the level system. For some reason Activision decided to make it so player data is stored client side, meaning on your computer. Most games store a player's data on their servers but not on this case. What this allowed people to do was to exchange player data. So basically, anyone can go online now and download a level 55 player data file and get level 55 on multiplayer instantly. This is a key flaw in CoD4's design and is probably the staple reason to why levels are disregarded in "player reputations" these days.

In conclusion, Call of Duty 4 is a decent game. The multiplayer is a bit flawed but it has its good parts. The single player campaign mode is fun and exhilarating. I would recommend buying it and trying it.