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 PLATFORM: PLAYSTATION 3
TOTAL VICTORY

hen Call of Duty 4 debuted on our cover six months ago, the feeling around the office was that the game had an excellent shot at Game of the Year honors. After playing through the final build, it’s clear in my personal opinion that this is the favorite moving into the last days of 2007. Everything has come together brilliantly, from the nonstop intensity of the offline campaign to the endlessly replayable multiplayer offering. Simply put, Call of Duty 4 is one of the absolute best games to grace any platform to date.

As a member of the elite British S.A.S. or U.S. Marine Force Recon, players are tasked with taking down a brutal Middle Eastern military junta in the single-player game. This short (our playthrough clocked in around six hours) but unrelenting action-packed campaign features a selection of the best combat and cinematic moments in gaming. The nuts and bolts of the gameplay – shooting bad guys – is fantastically entertaining in its own right thanks to the excellent weaponry at players’ disposal, clever level design, and AI that doesn’t leave you wondering at its incompetence. The addition of bullet penetration gives both offensive and defensive tactical thinking a new level. Sprinkle in a handful of powerful scripted sequences and a moderately thrilling end-of-the-world Clancy-esque plot and I’ll take this over Halo’s stale corridors and backtracking any day, short length and all.

I can throw all of the superlatives I can think of at the gameplay, but what is it that makes shooting evildoers in Call of Duty 4 any better than in any of the dozens of other action-oriented FPSs around? Ultimately, it comes down to polish. Everything about the game works together as a seamless whole, drawing players into an experience that proves beyond a doubt that the team at Infinity Ward just “gets it.” The simple act of firing a weapon is fun, from the smooth aiming to the realistic pop in your ears and the feeling of impact as your bullets connect with a hapless enemy or send dust flying off of a structure. Missions deliver near-perfect pacing, keeping the story and the action rolling while maintaining a delicious feeling of tension as you await the next suspenseful urban patrol or deafening explosion. And even on the normal difficulty level, enemies will punish you harshly for choosing a bad tactic or leaving yourself exposed, making tactical approaches nearly as important here as in a game like Rainbow Six.

All of the technical excellence of the gameplay carries over to multiplayer, and the addictive upgrade system and sheer variety of maps and modes makes up for the missing cinematics and pacing of the offline game. While the gametypes in CoD 4 aren’t anything you haven’t seen before, the skill with which they’re implemented and the maps on which they’re played have no equal. From the Quake-style “old school” modifier to the more Counter-Strike inspired “hardcore” setting, from simple team deathmatch to the more involved Search and Destroy matches, nearly everyone’s FPS palate should be satisfied. With the plethora of unlockables from scopes to special abilities, each round – while as straight-up fun as any online shooter to date – brings both a sense of accomplishment and an ache to play one more. This is easily the best fusion of RPG-style persistent progression and action-oriented FPS gameplay around.

Start to finish, online or off, Call of Duty 4 is solid gold. Some might decry the single-player’s short length or that it’s more of the same, but its amazing quality and the Arcade mode (which lets you compete for points and skill rankings after you’ve beaten the game, á la Halo’s Metagame) more than make up for it. Infinity Ward has delivered on every front, and there is no question in my mind that this is the best action shooter that I have ever played.

  

MATT BERTZ   10
During my tour of modern warfare, I worked in close quarters with a Special Forces group that executed missions with the calculation and deliberation of cold-blooded killers. I flew in an AC-130 and laughed as I smoked the pathetic ground troops scrambling for their lives. I also executed one of the most gripping sniper sequences in video game history in a mission that had me infiltrating a heavily guarded Russian position, taking out a target at 900 meters, and scrambling to get to the extraction point while the Ruskies moved in for the kill. Along the way there was scarcely a dull moment. From the shock and awe scripted sequences to the airtight gameplay, COD 4 is a brilliant example of a first person shooter flirting with perfection. Even the training level is good enough to warrant a replay. If that’s not monumental praise, I don’t know what is. Top it off with a deep and addictive multiplayer mode that features a wealth of variety and you have the shooter of the year.
10
CONCEPT:
Bring Call of Duty’s cinematic aesthetics and refined gameplay to the modern warfare genre
GRAPHICS:
One of the best-looking games to date – and it runs at 60 frames per second throughout
SOUND:
The contextual battle chatter is great, and the brilliant score and raw noises of battle form an excellent backdrop
PLAYABILITY:
No shooter plays better on a gamepad. Not even Halo
ENTERTAINMENT:
Game of the Year? Possibly
REPLAY:
High
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