Forget WWII, this is Modern Warfare...

Overall
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare leaves the other Call of Duty games in the past, where they belong. This is the first Call of Duty series game to be set in the modern times, instead of the World War II setting. That was a move that I thoroughly enjoyed. I will not talk about the story, in case I would spoil anything for anyone. However, the story is very captivating and gets you involved with your soldier and the soldiers you interact with.

The graphics in this game are absolutely amazing. Infinity Ward took their time when developing this game. The surroundings are amazing, even things that are not involved with the action. The guns and AI personnel also look great throughout the entire game. Walls crumble, cars explode, and bullet holes are everywhere!

The audio of this game is as good as the visual. The guns, from what I can tell, sound like firing the real thing. Each gun has their own distinct sounds as well, with reloading and firing. During the game, you can hear if there is a sniper on a roof top, because you can hear the load single pop in the background.

Controls
Call of Duty 4 definitely uses the controller as a weapon. The controls are not too difficult to pick up, if you frequent FPS style games. Here is a quick run down of the default settings used in the game

A Button: Stand, Jump
X Button: Reload, Use Object
B Button: Crouch, Prone
Y Button: Swap Weapons
Right Trigger: Shoot
Left Trigger: Aim
Right Bumper: Throw Frag Grenade
Left Bumper: Throw Special Grenade
D-Pad Up: Night Vision
D-Pad Right: Claymores
D-Pad Left: Grenade Launcher
D-Pad Down: C4/Airstrike
Left Joystick: Movement
Right Joystick: Look, click to melee

Overall the controls are very smooth and make sense while you play.

Single Player
Like I said before, I won’t discuss the story, but I will talk about the single player. The very first thing you do is a quick training course. This is where you will learn your basics for the game. You learn how to pick up a weapon, fire and aim that weapon. You also learn how to switch weapons, reload, and use your knife.
After you finish the basic training, you move to a cargo ship mock-up for further training. At this point you learn how to climb ladders, rappel down ropes, use flash grenades and sprint. It is a timed course that requires you to shoot targets that pop up and flash a room a couple times. After you finish the course, it will suggest what difficulty you should play, based on your time and accuracy. You can run the course as many times you want to improve your time, if you want.

Each mission your will be followed by a group of soldiers. The ally AI in this game is great. They will find cover when needed, they will throw flash and frag grenades, and they will actually shot and kill the terrorist AI. As you move up, they move up and help with covering fire. However, the enemy AI matches their skill, especially in the harder difficulties.

There are 5 categories of missions; the beginning (forget the actual name), Act I, Act II, Act III, and the Epilogue. The beginning consists of the F.N.G. training, a cargo ship level, and the starting credits cutscene. Acts I though III consist of about 15-20 individual missions and the Epilogue is a bonus mission after the ending credits. The campaign can be considered short on the easier difficulties, but veteran takes some time as the enemy AI are all 5-star marksman.

Overall, the single player is very entertaining. Once you complete the game, you will unlock arcade mode, which will keep points on your play and post them on a world-wide leader board.

Multi-Player
Multi-player almost got it right. Let me discuss how multi-player works. Every game is considered “ranked” in Call of Duty 4. Each game you earn XP, which helps you rank up through the military ranks. The numeral ranks go from 1 to 55, and you can reset it up to 10 times for prestige, more about this in a bit.

As you start, the first time you play multi-player, you have view options of weapons, perks, and game types. As you rank up, you can unlock more guns, attachments, perks, and game types. This makes it difficult for beginners, because you get matched up with other players that have these special upgrades unlocked already.

There are 5 categories of guns; Assault Rifles, Sub-Machine Guns, Light Machine Guns, Shotguns and Sniper Rifles. You can add, once unlocked, different attachments to the weapons, such as scopes, silencers, grenade launchers, and better handles. You can also unlock different camouflages for each. To unlock the attachments you need to get a certain amount of kills with that weapon, and for the camouflage, you need to have a certain amount of headshots.

There are 3 categories of perks, as well. They add extra bonuses based on your style of play. Each group of perks have 10 or so individual perks you can choose from. The perks range from stopping power, to increase bullet strength, to extreme conditioning, to sprint for longer periods. There are tons of combinations you can use, to help suit your gaming style.

As you move up in ranks, you will unlock challenges to help increase XP. The challenges give you certain goals to complete while playing your matches. Most challenges have 3 levels that you must to complete and can range from 50 XP up to over 1000 XP. The challenges range from leading your team in kills to destroying vehicles. There are so many different ones, just trying to complete them will keep you busy for weeks.

Call of Duty also has a prestige mode. Prestige mode is unlocked for players that have reach level 55, the highest you can get. If you choose to enter prestige mode, you will lose all guns, perks, challenges, camouflage, and attachments you have unlocked. You will then get a special medal next to your rank, to show you have already completed 1 level of prestige. This gives the MP some longevity, if you choose to select the prestige mode. It is 100% optional.

There are only a couple things I would have loved to see in the multi-player parts of Call of Duty 4. I would have loved the option of a co-op story mode so you could play through the missions with a friend or 2. Playing campaigns with a friend is always more fun, in my opinion. I would have also liked the choice to play with a guest on LIVE, while on the same Xbox. Other than those 2 issues, this game is great!

Overall I would rate the game a 9/10 and would refer it to anyone that loves FPS style games.