Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Title: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Platform Played On: Xbox 360
Release Date: November 5, 2007
Date Played: November 2007
Time Played: 100+ hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 5/5



Opinion:
Wow, I remember the summer of 2007, and that reveal trailer from E3. I watched it multple times in anticipation of COD4's release, and every time it left me giddy like a little school girl.

To be honest, by 2007 I was tired of the shooter scene, it was the same thing over and over again, with little to no changes or inovations from title to title. But on that faithful November day when I first put in Modern Warfare, the first person shooter was reborn.

Oh man, those graphics, that smooth as butter 60FPS framerate, and the amazing feel of the shooting. Not to mention the story, which took new and interesting twists, with memorable characters and exciting environments. It truly was the next step, the long awaited revolution in the first person shooter genre.

As my personal tradition entails I play all of the COD games on Veteran difficulty, no matter how b@ll stabbing hard it is.  The campaign is fairly short, about 6 hours, and I made my way through it on Veteran in about 8-10. Feeling extremely satisfied with my experience I watched the credits roll, and to my surprise, there was another mission! Mile High Club... oh god... long story short.. I beat the game on Veteran a few days after it came out, I did not sucessfully finish Mile High Club on Veteran until about 6 months later (2+ gameplay hours). I should mention that the entirety of the level is about 90 seconds long, so at 2 hours thats around 100 attempts. Needless to say that when I beat it, it felt extremely satisfying.

But the single player was not the end of it, infact the single player in COD4: Modern Warfare was a mere fraction of what the game had to offer, the bigger slice of the cake was the new and revolutionary multiplayer.

Almost every aspect of the multiplayer was new and innovative. For the first time you earned experience for kills, which allowed you to rank up and unlock new weapons and tools. This created a true sense of progression, something that has not been explored in FPS multiplayer before.  The maps were perfect, and matchmaking system paired you up with people of your skill. The maps were diverse and interesting. Everything felt perfectly balanced. Over the next 6 months I was absolutely addicted to COD4 and spent over 100 hours in multuplayer matches.

Without a doubt this is one of the best first person shooters of all time, it is extremely polished and is a ton of fun for any FPS lover. It raised the bar and is largely responsible for the state of the first person shooters today.  If you have not played Modern Warfare, you owe it to yourself to pick up a copy.