Call of Duty 4 Preview

Platform: PC, Playstation 3, Xbox 360
Publisher: Activision
Developer: Infinity Ward

Call of Duty 4 was hands down the gem of E3 snagging attention from everyone who laid eyes on it. The impressive gameplay videos plastered all over the web have garnered further attention from those who didn’t make it to the expo. If you don’t know what we’re talking about, Google the Call of Duty 4 sniper trailer and watch it without crapping your pants within the first 25 seconds. So when we say that the multiplayer is in no way, shape or form a let down, take our word for it.

The first thing to note for anyone who hasn’t seen any of the Call of Duty 4 media bombardment is that things are now set in the modern day military world. This is perfect timing because WWII era games are actually beginning to feel 60 years old. But the question remained: could the game change eras and still keep the feel of the previous titles and the pace that players came to love. Somehow Infinity Ward pulled it off because immediately after picking up a controller fans of Call of Duty games will feel right at home. There’s a lot of familiar-ness that arises with the new weapons that will instantly click with the weapons from the previous game. The odd sense of deja vu is almost instantaneous and doesn’t let up. To be completely honest if it weren’t for all the new features, we would call this Call of Duty 2 with new skin. Luckily enough for us all, there’s so many new features to like about Call of Duty 4 that this definitely is not the case.

Call of Duty 4 introduces a new create-a-class system that blows the multiplayer addictiveness door right off the hinges. By playing multiplayer matches you rack up points for things as simple as killing the opposition but also for a plethora of more obscure actions such as multiple kills without dying or even for assisted kills, which is nice for those moments where you take an opponent to within an inch of their life only to have someone else pick up the kill. These points progress you through a ranking system that as you gain levels allows you to unlock new weapons and abilities for your use. Starting at level four, you can pick and choose from these selections to compile a character class all your own to save and use at your discretion. This adds not only a rewards system for playing, but also adds the depth of creating combos that in the right players hands drastically increases their lethality. For instance, the ability ‘last stand’ allows you to remove a pistol after you’ve been killed for a few moments and seek bloody revenge. When coupled with an upgrade that allows more damaging bullets you can create a kamikaze class that will fit the run and gun players like a glove. The possibilities are endless. Well not endless but damn near close. Call of Duty 4 has taken things to the next level and any playtime with the title makes this apparent.

The visuals are some of the best next gen graphics we have seen to date and that holds true even in multiplayer. Many games suffer drastically in the presentation department when multiplayer is implemented but Call of Duty 4 seems to have no such shortcomings. The game still looks incredible and runs smooth this far out from release. We experienced 12 player matches but the team at Infinity Ward assured us that larger matches on consoles are a definite probability as long as bandwidth can hold out. Currently they’re shooting for having 16 player multiplayer action on consoles. As far as the PC version is concerned servers won’t be limited by developers on how large their populations are. Simply put if the connections are good, then play on. This will surely excite fans of larger, more chaotic battles.

After playing the Halo 3 Beta and getting hands on with Call of Duty 4 multiplayer, we have to say that the Call of Duty 4 multiplayer experience is a couple notches above Bungie’s Ace-in-the-Hole. Call of Duty 4 rewards you for playing and we fully understand now what Infinity Ward has been doing with their time since Call of Duty 2’s release. Watch out for this one.