When i found out Call of Duty 4 was set in modern day times, i was really excited because i enjoyed playing the previous Call of Duty games set in World War 1 and 2. They did however, got very repetitive and i wanted to play a new game, a new phase and Call of Duty 4 did this for me.

Graphics - 9/10

Call of Duty 4 looks absolutely brilliant. I’m running the game at its native 720p, running at 60fps with no frame drop issues. This is what you want in a game, a nice fast, smooth, fluid gameplay. A lot of first person shooters can’t deliver this, Call of Duty 4 certainly does.

In the singleplayer mode, you will find yourself stopping, and just staring at the beautiful graphics, looking at them from different perspectives. The character models look top notch along with the animation and this game has some of the best player animations i’ve seen in any game before. Everything looks so right. Your jaw will drop playing this game especially when you find yourself trying to dodge a helicopter from crash landing in front of you!

Call of Duty 4 screenshot

Explosions and lighting effects have never looked better than this, rockets even show realistic trails behind them, bullets leave marks, the smoke looks real, and everything is real.

Multiplayer online graphics are toned down a little, probably to compensate lag. They still look brilliant online, but there is that extra detail removed. This is not to say, don’t play this online; you probably won’t even notice the changes much.

What Call of Duty 4 lives up to is the fact that some games never look as good as they do in the screenshots, this is where Call of Duty 4 wowed me because the graphics looks just like they do in the screenshots.

If you’re looking for a game that shows what this generation is all about, look no further than Call of Duty 4.

Sound and Music - 9/10

Sound and music in this game is very good. While playing this game you will think you’re in a real war with top notch sound effects of the explosions in the background, bullets whizzing past your head and soldiers screaming for help.

Weapons sound decent, with each gun having its own unique sound effects to it. There is not much to say about the sound in Call of Duty 4 apart from the fact it all sounds brilliant and real.

The music score is just the typical ‘war’ like music; it’s nothing to keep you from the mute button. It just adds to the atmosphere of the game.

Voice acting it probably the best i’ve seen in a game, each soldier sounds different to one another and puts on a fantastic performance to say their lines.

I’m only playing this game through my T.V’s standard speakers; i would like to hear this game through a 5.1 surround sound system because it would sound awesome.

Gameplay - 9/10

In Call of Duty 4 you will find yourself fighting intense battles, sniping from long range, calling in airstrikes and raiding huts and buildings.

Enemies are a lot more intelligent, they will react to your actions, for example if you’re hiding behind some cover, they will toss and grenade over. This is clever stuff. Dogs are an addition to the enemies attacking power, these things run at you, and if they get you, it’s pretty difficult to shake them off. They kill you instantly. Enemies work together and will do everything they can do kill you. They will throw up smoke grenades, toss flash banks, and even shout for help.

The variety in levels is excellent and keeps the game away from being repetitive. In every level you will find yourself doing something new, from helping a sniper to rescuing a soldier.

In one of the levels you will find yourself firing from a gunship. I’m sure you’ve seen gunship videos on YouTube, and Call of Duty 4 is very good at emulating this, it’s what you would expect when arming a gunship.

There are some downfalls in the singleplayer campaign which i didn’t like. One of which is that there seems to be an unlimited amount of spawns for the enemy, unless you make it to the next checkpoint, the enemies will keep on coming. Once you do get to the next checkpoint, whatever you just did is long forgotten, the war behind you is gone. It’s very linear.

Playing through the singleplayer campaign is pretty short and is over within hours. I wish it wouldn’t have ended so early; i was very disappointed with the game ending so early.

Multiplayer/Online - 9/10

You will spend most of your time playing online. You start off on a low level and you have to work your way up to unlock new game types and new equipment/weapons.

The maximum level you can reach is 55, but it doesn’t end there, you have the choice to stay at the current level or restart all over again and go back down to rank 1. There are a lot of achievements to achieve for example, killing 50 soldiers with a pistol. Achieving these will add to your stats and experience points.

One thing i liked about the online aspect of the game is the ability to create your own class rather than sticking to a preset class. You can assign different weapons with different classes. Perk is a new addition where you unlock new abilities such as have more health, stronger fire power and increase running strength. You will unlock more as you gain more experience points. You are however limited to how many Perks you can set, as it wouldn’t be fun if you could assign all the Perks in the game to your soldier.

You can some nice bonuses for killing for example, 3 players in a row will give you the ability to use a UAV to locate enemies on the map for your team.

Lag isn’t an issue online, and runs at 60fps just like in singleplayer. You will feel like you’re playing singleplayer because the game runs so well online.

Call of Duty 4 screenshot 2

There are several game mode online and include the classic Free for All and team deathmatch. Other game modes are Search and Destroy where 1 team plants the bomb, the other teams stops the bomb from going off. Domination which is kind of like capture the flag, but instead they are positions on the map, you must take over these positions and the team with the most points win. You get more points for the most controlled positions. Other game modes such as 1 on 1 cage and Old School match ups you will not bother with because no one plays these game modes.

There are some very annoying this in online, one of the most annoying is when people are playing music and all you can hear is music, this really does my head in. Same again with people talking all the time rather than discussing tactics and strategies. If you want to have a good game it’s best to get your friends online or find a server with no microphones enabled.

Replayability – 8/10

You will probably play through the single player twice before getting bored of it, or you might play through your favourite level again. Upon completing the game, it unlocks an arcade mode where you’re placed in the battlefield and you rack points up for killing soldiers.

Online is what you will be coming back for. It’s very addictive playing online when you can’t wait until you have unlocked your next weapon because each weapon unlock gets better and better. You will not get bored of the online part of the game any time soon.

Overall – 8.9/10

Call of Duty 4 is like a brand new game with it not being set in the world war phase. The gameplay is easy to pickup and play; it’s not very hard to control. The graphics are jaw dropping packed with good sound effects.

Singleplayer campaign is over before you know it, but online is where this game belongs; you will be coming back for more and more online action. This is truly the next generation first person shooter you should own and i’m looking forwards to the next chapter in the Call of Duty franchise. If you haven’t bought this game yet, go out and buy it now!