Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2007)

When it comes to the First Person Shooter Genre, the two names that immediately come to mind are Battlefield and Call of Duty. Both franchises have been around for years, and both have huge fanbases. The Battlefield series is best-known for its recreations of famous battles and historical accuracy...well...mostly.

Now, I wasn't really a big fan of the FPS genre, I have played a couple over the years, but none of them saw a lot of replay. Then the news about the Modern Warfare reboot came along. The result was a massive CoD sale on Steam, and out of curiosity, I picked up the original Modern Warfare Trilogy, Ghosts, and World at War (each of which will get their own review).

I played the first two Modern Warfare games and World at War, and between the storylines, music, and visuals, I had a blast; the bug had officially bitten.

The Beginning

The Call of Duty series got its start in 2003 as a WWII shooter and was meant to compete with the Battlefield series. The first game was developed by a company called Infinity Ward and focused on a more tactical, squad-based approach rather than the run-and-gun style of gameplay from other titles (not that it stopped me from using that approach, but anyway).

The game was a major success and Infinity Ward released Call of Duty 2 two years later. Call of Duty 2 was also a major hit which led to Call of Duty 3. Now at the time of CoD 3's release in 2006, there was a lot of videogame piracy going on, so this is the only mainline entry not released on PC.

Both 2 and 3 focused on the Second World War and, while they were successful, the market was full of WWII shooters and gamers were getting somewhat bored. The developers knew that to keep their edge, they'd have to innovate and come up with something great.

Developing Call of Duty 4

Development for the fourth main entry to the Call of Duty series took two years and a team of 100 people over at Infinity Ward. To innovate and keep their momentum going, the team at Infinity Ward decided to leave the WWII setting of the three prior games and step into the modern era. This decision led to one of, if not the most popular, games in the series.

The guys at Infinity Ward wanted to make this game as realistic and immersive as possible. They (IW) brought in a group of US Marines to do motion capture work to make the movements realistic, and researched vehicles and weapons - again with the help of members of the USMC.

All of this hard work resulted in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare; a game that has been a longtime favorite of fans since its release. The game was released in November of 2007 for PS3, Xbox 360, and PC. A Nintendo Wii release followed in 2009. CoD 4 was a huge success and met with positive reviews all around. There were two sequels released in 2009 and 2011, respectively.

Right, with the history out of the way, let's get to the actual game!

The Storyline

You play as two different characters; John 'Soap' McTavish in the SAS, and Sgt. Paul Jackson of the US Marines.

The president of an unnamed Middle Eastern country, Al Fulani, is executed by Khaled al Asad in a military coup d'état. This sets off a major manhunt for al Asad.

As Soap, you spend a lot of time searching for al Asad and fighting off rogue Russian nationalist soldiers. The portion of the campaign following the US Marines is the pursuit of al Asad in his native country.

Pros and Cons:

• Let's start off with the visuals. I LOVE the way this game looks, the lighting, the buildings, the weapons, they all look great!
• The voice acting is superb.
• The mission design and combat are great. The guns actually feel dangerous in this one. The varying landscapes make for interesting battlegrounds and the many environmental hazards (i.e. burning cars) provide an extra challenge.
• Story-wise, the game is well-paced and tonally consistent throughout, and the music and sound design really give it a cool action movie feel.

I can't think of anything off the top of my head that stands out as a problem. Of course, I may be looking at it through rose-tinted glasses...

I Don't Usually Recommend Games, but...

I don't usually recommend games because not everyone will enjoy the same things I do. With that said, if you're looking to get into the Call of Duty franchise I'd say this is a good place to start.

Hope you all enjoyed this one. Be sure to let me know which Call of Duty is your favorite and why in the comments section.