Recently we had the opportunity to hang out with the guys from Infinity Ward and their publisher Activision in San Francisco for a gaming event. On hand to play were both of their upcoming big games, Guitar Hero III (check out our in-depth preview posted last week) and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Ever since the announcement that the COD series would come to the modern age, the internet has exploded with hype over the game. Some are calling it the next Game of the Year, others are boasting it as the second coming of Christ, me, after playing it for a couple hours, am calling it one hell of a game that I cannot wait to play through. This was the first time the press was allowed to go hands-on with the single player campaign of COD4 so it was a very exciting day. The atmosphere before we went into the pressroom was amazing, everyone was chatting it up about what was to be expected in Modern Warfare.
Taking a cue from games like Rainbow Six: Vegas and Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter the developers have decided to make Call of Duty 4 a much more “team” based game. Rarely in the two demo levels I played through was I alone, there was always at least one (and sometimes ten) AI-controlled soldiers with me. While this does take away some kills it totally adds to the realism and overall feel of what a real life war would be like. It also helps because there are some objectives that simply could not be completed Rambo style. On hand at the event were all three versions of Modern Warfare: PC, Xbox 360, and Playstation 3. After playing all three I can honestly say that I liked the 360 version the best. Obviously this may be because of my comfortable nature with the 360 controller, but it just felt right to me. There were minimal, if any, differences between the look, and feel of the three different versions. I even asked one of the producers how the process was coming on multiple platforms and he said, “everything is great, they will all release simultaneously”.
Finally the doors opened and a stampede of overweight men and beef jerky crumbs rushed into the gaming area. First we were introduced to the “military advisor” behind Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and he gave a little speech about the realistic features of the game and so on. Next, up walked the head producer to take us through the controls and what levels we would be playing. We would get the chance to take on two of the single player missions: Crew Expanded and The Bog. Starting out with Crew Expanded, which was an intro level taking place on a huge oil tanker. This oil tanker is somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, I believe exactly where the film “The Perfect Storm” took place. The weather effects in COD4 look freaking amazing and really made this demo level feel realistic, very chaotic. Chaotic is a theme visited a lot by the guys behind Modern Warfare, there is a lot going on in this game other than what your character is doing. Back to the tanker level, it starts off with a little infiltration action, moves on to some item recovery action, and ends with the boat sinking and you running for your life back to the helicopter.
The next level we got to play through was The Bog, this level was totally different from the previous boat one. The Bog takes place literally in the middle of an ongoing war, somewhere in the Middle East. As I started moving through the level the one theme I kept coming back to was chaos. There were so many things going on around me, guns, bombs, killing, and then there is the objective that needs to be completed. Don’t get me wrong, this is not chaos in a bad way, this is chaos in a very good way. Everything about the second demo level screams game of the year, it was just that fun. We were introduced to the night-vision aspect of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare in this level and I cannot say enough good things about it, it was epic. Most games have a hard time with the night-vision part but Infinity Ward has done it right with spot-on graphics and easy handling. Our objectives in The Bog level ranged from clearing out a two-story stronghold to blowing up tanks with a rocket launcher. I played through both levels on all three difficulties to get a good feel for the single-player campaign and came out wanting more. Call of Duty 4’s campaign mode is shaping up to be the best in the franchise, and I have only seen two small levels.
