Best Sequel of 2007Call of Duty 4Whether it be movies or video games, sequels are usually inadequate when attempting to capture the audience they once had enthralled with their product. An innovative, immersive video game with originality makes for an arduous task to reproduce. Historically, sequels have failed to attain the bar which they had previously set so high. Ergo, you have Perfect Dark Zero, Quake 4, Max Payne, and possibly hundreds of additional retail calamities. However, there are exceptions to this rule and 2007 provided us with 4, all worthy of acclaim.
Ghost Recon 2: Advanced Warfighter hit the scene in early March and was quickly scooped up by the masses. Although consisting of a truncated single player campaign, it excelled via the online multiplayer aspect. Cooperative play, an abundance of maps, and an appreciable amount of game types solidified this title as one of the best of its genre at that particular time. Forza Motosport 2 gave gear heads around the globe the ability to modify their automobiles while tinkering with air pressure, balance, torque, and horsepower. The upgrades were great and the vast collection of obtainable vehicles was an added bonus. Online racing became intense and competition was plentiful. However, Forza also developed courses which were redundant especially considering the fact most raced on each course over a hundred times. In the end, it matched, if not surpassed its predecessor in all around quality. Then came Halo 3. Breaking sales records at every turn and nearly shutting down live due in part to the colossal influx of online traffic, it was a retail juggernaut and for good reason. The campaign was impressive and the dialogue in conjunction with the plot and story arc begets one engrossing experience. Online was solid although certain aspects of matchmaking were plagued with problems and the lack of any user control when selecting maps or game types served as a huge detriment to an otherwise flawless system. Overall it was a great sequel reminiscent of the old Combat Evolved days but only one title can be crowned the best of the best. Who could possibly dethrone a hundred million dollar block buster? None other than Call of Duty 4: Modern Combat!
Activision did what most developers are hesitant to do, take an already successful franchise and completely renovated it. Rather than placing the next iteration of the series within the tiresome and redundant World War II genre, they felt it would be beneficial if they broke the mold and went mainstream tactical. Whatever their reasoning behind the change, it has obviously worked in a dramatic fashion. Meta provided this tactical shooter with a 94 “Universal Acclaim” along with various other sites including our very own which bestowed CoD4 with a 9.9. Modern Warfare has receieved a tremendous reception and what placed Call of Duty ahead of all the aforementioned contenders was their ability to improve in comparison to the original Call of Duty titles.
While maintaining all of the integral components which make the franchise shine, they added additional elements to the game play which were implemented flawlessly. All other nominees went for the status quo, developing their sequels which did not deviate from their prior games. Activations’ latest bid took what made Rainbow Six: Vegas and Ghost Recon successful and placed specific aspects from both games respectively into that of their own. Weapons, tactics, and game play all resemble the above Clancy games which are by no means a negative inclusion. The campaign is exceptional and boasts of a fairly long single player story when compared to Halo 3 or Gears of War. The AI is intelligent (for the most part) and although the plot was not particular appealing, it is a joy to run about running and gunning or choosing to lay low and pick off enemies at a distance. Not difficult to complete, I still find myself engaged in battles I have on already completed over a dozen times. This is only indicative of how great the replay value is which is not even considering the online play.
With early server issues aside, Live play is spectacularly fun and new, innovated abilities were granted. I have not played Live versus all that much but the times I have my mind refused to relinquish the controller from my hand. It is addictive and incredibly entertaining. Overall and in the grand scheme of things Call of Duty 4: Modern Combat took a good franchise and made it into a legitimate, top notch video game. Many may have heard the old cliché, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. Well Call of Duty was never broke and did not necessitate a repair but what they ended up doing was upgrading an already outstanding shooter. The progress and improvements made are more abundant and recognizable than any other nominee. For that reason, Call of Duty 4: Modern Combat has been awarded by the PX360 staff as the Best Sequel of 2007.
Take a look at the Year in Review Part I here, which awarded the top Xbox Live Arcade and Alternative Sports games in 2007.
