Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare [X360]

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Call of Duty 4 is enough to make a jaded gamer's jaw drop. You might think you've seen it all, but then Infinity Ward's latest war pageant rolls out some new trick, and it's like discovering the joy of gaming all over again. With a single player experience this spectacular, and with this much multiplayer content, here's a shooter you won't want to miss.

The gunplay is as good as it's ever been, with a new emphasis on being able to shoot through walls (this takes some getting used to in multiplayer!). The friendly and enemy AI are lively and exciting, with plenty of killing and dying all around you, accompanied by frantic chatter and Hollywood-ized war sounds. And, of course, the graphics are amazing. Infinity Ward knows not just how to build levels, but how to paint them with color, light, and character. The developer's talented artists seem to relish the opportunity to finally break out of the theatres of World War II and into the wide modern world.

As a story, Call of Duty 4 is a solid Clancy-esque politico-thriller, grim and uncomfortably topical. Their previous historical games always felt like a contrived tour of the Greatest Hits of World War II, but these set pieces tie into a central narrative, complete with a cast of characters. It's told mostly from the perspectives of an American and a British soldier whose storylines eventually converge. There's even a nicely developed back story and an astonishing third act twist.

Furthermore, Infinity Ward takes some tired conventions and makes them exciting again. The tutorial, the "tram ride", the turret mission, and the stealth mission are all present, and they're each done in a way that not only avoids cliche, but that also makes them stand out. The tutorial is a quick training session for a mission and then the mission itself, which plays out with you tagging along for a boat ride like you've never seen in a videogame. Longtime gamers might remember the crashing ship from Jedi Knight. Here's the next-gen version.

The "tram ride" concept started with Half-Life. The idea is that you ride through a series of staged scenes, not unlike a Disney ride, that collectively establish the setting. In Call of Duty 4, it's not quite what you'd expect. This isn't the last time Call of Duty 4 will having you asking, 'Wait a minute, can they do that?'