If you’ve experienced the barrage of ads for Infinity Ward’s newest shooter, “Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare,” you’ve already heard the most important concept to remember—“Wars change. Soldiers don’t.” The game moves the series from the familiar World War II into modern day military combat. However, the essence of the game remains intact.
This essence—the terrifying yet cinematic experience of being stuck in the trenches, pinned down by enemy gunfire with your fellow soldiers—is supported by the graphics engine that Infinity Ward stunned audiences with in 2005 when “Call of Duty 2” launched with the Xbox 360. The problem, of course, is that was two years ago—the question is whether an aging engine can run with the big dogs like “Halo 3” and “Gears of War.”
The answer is a resounding “sort of.” The lighting and ambient effects like heat wavering off a muzzle flare have been improved to match upgraded technology on the battlefield. However, some aspects of the engine—the lack of animation in foliage, the lower texture detail on buildings and other larger surfaces—show the engine’s age. The game makes up for the engine’s shortcomings with some beautiful architecture and a rock-solid frame rate, which should keep most players perfectly content.
The game play is solid, with tight controls and very authentic weaponry. At first, the modern weapons feel a little overpowered, but as the game progresses and the enemies get more numerous, a balance emerges that keeps you from putting the controller down. The experience carries over into the already award-winning multiplayer on Xbox Live, which plays like a dream and is a blast for those who can’t stand to end the warfare in the campaign.
We’ve seen real strides in artificial intelligence this year with games like “Bioshock” and “Halo 3” raising the bar for “COD 4,” but unfortunately the “wars change, soldiers don’t” mantra sticks in this department. A.I. soldiers are still heavily dependent on scripting, meaning all your fellow soldiers are busy waiting for you to make the next move before they can perform some critical action like opening a door or giving you a rocket launcher. Sure, the scripts are the reason why some of the game’s most cinematic battles play out the way they do, but little happens spontaneously.
Fortunately, the guys at Infinity Ward know their strengths and put this heavy scripting to great use crafting some genuinely amazing sequences in a game that feel straight out of movies like “Black Hawk Down.” The first time you see the action of the game from a gunner’s night vision display on a bomber is a little surreal.
“COD 4” toes a tricky line here. For a series that prides itself on making the authentic feeling of war accessible to the masses, there is little actual linkage to the wars of today. American soldiers wage war in a nameless Middle Eastern country on pretend terrorists.
While the waste of war is always a part of the story, along with subtle jabs at the U.S. military’s ability to gather intelligence, the developers never take a firm stand on any of the issues surrounding the real-life modern war in Iraq. This is probably for the best—the game remains a pure experience, as objective an experience of modern war as possible.
