A few days back, I showed you all of my favorite Call of Duty games. In that list, I briefly spoke of the 10 year anniversary of the release of the original Modern Warfare. Yesterday marked the decade old release of the game, so it was only appropriate that I take a look at it. Even after 10 years of existence, Call of Duty 4 still stands as an example of when the franchise was looked upon positively. From a time where the series had little to none of the controversy that’s damaged it today. I managed to reply the whole game a few weeks back, and the nostalgia waves are still fresh, as they helped me make this review. With that said, let’s take a look at Modern Warfare, and see what made it so great to begin with.
Development History (Taken from Wikipedia)
“Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was developed by a team of a hundred people, over the course of two years. After Call of Duty 2, the Infinity Ward team decided to move away from the World War II environment of previous games in the series. This resulted in three game concepts: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. While developing the story for Call of Duty 4, Infinity Ward chose to avoid referencing current, real-life wars, and keep the series' common theme of two opposing forces of similar strength. To enhance the realistic feel of the game, the development team attended a live-fire exercise at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, a training facility in the California desert. This helped the developers to simulate the effects of being near an Abrams tank when it fires. The team also talked with U.S. Marines who were recently in combat to get a feel for the background, emotions, and attitude of Marines in combat. Veterans were also recruited to supervise motion capture sessions and the artificial intelligence design of the game.
The development team designed the online multiplayer component to be balanced and rewarding for new players while still offering something for experienced players. An early idea to implement air support (air strikes and attack helicopters) involved players fighting over special zones to access a trigger for air support against enemies. This idea was discarded because it discouraged the type of deathmatch gameplay they intended. The kill streak reward system was put in its place to encourage the improvement of player skills. Players were allowed to select weapons before matches to get accustomed to weapons more easily and minimize weapon hunting. Maps were designed primarily for deathmatch games—the developers felt such designs suited other types of gameplay as well. Map layouts were designed to minimize locations players could hide from enemy gunfire.
Most of the music for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was written by British composer Stephen Barton, who had also contributed to film scores by Harry Gregson-Williams, to whom, composed the main theme of the game. Several music tracks from the game are available on Infinity Ward's "7 Days of Modern Warfare" website, and some are available at Barton's own web site. The rap song played during the end credits is performed by Call of Duty 4's lead animator, Mark Grigsby.
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare runs on the IW engine, specifically IW 3.0, featuring true world-dynamic lighting, HDR lighting effects, dynamic shadows and depth of field. Bullet penetration is calculated by the engine, taking into account factors such as surface type and entity thickness. The game runs in a native resolution of 600p on the Xbox 360 and PS3.
Certain objects, such as cars and some buildings, are destructible. This makes distinguishing cover from concealment important, as the protection provided by objects such as wooden fences and thin walls do not completely protect players from harm. Bullet stopping power is decreased after penetrating an object, and the decrease is dependent on the thickness and surface type of the object. The game makes use of a dynamic physics engine, not implemented in previous Call of Duty titles. Death animations are a combination of pre-set animations and ragdoll physics. Console versions of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare run at a consistent 60 frames per second, and the Wii version runs at 30 frames per second. Code was included to determine spawning points based on the nearby weapons and the relationship between enemy positions and line of sight to the points. The various criteria are meant to minimize players dying immediately after rejoining a match, or being "spawn-killed" due to players simply waiting for others to "respawn". However, enemies may still respawn infinitely, a notable feature in Call of Duty game engines.
The game engine has also been used for the development of two other Activision games. An enhanced version of the original engine was used in Call of Duty: World at War, the fifth installment in the Call of Duty series after Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, while a slightly altered version has been used for the James Bond video game Quantum of Solace as well as GoldenEye 007 using a heavily modified version.”
In-Game Story
In 2011, a civil war has broken out in Russia. The forces loyal to the country, and the ultranationalists who wish for the nation to become more like it’s old soviet-era self. This conflict results in the leader of the ultranationalists, Imran Zakhaev, to make a deal with the Middle Eastern Dictator, Khaled Al-Asad. Khaled Al-Asad is currently attempting a coup in a “Oil Rich” Middle East country (Never said which country), and has extreme anti-American views. Providing a perfect distraction, Al-Asad’s coup acts as a shield for Zakhaev’s actions in Russia. Unfortunately, a coalition between U.S. forces & British S.A.S. forms to take out Al-Asad (At first by the Americans) & Zakhaev (Both the Americans & British). Along the way, there’s a lot of twists & turns in this story, but to spoil even one would ruin the whole experience.
Let me be perfectly honest: Modern Warfare’s story is hokey as hell! When it first came out back in 2007, I thought it was badass. It came across very gritty, and had quite the amount of intrigue behind it. Nowadays, it comes across like the plot of a hokey action movie from the 80s. If I’m being honest....I kind of like hokey 80s action movies. Modern Warfare might come across as a little more serious at time, but it has more in common with the 80s than it cares to admit.
Gameplay
In many ways, Modern Warfare’s gameplay isn’t that much different from Call of Duty 2. There’s regenerating health, a checkpoint system instead of the traditional save system, etc. It’s what’s been changed that’s different. The setting is no longer in World War 2 for starters. That era’s archaic nature is gone, and the modern methods of warfare are now standard practice. This translates into the weapons you find & use: M4 Carbines, Desert Eagles, and Uzis are just a few of the guns you find. There’s frag grenades & flashbangs for primary & tactical grenades respectfully, and there are situational weapons like the stinger missile launcher for mission-specific moments. These weapons & equipment really make it feel like you’re fighting in a modern war, and the enemies are more modern as well. Gone are the classic Nazis of the Third Reich, and instead you’ve got to deal with the soldiers of Khaled Al-Asad & the Ultranationalists led by Imran Zakhaev. Though the tactics of both forces seems largely the same, the physical features of both sides differentiates them enough to the point that they at least feel different.
Multiplayer has received something of an upgrade since the previous 2 games. In addition to being able to pick your guns, equipment, and whatever side you play, there are now perks you can pick to upgrade your abilities. Picking up to a maximum of 3, perks are organized into 3 tiers. Each tear is organized among offensive perks, defensive perks, and more utility-oriented perks. Being able to hold more equipment, doubled fire rate, and a longer run time are just a couple of the perks you can pick. Guns also have a limited selection of attachments to choose from, including various sights. As with leveling yourself up, you levels up guns to get their respective attachments. There are also kill streaks as well, and they offer momentary benefits. 3 kills gets you a radar ping (Reveals opponents), 5 gets you an airstrike (A group of jets deals high damage in a line), and 7 kills gets you an attack helicopter (Similar to the airstrike, but lasts longer & travels around the map). To balance things out, if one side gets an airstrike or helicopter, then the other side can’t because of airspace being taken up. It is a little annoying when one side has their stuff out and the otherside can’t, but my best guess is that it might have slowed down the game somehow, and so some form of balance was required.
Finally there’s the level-up system. Unlike previous Call of Duty games, players have a level in multiplayer mode. By completing games & killing enemies, you gain XP that increases your level. At many levels you gain, you acquire the various guns, equipment, and perks you use. You start at level 1, and can go all the way up to 55. Once you get to 55, you can “Prestige”: you start back at level 1 & progress once again back to 55, regaining all of the guns, equipment, and perks you earned before. With each prestige level, you gain an emblem showing off your prestige level, and gain another class slot (Normal maximum amount is 5). Ironically, the prestige feature was taken out of the PC edition. Very curious.
Graphics
Modern Warfare’s engine uses what’s called the IW Engine, which in itself is based off of Id Tech 3 (The engine used in Quake 3 Arena). The version used for this game was Call of Duty 2's IW 2.0 engine. This engine allowed for a variety of things, including bullet penetration, improved AI, lighting engine upgrades, and a bunch of other stuff. For it’s time it was impressive, but nowadays it’s.....okay at best. Everything bad about the engine is incredibly apparent now: from the textures to the lighting you can tell that the IW Engine is based off of dated technology. There was a remastered edition of the game that came out this year......but we don’t talk about it.
Others
If you’re curious about this game, take a look at the walkthrough below.
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Walkthrough)
Overall Impression & Rating
Modern Warfare was a phenomenal release back in 2007. It ushered in waves of change, both good & bad, to the Call of Duty franchise as a whole. Moving it out of it’s WW2 beginnings, it’s advancements in graphics & gameplay (Single & Multi) really rose the game above many other FPS games of the late 2000s, and cemented itself as an undying classic. Even today, with the franchise receiving almost unyielding amounts of hate & criticism, there are those who look at Modern Warfare with rose-tinted glasses, letting feelings of nostalgia take over for a bit. If you’re a new Call of Duty fan who wants to see a glimpse into the past, or an old-school fan who wants a look back at the glory days, then load up Modern Warfare and give it a go.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare gets a 8 out of 10, although those who look at the game more nostalgically probably would give it a 9 out of 10. Maybe a full-blown 10 out of 10 if they really loved the game.
So that was my look at the original Modern Warfare. Deserving of it’s positive reputation, it does shows signs of it’s age nowadays, but at the same time still has a lot of good about it. Fans back in the day liked it, and even people who are highly critical of Call of Duty still give Modern Warfare some credit. I definitely give it credit still here in 2017. So, see you all next week, when I’ll talk about my favorite missions within the Call of Duty franchise. Until then, may your fighting spirit be a bit more modern.
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