Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - PlayStation 3 Review

I am coming at this review from a slightly backwards perspective.  My second review on this blog was actually Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.  I had never played a CoD game prior to that one, and honestly had never had much interest in it or first-person shooters at that point.  However, when MW2 hit, it was tremendously popular around my workplace.  Finally, two of my co-workers chipped in and basically got it for me for free - so I felt compelled to not only play, but sink a good deal of time into it.  Turns out, I enjoyed the game a great deal.  I haven't played MW2 in a couple of years, but plan to do a re-review on it in the somewhat near future.

See, I eventually traded it in.  I had been playing it quite regularly, but when most of my friends quit playing, so did I.  Then my son got into FPS titles on the PlayStation 3, which has the added benefit of allowing people to play multiplayer titles for free (he does not have a Gold account for Life).  So, my son bought Modern Warfare 1 and 2.

I only recently played the first Modern Warfare, and even though it is not a title I will probably play with any regularity going forward, it really gave me a unique perspective on the series' growth.


Graphics - 7:

The graphics and engine really do not seem all that much different from this title to the recent Modern Warfare 3.  Certainly the newer title has been use of detail and movement in the scenes, but for a title more than four years old the first Modern Warfare acquits itself pretty well overall.  Action is smooth and fast and it is easy to see why it was such a hit upon release.


Sound & Music - 8:

The gunfire is good, the explosions appropriately loud and rumbling.  Really this may be one of the areas that has not seen a lot of change throughout the series.  Maybe the quality of voice actors has gotten better over the last release or two, but overall the music and sound are pretty solid and don't show any of the age issues often associated with something like graphics.


Gameplay - 7:

The gun play is responsive and the controls felt familiar and fluid.  That said, there were modes and items missing that I had come to appreciate or even take for granted in the later releases.  There were also several instances of odd behavior when I played.  Specifically poor connection speeds on my part led to some odd glitches like laser sights and hyper-fast moving characters.  I also noticed several odd things in various killcams that led me to believe maybe there was some glitchy play taking place for others as well.  I won't come right out and say 'cheating', but there were some dubious moments that rattled the multiplayer for me.


Intangibles - 6:

An excellent ending to a fun but short campaign mode really highlighted this title for me.  Four plus years or not, that final mission was awesome in my opinion.  That said?  It is a very short campaign mode, and the multiplayer community is not real big.  I seldom had matches that were maxed out in players, and the leveling system seems bare bones compared to the modern iterations.  Also, there is no trophy support for people who collect those.


Overall - 7:

This is the series that turned me into a fan of the FPS genre.  Coming in late and then going back a few years afforded me some unique perspective, and for those who feel nothing 'new' comes of the later releases, I would disagree at this point.  Is it revolutionary when a new release comes out?  No, but the polish of the tried and true formula should be appreciated because those incremental improvements can really be felt after spending a few days with this title and then going back to Modern Warfare 3 on my 360.



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4 comments:

  1. I'm like you that I played Modern Warfare 2 first. I have CoD 4: Modern Warfare, but just haven't started it yet. I actually liked Modern Warfare 2 and it's one of my top favorite CoD games so far, so I'm sure I will like CoD 4: Modern Warfare also. It sucks that it doesn't have trophies, but the plus side is that I don't have to rush this game in my backlog list. I can play this when I want a break from trophies. Awesome review!

    - The Girl Gamer

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  2. Modern Warfare 3 was my first "Modern Warfare" Call of Duty game to play. I had friends that played this one, the original, A LOT when it first released. They were playing it on the Xbox 360 though, and we didn't have one then, and I seem to be pretty good at avoiding hyped games...and repeat requests to play certain ones (see: World of Warcraft...).


    I know this one got ported to the Wii and I did some data reports on it (pimped my Mii out with some grenades and a knife for one banner).


    Being that I enjoyed World at War, Black Ops, and Modern Warfare 3...I, like you, have been interested in playing this one, to see what got the "Modern" series kicked off so well.


    I should add this to my bargain hunting list for the Wii and/or PS3. Probably can find it cheap, maybe it'll pop up on this Steam Summer Sale for $2.49....?

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  3. It was definitely interesting to 'go back' and see how things kicked off in the series after the fact, after all of the hype had long subsided (and really, now this game and series gets a lot of hate from certain groups of people too). And it may well show up on Steam at some point - I am pretty sure I've seen it on there before, though I think it was for more like $5.

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  4. Thanks! And thanks for dropping in to comment! I did like MW 2 considerably better - in fact I still like the multiplayer maps for MW 2 better than 3 - probably because I like to Snipe and I felt like the maps in MW 2 were among the best for creating good lines of sight. :P

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