Call of Duty 4 is fan service–and more–for those who played Call of Duty 2. The game may not have you shooting Germans, and may be a whole hell of a lot prettier, but it still feels like very much the same game. And, before you start questioning me, I beat the damn game over a week ago.

The game is good. Some might go so far as to say really good. I don’t want this to be a review though, so I’ll assign no score. The game was enjoyable, worthy of a playthrough for any FPS enthusiast, and is deserving of most of the praise it will get.

The game takes about 5-8 hours to complete (more if you play it on Veteran). The game feels instantly familiar to those who have played previous CoD games, but also manages to mix in enough new mechanics to keep it feeling fresh. For instance, the mission where you get to shoot the guns of C-130–fucking priceless; even the dialogue between the radio operators is convincing. I even watched real videos of people being shot by C-130 guns, to compare. This game knows its shit.

However, for all the bits of realism and military oo la la, there are times when the game returns to being just that, a game. Walls that you can’t go past, enemies that don’t always react the way that you know a human would — these things make the game playable. The game isn’t totally forcing you down a path, but at the same time you will never really get lost–your objective marker always gives you the “hey, idiot” path.

The graphics of the game are strange to me. They are both pretty and odd looking at the same time. The grass and foilage of the game looks amazing, but sometimes buildings still look like they are from an older title. Let it be known, though, that CoD 4 has the best frame rate of any 360 game to date. Seriously, from the moment you start playing you will be a little confused as to why the game feels weird to your eyes–that’s just 30fps sickness, you’ll get over it soon enough.

The only thing I haven’t gotten to try yet is the multiplayer. However, if it is even half as competent as the single player, fans will have nothing to worry about.

Chufmoney