GenieKnows Games Blog

World War II is officially over! While I truly enjoyed COD1 and COD2, I am so glad that World War II is over, and Infinity Ward has moved on to the modern ages. Call of Duty 4 is such a breath of fresh air for FPS fans. From the second you start to play it, you know that IW hit the nail on the head and my hat goes off to them, and they are very close in creating an amazing game. Granted, this is the Beta, and there are a few things that I would like to see changed and tweaked, but the enjoyment that I have got from playing this so far is amazing.

Gameplay – I’ll get right into it. The game play is awesome and highly addicting. Not too fast, not too slow. Everything runs very smooth. This game was advertised rocking a frame rate at 60fps. It did not disappoint. When you are playing you are glued to the TV and blinking is sometimes not an option. It is very intense and playing this game for a 5 hour session, seems like an hour. That is always a good sign for gaming, but not for your friends and family! Also, there is a ton of stuff to blow up. You can blow up cars and if an enemy is near them, or taking cover, they die.

Graphics – The game looks amazing. If I only saw the main menu, and nothing else, I would buy the game. It looks that good. Once you enter a game, you will find that everything is crisp, clear and not too highly detailed to where it looks like someone was trying too hard to impress you.

Maps – The beta is sporting 3 maps and 4 game modes that can be played on each map, so there is a good amount of variety on this beta. Vacant is a CQC map, and there seems to always be someone to shoot at. It is an abandoned warehouse, only 1 floor and an outside part that you can use for flanking the enemy. Crash is probably the best map on the beta. It provides both long range and CQC fighting. The map is centered around a crashed plane in a middle-eastern village. It reminds me a lot of the map Desert Glory from Socom 1. Overgrow is the third map and my least favorite. Snipers in guillie suits can take over a game on this map. There are bushes, grass and hay that they can blend in with and be almost undetectable. Its not a bad map, just a little slower paced and harder to find enemies to shoot them.

Game Modes – We have 3 game modes to play on each map. Team Death match is a 6v6 game and whoever gets the most kills win. Pretty simple. This is my least favorite game type. Domination is the best mode on the game. This is an objective based mode where each team tries to control zones, which are marked by flags. There are 3 zones, Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie. Each team accumulates points for holding a flag and the more flags you control at one time, the more points you get. The first team to 150 points wins. I haven’t figured out the point scale yet and how the points accumulate, but I do know that the more zones you control, the more points you get. There is Search and Destroy, my second favorite mode on the beta. You only get 1 life per round, so you have to make it count. There is an attacking team, who tries to plant explosives on one of two crates to demolish. If either team is completely killed before this happens, the other team will win, but the objective is to plant those explosives if you are attacking, and if you are defending, kill the attacking enemy. When this gets down to a 1v2 or a 1v1, it get VERY intense because the attacking team MUST either kill all of the defenders or plant the explosives or they lose so there is always movement. There is also a free for all mode which I have not played yet. All in all, there is actually very good variety in the beta and when you get bored of one mode, there is something else to captivate you.

Weapons – Up until this point, I have spoke very highly of the game with very little to complain about. But that is about to change. The weapons are awesome and very fun to use, but coming from a competitive gamer, fun does not equal good. There are 4 guns that are fine right now, and take the most skill to use. The M16 (3-burst only), MP5 (an SMG that you can use close range and spray enemies with a high rate of fire), AK-47 (by far the gun that takes the most skill on the game due to the recoil and the need to burst fire it), and the M40 sniper (bolt action). Those guns are fine as they are in the beta.

The M4, all light machine guns (LMG’s), and the M-21 sniper (M1 Garand on steroids with a scope), all need tweaked. There is little to no recoil on these guns and they are very easy to use. They are definitely the noob weapons on the game. To give you an example, someone can run around, jumping and still be dead accurate while shooting and jumping and going to prone then back up again with a 249 SAW. No way! That must change, and also, stance accuracy bonuses must be given to all the guns. If there is a difference, it is not noticeable. I can kill someone and be just as accurate standing up than I can laying prone. You can hold the trigger from across the map with a M4 and be dead accurate and get the kill. So, this needs tweaked. The M-21 is a sniper rifle with no recoil that you can fire semi auto.

Perks – These were something I was very curious to see how they would play out. They will be fun to unlock when the game comes out and fun to use in public rooms, but again, fun doesn’t equal good. They seem a little gimmicky to me right now. And you can definitely use them to noob up some noob weapons even more. Like, you can add the perk stopping power, and deep impact to the M21 sniper, and that now becomes a 1 shot kill, semi auto sniper rifle that can shoot through concrete walls. Again, they are fun, but for competitive play, they are not good, and I feel they have no place. The game would be just as enjoyable without them.

Award Perks – These are a great addition and really add to the enjoyment of the game. If you go on a 3 kill streak, you get a UAV (like GPS that shows orange bleeps on the radar where you can see the enemies. When you go on a 5 kill run, you can call in an airstrike. This is my absolute favorite. You hit right on the d-pad, and if the UAV is still going, you can drop a good amount of explosives and wipe out 3-4 enemies at a time, then, once you get on a 7 kill run, you can call in the helicopter support, which will hover and kill any enemy in site over its area. Now, I think the kills to get these should be upped to 5,7 and 10 respectively for the main game, but for right now, and the beta, they are so much fun and really add a positive to the game.

The Knife – The melee now is a knife. I do like the knife kills, and it is fun to sneak up behind someone and get a knife kill, but when you are face to face with someone, and you are shooting them in the face, the knifing animation makes them invincible or something and they kill you. That is not going to fly with me. That needs changed.

In closing, this game is going to be a hit. I look at it from the fun standpoint and the competitive standpoint. From the fun standpoint, the game is good as is. But from the competitive standpoint, there are some things that need tweaked. I would buy the Beta for $60. That is how good the game is, and how much fun it is to play. A game has not been in my 360 for 5 days now. I have just been playing the beta. I have racked up almost 4000 kills in 5 days. And why do we play these FPS games? To run around and get a lot of trigger time and shoot your gun at enemies. And Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare will give you plenty of things to shoot at. It will not disappoint.

review by Rekoil