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Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
www.callofduty.com
Reviewed by:
Nathan Herman
(12/18/07) |
Accessibility Rating
5.0 |
Game Overview --
Modern Warfare is developer Infinity Ward's third installment in the Call of Duty franchise. It takes the game from the tired World War II setting, and plops it into modern day. Call of Duty 4 is a pseudo-realistic first-person shooter that, at least for the single player experience, really focuses on story, and specific moments within that story that make you go "Oooh!".
In contrast to Crysis's free-roaming, open areas, COD4 leads you from one objective to the next using waypoints and your squad mates as cues. Even though you're being led down a relatively linear path, the games atmosphere really doesn't make it feel that way. The atmosphere and immersive nature of the single player campaign, really makes you feel like you're in a blockbuster movie at times.
Unfortunately, sometimes you also feel like you're in an extremely frustrating video game. I only played on regular difficulty, but sometimes the automatic save feature would save in an extremely tricky spot, or even worse... not save at all, and force me to do several minutes of repetitive gunfighting over again.
The single player campaign, though relatively short is extremely rewarding upon completion. Also upon completion, an arcade mode is unlocked as well as a cheat mode, with cheats being unlocked by finding laptops hidden throughout the single player campaign.
Multiplayer would be a pretty standard affair, except for the fact that completing certain objectives, challenges, or just killing folks nets you experience. This experience is used to unlock different skills and abilities called perks, as well as guns, and camouflage patterns for said guns. This really adds a level of depth and replayability, as you try to climb your way up through the ranks to earn more and more bonuses, and in turn frag more and more opponents. Some players say this gives the veterans an unfair advantage, but if you think about it, a veteran is going to have an advantage on a new player anyway... that's the fun part of being a veteran. Knowing the maps, and basically being better than everyone else.
This mixture of RPG, and FPS really pulls the multiplayer up above its competitors and keeps you hooked.
Accessibility & UI/Controls --
The interface is pretty standard for a first-person shooter, with the mouse to look around and turn, and the keyboard to move and perform miscellaneous other functions. Not really a lot to say here... if you've played one FPS, you pretty much know how to play them all. All of the key bindings are customizable via the options, so that's nice, but again pretty standard.
This one's going to be pretty hard to play for gamers with low mobility. I managed to get by using the N key for forward, the SPACE key for backpedaling, my touchpad for mouse look and whatever else I could bind to the various touchpad "buttons", and Dragon NaturallySpeaking for all the keys I can't reach. Unfortunately, this means I cannot strafe... which, as you can imagine is quite a disadvantage, especially in multiplayer. I did manage to get through single player with only a few instances of extreme frustration, but multiplayer is proving to be more difficult.
The game can run windowed, but it doesn't do a lot of good for people who rely upon on-screen keyboards, due to its FPS nature. There are subtitles that sometimes do not show at the beginning of the mission, or when there's other messages already on the screen. This is a minority of the time, but still worth mentioning.
For a semi-tactical game, the "twitch" factor is actually pretty high. Reflexes are a must in multiplayer, while in single player you can sometimes get away with taking things slow, advancing cautiously, and thinking about strategy. However, when you see the grenade icon pop up on the screen, you MUST hit the grenade button to throw the explosive back at your enemy (whatever you have that bound to) immediately, or it's an instant death.
Summary --
From an able-bodied gamer's perspective, Call of Duty 4 is an excellent game. From a disabled gamer's perspective, it may just be average or unplayable depending on your mobility. Definitely a low accessibility score, that’s unfortunately shared by all games of this genre.
Pros |
Cons |
• Amazing graphics and immersive gameplay & story
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• Twitch gameplay |
• Features subtitles
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• Incompatible with on-screen keyboards |
• Works well with Dragon NaturallySpeaking
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• Subtitles sometimes fail to display
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• Spotty save system |
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