Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (2007)

This game marked a major turning point for the franchise, shifting from WWII to a modern combat setting, it's cinematic single-player campaign is gripping, with standout missions like "All Ghillied Up" delivering intense, immersive experiences, the story is well-paced, with memorable characters and emotional weight. The multiplayer revolutionized online shooters, though I admit that I didn't very much at the time, I started playing the multiplayer more "seriously" at MW2 and onward, so I missed out on this one quite a bit.

While the graphics are dated by modern standards, the game remains a benchmark for first-person shooters, I consider this one of the best shooters of all time, I have a lot of it's scenes memorized forever because I played and replayed the campaign a lot of times, truly a groundbreaking classic that redefined the FPS genre.

Another standout is how tightly designed the campaign feels from start to finish, there’s very little filler, each mission introduces a new mechanic, perspective, or shift in pacing that keeps things fresh. The alternating viewpoints between different protagonists add scale to the conflict, and the set pieces still hold up because of their strong direction and sound design. Even today, the way the game blends scripted events with player control feels seamless rather than restrictive.

The multiplayer, in hindsight, was just as influential as the campaign, the class system, killstreak rewards, and persistent progression loop set the template for countless shooters that followed. It laid the groundwork for what the series would refine in later entries like its direct sequel, which is where I personally became more invested online. Overall, even though I didn’t fully dive into it at the time, it’s clear that this title wasn’t just a great installment, it was a defining moment for competitive multiplayer gaming as a whole.

Call of Duty 4 is easily my favorite installment in the CoD franchise. War isn't hell in modern warfare, its clinical. You step through the motions, disconnected from any type of emotional attachment, to kill, to murder, to fight to the best of your ability. The first scene this game presents is of disconnected brutality, of a true hell on earth. An islamic-style fictional country has been overcome by extremist revolution and chaos, terrorists murdering civilians on the street, brutal crackdowns of public protests and all you can do it watch. Its a scene that I remember since I originally got my hands on this game.

I hardly think the true disconnect that warfare in our day and age presents has been depicted better than the AC-130 gunship mission in this game. Simply seeing your enemy being nothing but white dots to fire at, while your pilots make humorous remarks on this mass slaughter, never has a modern-esque fps military game been so cathartic and unsettling than in the Original Modern Warfare. There are obviously over-the-top action sequences that negate the overall effect of the point this game is trying to get across. But even at its most explosive moments the game pauses to constantly remind us of the utter reprising, clinical nature of war. While the nuke goes of in the city, and other game/movie would have cut to black and switched perspectives, but there it leaves you, crawling towards the devastation this massive weapon of absolute destruction has caused.

In this day and age, where bombs are being dropped on unsuspecting Palestinian civilians using hobbyist drones and where the constant threat of nuclear weapons looms behind a possible conflict in the middle east, Modern Warfare has only gained relevance over the years, and will probably continue to do so.

Again, sorry for the depressing ending, Have a nice day!

Score: 85/100

(P.S. updated review from my backloggd)

FPS - Follows U.S. Marine Sgt. Paul Jackson and British S.A.S. Soap Mactavish as they battle Russian ultranationalist Imran Zakhaev to prevent a nuclear catastrophe.

PROS:

++ Perfect campaign. Even though the campaign was short, it was perfectly paced in my opinion. It's a good example of "never a dull moment". From the first mission to the last, and everything in-between, I enjoyed my time playing. Every mission felt distinct in its setting and goal. There was lots of variety in missions: sneaking in ghillie suits, manning a grenade launcher on a heli, getting to use an AC-130, etc. And there were certain missions that are just unforgettable: All Ghillied Up, Shock and Awe, and even Crew Expendable. It was exciting from start to end.

++ Multiplayer. I was shocked to find out that people were still playing this game online in 2024. Even though it's basic compared to later entries, the multiplayer component is still solid. Solid progression, simple modes, and minimal killstreaks, add up to an enjoyable multiplayer experience. Had lots of good memories playing this when I was younger.

++ Innovative. Instead of making another WWII game, they moved onto the modern setting and it was a brilliant move. A new setting meant that everything felt fresh. There were a whole host of new equipment; new guns (including sidearms), flashbangs, C4, NV goggles, grenade launchers, etc.

++ Top-notch presentation. Music, sound design, graphics, and cutscene choreography was all excellent. The masterful presentation really elevated the simple narrative.

++ Narrative. The story wasn't anything crazy, but it is still a huge improvement over past games. Though the antagonists and protagonists (MacTavish, Price, Gaz, etc.) were not developed upon, the fact that they were distinct was a step in the right direction.

++ Nostalgia. I would be remiss to not mention that I have a heavy bias towards this game. It was the first game I ever completed from start to finish and was one of the main reasons why I started and fell in love with gaming. This entry will always have a special place in my mind, and it helps that it's aged pretty well too.

CONS:

-- Infinite waves. Once you are aware of this, it's not too bad. But there are quite a few sections where the enemies will endlessly spawn until you cross a certain point in the stage. This forces the player to be more aggressive (which is good), but slightly annoying when you're not aware of it.

-- Getting hit. This is another minor complaint, but getting hit in this game was quite annoying. The camera would jerk too much and you wouldn't be able to see anything. In the past games, getting hit wasn't so visually debilitating.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was a legendary change from the series and one that blew my mind as a kid. I never played Call of Duty 3 because I was too poor for a Playstation so when this game got around, I was baffled with excitement. The whole concept of putting a classic, well known WWII series to the modern age was just something that I never could imagen as a kid.

In Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, the story starts of strong with modern day conflict, in which a president is executed in an unnamed country in the Middle East. The whole process to this execution is witnessed in first person and immediately attached itself to me as a great beginning of the story that I was eager to experience further.

After this, you take control of different characters in different regions, playing most of the time as John Soap, a recruit that receives his fair share of action and misery throughout the campaign. You fight in the United Kingdom, Russia, Azerbaijan and Ukraine in different missions, to uncover the origin of the war between The Russian Federation and the nationalists, backed-up by the regime of Al-Assad from the Middle East.

The best part, in my opinion, is the constant switching to other characters and stories, and the mini scenarios in which you experience a tragic event, which leads to an epic cutscene. In general, the story was very strong and I enjoyed every minute, scene and event of it, always wondering what would happen next. When Captain Price returned, straight from Call of Duty 2, my experience with the game was complete.

The introduction of collectibles that reward you with weapons and small game tweaks was a nice addition and further enhanced the experience.

The graphics where legendary for the time, and the way I experienced it as a kid, it was to much for my garbage PC to handle. I praised the lord that my PC would allow it on the lowest settings. The animations, and effects are great and I can only praise them.

When it comes to sound, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was a little mixed bag. This was mainly because of the leap to the modern era. The guns sounded fine, but the grenade explosions where not as powerful as Call of Duty 2. The music was not that special, although it fitted the game well, especially in the opening scene.

Combat, controls and movement are still the smoothest I have experienced in the series thus far. It is easy to master, the cover mechanics help a lot in the Single Player campaign and, by now, I am used to the health regeneration mechanic. Gunplay feels accurate and fair and in short, I can only praise the overall experience.

Overall, the game is just a perfect example of how to progress the series further. Sure, a lot of assets and mechanics have been burrowed from the earlier games, but the way they combined it with new features and the excellent story, really made an impression. I cared about the characters, NPC’s and the overall experience was just great.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was the game of choice when going to a LAN Party and it will always hold a place in my black heart. The multiplayer was, and still is to this day, one of the best and most fun to play. This is one of those examples in which I wished that we could just go back to the earlier 2000’s, where games were not money cows but works of art.

Definitely recommend this timeless classic.

Over the years I've played more than half of the campaign and a few rounds of multiplayer at a LAN party with 'the boys'. It was okay.

My first memory of playing this was actually at a gaming cafe after taking a long hiatus from gaming. I was trying to focus on my studies at college for a couple years and finally broke down when I heard The Orange Box had been released. I made my way to a gaming cafe to boot up Team Fortress 2 and played that for nearly the whole session. Over the din of the game in my headphones there was a sad sounding man regaling no one in particular about his recent conquests in World Of Warcraft, still a very big thing in 2007 I must say.

Anyway, I booted into CoD:MW 2007 up for the last ten or fifteen minutes of my session and decided I had had more fun with Team Fortress 2. While I would go on to understand that the leveling system in CoD:MW 2007's multi-player was quite novel, the minute to minute gameplay didn't grab me - it still felt very close to Medal of Honor: Allied Assault and the original CoD, itself a spiritual successor and otherwise known as 'Medal Of Honor: Allied Assault Xtreme Edition'.

What a wonderful memory - I had just finished exams and was treating myself.

Beat story on standard and played 2 rounds of multiplayer.

This story does NOT age well.

Besides the jingoistic nonsense though, it is presented in the goofiest and most bombastic way possible. It moves in a way that I never learn anyone's name or motivations but then I am supposed to care when things happen to them?

There is so much chatter in mission and I have no idea who the fuck is speaking or about what, it is just noise.

I do not enjoy multiplayer and this is no different. I remember playing over 100 hours of this game when it originally came out and somehow it has loot boxes and microtransactions now???

Uggh.

I don’t know what compelled me to check this out 11 years after its release, but I am glad I did. Modern Warfare is a thrilling FPS that captures the tension of a high-quality action blockbuster with its excellent sense of pacing. It does this by being highly scripted, to the point that it almost resembles an on-rails shooter. This isn’t overly noticeable until you die, which is when you can really see the seams. This, combined with respawning enemy wells can sometimes create a disconnect for the player, having to rely on your teammates instructions as to whether you’re supposed to push ahead or stay and eliminate the immediate threat. If you attempt to push through when the game doesn’t want you to, you will be immediately punished. To maintain that sense of rollercoaster momentum it has had to sacrifice any flexibility. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, because it helps to craft a very tight 6hr campaign.

The characters are non-existent. There’s a guy named Soap, whose name is Soap. Never once does anyone make any soap-related puns. I mean, it’s right there! Something something clean war something. This stuff writes itself.

The plot is surprisingly comprehensible, but nothing too noteworthy. I appreciated the anti-war messages spread throughout the game. The Death From Above mission where you operate an AC-130 really conveyed the sense of detachment that results from the gamification of warfare. The statistics that pop up at loading screens after dying were also particularly effective. Not to mention all the horrible things you see and take part of.

Most importantly, All Gillied Up. Wow, now that’s what I call a mission. Atmospheric, perfectly paced and wonderfully tense. If they ever make that dumb COD movie that has been planned for years it should just be a feature-length gillied up extravaganza.

I might check out MW2 at some point, but considering there have been 11 games released since MW I imagine the highly cinematic formula has grown pretty stale. Either way this game holds up remarkably well and is very much still worth your time today.