Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - The FPS of The Ages
Today Call of Duty has taken the role of being almost a invective. Year after year we have gotten a new Call of Duty-title, with one loud minority losing interest fast with every new game, and when something takes the role of being the biggest, baddest and best, hard criticism is also expected to follow. But let's not also forget how amazing CoD has been through-out the years. The first game, produced by Infinity Ward, acted like one of the first counters to the game Medal of Honor, a series that they also developed but they did that for EA and they later moved on to Activision. But it was not until Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, my personal favorite of the series, that the studio would start shaking and transforming the whole military-action gaming world while also setting a new bar to what an first person shooter experience should look like.
After the release of Modern Warfare in 2007, the genre changed overnight.
The seed that was planted in 2007 and has since flourished and become an massive three, who's shadow reaches out through the entire genre it helped to shape. For not such a long time ago, this created a somewhat absurd behavior in the CoD universe. EA dusted of the old Medal of Honor-license and made their own representation of Modern Warfare, which would result in two painfully hollow titles that nobody remembers today. Dice's Battlefield series managed to keep itself to what makes Battlefield being Battlefield, but traces of Call of Duty's DNA could still be sniffed out here and there, mostly in the single-player experience part of the game. The giant Halo was even affected and when Halo 4 was launched it came with "killstreaks"- inspired effort-based rewards in the shape of stronger weapons and symmetrical similar conditions that could be implemented in the match to turn the tide.
But what exactly was it with Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare that was so ground breaking, revolutionary and influential that the rest of the industry felt obligated to copy so much? What did Infinity Ward do different to make them trend-setters instead of trend-followers?
Endless game developers have tried to mimic what Infinity Ward did with Call of Duty 4, but failed to get the same response as CoD 4 got.
Keeping It Real In War
Well the simple answer of course is that it's a great game that very accessible to all players. When something launches and gets such a wide appreciation from the audience as Modern Warfare did, other's want to join the money train. The game was received with open arms by the gaming press and the only problem with the game was that it was to short for such an awesome experience. But what was specifically really good about the game? Call of Duty is notorious for not changing to much in the mechanics between titles, but still not one of the sequels are able to beat the wide love that Call of Duty 4 got.
It was all about Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare taking the realistic shooter genre into the future. The premise and the way the story is told on made it easy for us as players to sympathize and relate, especially with the war going full head on in the middle east in the real world. The events that take place in Modern Warfare where all events that one could imagine happening in the real world . It made the central conflict in the game becoming palpable and easy to be sucked into. The game pulls this of right as you boot up the game with an introduction scene in which you take the role of the Saudi-Arabian president Yasir Al-fulani as he gets executed on national TV for supporting the western world for his own personal gain.
Modern Warfare credible portrayed a war that the player could easily empathize with.
The embedded feeling of realism stretch over even to the gameplay aspect. In the introduction training level, Infinity Ward makes it clear that this won't be an "arcadey", jumpy or chaotic shooter - but rather one where you need to take your sweet time aiming on your targets to methodically progress through the battlefield. Enemies didn't act like bullet-sponges that could take a full mag to the chest and remain standing, in CoD 4 they would die after only a few direct hits and they also reacted in a natural way when under fire. This vulnerability is also of course extended to the player, especially on higher difficulties where both you and your enemies are just as squishy. This vulnerability also helped to foster the realistic aspect of the game while also making the fire-fights feeling exciting and nervous.
Even the games characters where presented and acted in a way that coordinated with the feeling of vulnerability. While the most common way that developers use to make players connect to a game is by having little, intimate moments alone with the game characters, just as Infinity Ward did with the latest Infinite Warfare-title, where they obviously want you to feel a friendship connection with the characters going out in the field with you. There where no such thing in the old classic Call of Duty 4:Modern Warfare. There is no scene where Captain Price, Gaz and Soap are sitting taking a break between the missions, talking about their kids waiting at home or how irritating it was that their favorite team lost the Premier League.
The moustachioed gentleman has become something of an unofficial figurehead for the series, although he has not even been in half of them.
War Is Hell
Captain Price might be the series most iconic character, and that's even with us not knowing anything about him or his personal life. He did feel real though. The whole squad in CoD 4 felt real, they didn't seem like a bunch of fictitious brutes. You respected them - maybe because they where pro's, they where men that where determined at putting both life and limb in the path of danger to get the job done. The way they spoke to each other and the player felt authentic and when they found themselves in a crisis they would not crack jokes about not making it home to dinner - the conflict and the seriousness of the war was never trivialized. This also added to the adrenaline filled moments that we got in the game, because when all of the characters involved in a scene cracks jokes or makes smart comments they really never feel vulnerable. The player would never now if they would come home alive or not and that was what made the game so memorable.
Especially considering how Infinity Ward would kill of their characters. The soldier Paul Jackson that we got to control on the american side of the conflict was killed in a nuclear explosion half way into the game, a scene that keeps us reminded of how shockingly unpredictable this amazing game was. Infinity Ward gave us some short glimpses of hope that our character had survived the catastrophe as we crawled out from the crashed helicopter and for a minute we got to inhale and processes the giant inferno we were standing in, completely alone.
If you don't know the feeling of standing alone in the middle of an area getting nuked, you need to buy Call of Duty 4:Modern Warfare ASAP.
One thing i personally clearly remember is my own reaction to how diluted the games tragedy's where for the other characters, meaning in the way that you couldn't really now what impact their death would have. When Paul Jackson, that I was so convinced I would fight with side by side with Soap, Price, Gaz and Griggs until the very end, all of a sudden died and the game without any hesitation just keeps going I didn't really know what to expect. Would this mission be even possible? When our cap-wearing team-mate Gaz receives a bullet to the forehead towards the end of the game, the same feeling returns, we didn't get a last cliche filled scene where a "hero dies to save others", we didn't hold him in our arms crying as he died - we would just watch from a distance how he got to pay the ultimate price. The lack of the typical emotional part of the story didn't make the scene less horrible, on the contrary, it rather made it more horrifying just because how real it felt.
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was not trying to just make another game among the crowds with huge action sequences where giant buildings collapse and sleazy drama takes place every other second. There where moments where the game broke it's pattern, in which the famous AC130-level sticks out the most. The military soldiers aboard this flying warship were almost scary in how unconcerned they would sound as they released full and total mayhem upon the enemies below them. There is no excitement in their voices when the bombs hit the target, it's just a ordinary day on the job for them - and everything looked and felt, once again, very realistic.
Dropping bombs on bad guys and blowing up an entire block? Just a normal day at the job.
And i haven't even mentioned the mission "All Ghillied Up", where you assume the role of a young Captain Price that has infiltrated an enemy controlled Chernobyl together with his lieutenant, all alone with just a silenced sniper rifle and camouflage suits. All of a sudden you need to think before taking out your targets, and also which to avoid to kill and just sneak by. When you all of a sudden get caught with your pants down as a large convoy of armed soldiers and tanks blast pass us, just meters away as we hide in the tall grass, the nerves are almost jumping from our skin - a scene that where just as nerve-tickling as it was adrenaline filled.
Simplicity Is Key
Since Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was released a bunch of similar titles have sprung up, but not really doing anything different then keeping on spinning the standard that was created in 2007. We have seen playable characters die in horrific ways, but it's kind of something that we have come to expect from games these days. Because the truth is - the first time something is done, that time is the most effective and dramatic one. Repetition rarely get's written in the history books. To add jet-packs and robot enemies is not really the "innovation" the series needs to top Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare , they need to go back to the drawing board and surprise us once again.
Stealth-sniping in an enemy controlled Chernobyl was one of the most amazing war experiences in a game.
Then one should also not forget how important the games multiplayer mode also was for it's success. I have already mentioned things like how the games killstreaks, loadouts and killcams infected other game-series as the plague, but i am convinced that the reason for CoD 4's multiplayer worked so well can be concluded with one word; simplicity. In comparison with more modern games in the series there were fewer options in how you could customize your gear that you would bring to matches, but it was enough. You could only have one weapon modification at any one time, there wasn't 5 different kinds of deadly grenades - everything was moderate. The game's killstreak mechanic also worked wonders in multiplayer, killing three enemies gave you a UAV that showed enemies on the mini-map, killing 5 gave you a plane dropping bombs from above and 7 would give you an helicopter to unleash mayhem upon your foes. That was it, and it was more than enough. Modern Warfare never felt overwhelming, and that's something i greatly appreciate especially now long after it's release.
Mimicking the king is simply not the way to go to reach brilliance ...
With Modern Warfare, Infinity Ward understood that complexity is not synonymous with deep, pompous spectacles, and they also understood that drama could be offered without making the biggest explosion appear in front of you. It's something i feel that Call of Duty-developers have been lacking in the latest games. Every title is bigger then the other, and i think they need to hit the breaks and offer something new, creative and inspiring in terms of experience to draw in the same attention as the king of military-war FPS games, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare did.
Sources
- http://store.steampowered.com/app/393080/agecheck
- https://www.callofduty.com/modern-warfare-remastered
- https://www.microsoft.com/sv-se/store/p/call-of-duty-modern-warfare-remastered/bqlmfll88bsw
The Granddaddy of 'em all! It's crazy - they've released so many that I've lost count, but they've never really improved upon the original - at least in terms of the multiplayer component. I think I had something like 50 days in game on PS3. To this day when I want a fast paced shooter CoD4 Remastered is the first game i turn too.
Same here, the experience CoD 4 offered has yet to be trumped. Super nice that they released a remastered version at least! Thanks for reading dude, peace broo!
It's a shame that the call of duty is not what it used to be, this saga was a success for me, the best is the modern warfare 2, I hope its remastered version comes out.