All To The Good

Call Of Duty 4 was a very highly anticipated game for me, being that Call Of Duty 2 was the only game I’ve played much at all since Mario Cart. I was really looking forward to the game, and in many ways I was not let down. There’s a lot of areas in the game I haven’t played much (xbox live, campaign, etc). In fact, I’ll only comment on the mutliplayer split screen, for that’s all I’ve played much of. For someone who works in the industry (QA department at THQ), and someone who loved playing Call Of Duty 2 multiplayer SS, I can give a lot of feedback. And because I own part of Activision, I’d like to see the game succeed as much as possible ;.) Here’s some of my initial thoughts (I’ve played it maybe 6 hours total).

I’ll only comment on where the game fell short of perfection for me. There’s just so many positive things I could say about the game, it would take forever. There were only a few things that were frustrating about the game for me. Here’s a (short) list (again only referring to local multiplayer split screen):

1. No option for “random” map selection: not that big of a deal, but seriously, how hard would this have been to program in? I like not having to decide on a new map every time. When there’s a “random” option, no one has to agree on which map to play. Better yet, no one can disagree. It also allows the next game to get on quicker.
2. Respawn points: seriously flawed. Especially in multiplayer teams, you’ll respawn in the same location often, sometimes completely trapped by your enemy. The respawn points should be a good distance from the enemy. This might be one of the only major flaws in gameplay, but it’s a big one.
3. The number of maps: Only, what, 9? Really? COD2 had somethin like 20. According to multiple pre-release articles, Call Of Duty 4 was supposed to ship with 16. Is there something I need to unlock to get to the others?
4. Perk selection: In the beta, you were able to select each perk individually, but in multiplayer, you have to choose one of the pre-configured packages.
5. No guest accounts allowed with Xbox Live: It would be really nice (as it is in Halo 3) to allow multiplayer local split screen while being on xbox live.
6. Search and Destroy bomb locations: Too easy to ambush. Its also too hard to get the bomb back if you are shot when you have it (especially if it right near the target). I guess that is realistic, but doesn’t make for great game play.

Besides those few things, like I said, the game is awesome. The graphics are insane, especially when it comes to the shadowing. I love the ability to run (press down on the left joystick). The different types of grenades are outstanding (I especially like the flash grenades). The weapons are (mostly) balanced. The perks (and even the idea of perks) is genius. Overall, this game gets a 9/10 for me, with Call Of Duty 2 still outranking it slightly (it’s hard to duplicate perfection).

P.S. If I’m wrong about any of these details (which in some cases, I really hope I am), please let me know in the comments. Maybe we can get Activision to release a patch and change a couple things ;.)