Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare Review Tension is the word during a session of CoD4, snapping the franchise out of the WWII era and into the current day gives the player an instant familiarity with the atmosphere, visually there are images that seem to come straight from the front lines of conflicts on the evening news.
Sure there are times when the game feels like the trademark shooting gallery it is renowned for. But because the foes and settings are no longer from days of yore, the constant stream of enemies is less sideshow attraction and more gritted teeth, ball droppingly tense.
Technically, with all the talk of Crytek's Crysis and it's Direct X 10 graphically goodies arriving now, CoD4 is a triumph of what can still be done using Direct X 9c on non bank breaking hardware. Lighting, set pieces, terrain and soldier models are top notch, many tiers up from CoD's previous outing.
Couple this with a minimal HUD, cinematic sound effects and an AI on both the enemy and friendly fronts that continues to surprise, and the immersion is complete.
Masterful level design sees urban battles where you will constantly scan the rooftops, whilst also looking for attacks from behind. Then there are the seemingly more open battlefields where you will hunt for whatever cover is available, while enemy armour rolls over the horizon.
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