My, What an Impressive Mustache
By ANDREW STEEVES
steeves(at)uwm.edu
There are a lot of great games that have been released this week, among them, Assassin’s Creed and Super Mario Galaxy.
Unfortunately, the time between their release and the deadline for this review is so short that I wasn’t able to play them thoroughly enough to write a good review. Next week, I have a special holiday shopping column planned, so I will review those two weeks from today. Nothing else good is coming out in the next two weeks, right?
What? Mass Effect is coming out when? Aww man…
I’ll give you a quick spoiler on Creed and Galaxy; they’re both amazing. Moving on.
When reviewing a first-person shooter these days, it’s important to keep three aspects in mind: the campaign, the multiplayer split-screen, and the multiplayer online play. As a rule, I don’t generally play games online. This may spark a large amount of distrust in many a gamer, but allow me to explain.
When given the opportunity to play an online game, I generally take it because I’m open to new experiences and interacting with people across the world while I play can be fun. I’ve definitely checked out and enjoyed World of Warcraft and Team Fortress 2 (both fun games). However, the one thing I hate about online play, and specifically online play for first-person shooters like Halo 3 or Counterstrike is the collection of douchebags that play. It’s not that they’re bad people necessarily, it’s that they’re just really mean. They get so into the game that their adrenaline pumps through their systems, blocking out higher functions like rational thought and human decency.
Call of Duty 4 has a different sort of online play, combining elements from first-person shooters and RPGs, specifically the ability to level your character, which is an interesting concept. Really, COD4 does a lot of things that are interesting, but let me pull back briefly to the campaign setting, where all things must start.
A plot is being conceived between generic Middle-Eastern terrorists and Russian arms dealer involving coups and nuclear weapon detonations. What it all means is terrorists and, I suppose communists, are still the bad guys, American and Brits are still the good guys, and we will win because we’ve got moxy.
Interestingly enough, though several characters are playable throughout the game, the main protagonist seems to be a British soldier, as opposed to an American one, appropriately named John “Soap” MacTavish (because he’s so clean?). And amid a sea of detonating nuclear weapons, nuclear warheads being launched at the U.S. east coast and nuclear atomic super-monsters rampaging unchecked through downtown Tokyo (untrue), “Soap” seems to be the only soldier involved left alive, with the possible exception of mustache guy above, because… come on. Mustache.
Being used to the controls from Call of Duty 2, I managed to pick up how to do everything fairly easily. The game play is mostly smooth, although there are some visual glitches, especially in split-screen. Watching a person who was shot once and die twice is always an interesting sight to behold.
Speaking of the split-screen, it’s really fun. There are 10 classes to choose from, each with unique weapons and abilities. Usually, when a game is set up this way, there is at least one class that just isn’t worth playing or a class that is extremely overpowered, but they all seem pretty well balanced. Every player has a knife, and knifing someone is probably about the most satisfying thing in the world.
My only complaint is the use of “helicopter assists.” When a player kills three people in a row, he is given the option to use help from a helicopter. There are three levels of assistance, ranging from useful to ridiculous. My main problem with them is they provide a boost to people who are already doing well, like making the rich richer.
Back to online play. Not only can you level up your character as if it were an RPG, but you can also customize your class, taking special abilities and weapons from various classes that unlock as you progress and making them yours. The concept seems novel enough to warrant a try from anyone, but given the nature of this game, I suspect a high amount of internet douchebaggery.
All in all, Call of Duty 4 was an excellent game and a very well put together First Person Shooter, and although Call of Duty 2 will always have a nostalgic place in my heart, Call of Duty 4 is the superior game, as sequels (in theory) should be.
As always, post or email if you want to call me any of the following: wrong, right, boring, interesting, or a whiney n00b.

November 15th, 2007 at 1:08 pm
You mention COD4 and COD2, but was there a COD3? Was it just so bad that it didn’t even deserve a mention?
November 15th, 2007 at 1:39 pm
No, COD3 wasn’t that bad of a game, it just wasn’t that different from Call of Duty 2. They introduced the class system, but it didn’t have a huge impact on gameplay. COD 2 has a special place in my heart because I’ve played it a lot more and I personally prefer it.
The first Call of Duty is terrible.
November 16th, 2007 at 12:44 am
Did you ever play Kameo?
November 16th, 2007 at 2:28 am
I actually work at a game store, and I know my call of CoD’s pretty well. All and all, I reached the same conclusions. I even found my gazing at that fine mustache here and there. Your correct is saying CoD2 is better then Cod 3, this is widely accepted. I’d also agree that CoD4 is definitely the best so far. I’d like to mention the added bonus’s in this game were slightly disappointing, with the exception of 2. Being able to have your enemy explode into tires when killed, and “ragtime warfare”, which was about the most hilarious thing ever.
November 17th, 2007 at 1:19 am
Sooz, I haven’t. It seems like a solid game though, and I may well check it out after all this holiday craziness wears off. I remember it launching with the 360 and I wasn’t actually able to get my own 360 until recently, and by then my priorities fell to Oblivion and Call of Duty 2.
John, I’m glad you brought up Ragtime Warfare because I completely forgot to. Basically, it’s a cheat earned after beating the single player mode. The entire game is tinted sepia, sped up ever so slightly, and accompanied by what I can only describe as “piani” (it’s like piano, only less dignified). It’s more difficult, but infinitely more enjoyable.
November 17th, 2007 at 11:09 am
I was just curious about a sequel for the game. Kameo was fun, but too short.
I LOVED Oblivion. I was more of a sneaky, stealthy type player because I was pretty bad at fighting. But it was a great game. I loved the length of it too. I have no problems with games that take 20 hours or more to complete.
I want to get Assassin’s Creed. I heard good stuff, but also heard it was pretty short. Something close to six hours to complete. I can do that on a day off from work. That’s no fun.
November 27th, 2009 at 3:51 am
Arcadia, a Free Arcade
November 28th, 2009 at 8:59 pm
Good article, lots of intersting things to digest. Very informative
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