Ranting Kenya

I finally finished the single player campaign of COD 4 last night (I’ve been playing multiplayer mostly). Be aware, this post will have…

—Spoilers—

So I’m going to start by saying that the game was awesome. Loved it. Can’t wait to play it again and try the arcade mode.

I also want to say that perhaps (at least for me) this year’s biggest game innovation is game length. Or should I say game shortness. I thought Portal was awesome and I beat it in one sitting. COD 4 took more than one sitting, but it wasn’t that long. However, the brevity works for it.

Rather than spending 40 hours playing through the same types of situations over and over, COD 4 was fresh every single level. Disabling a nuke on a sinking ship (reminiscent of Goldeneye), being the gunner on a helicopter, firing at terrorists from a A130 gunship, rescuing a pilot from a downed helicopter, crawling through a field as a sniper, stealth assassinating guards as a sniper, sniping from a building taking into account the wind, carrying a downed squad mate to the extraction zone (putting him down frequently so the both of you can get through your enemies), rappelling down a missile silo, taking out tanks, firing at pursuing trucks of enemies while driving like a maniac to escape on civilian highway, using C4 to take out some power lines to temporarily cut power to a secure facility, shooting and even rescuing a VIP on an airplane then jumping out of the plane.

The game was an adrenaline rush from start to finish. I consistently found myself saying out loud “Holy $h!t, that’s awesome!”

Yes, some people will get through the game quickly. I would recommend playing it on a harder than normal difficulty level for yourself. That makes the game far more intense, and it’ll last a little longer.

Also, I would not shy away from buying the game just because the single player is shorter than most. The multiplayer on Xbox Live is the only experience that rivals Halo, only there’s far fewer vulgar screaming 10 year olds.

What COD 4 does that’s better than Halo online is the whole leveling up system. In halo, you get armour. That gives you no competitive advantage at all. COD allows you to upgrade your weapons, and choose unique “perks” to customize your character. You can select extra life, ability to run further, more powerful bullets, better weapon sights, dropping a live grenade when you die. There are many many many different combinations that allow you to really create a character with the abilities that suit you.

Also, COD 4 has the party system, and lots of people are playing online, so you won’t have any problem finding a game. It’s not unusualy for me to see well over 100 000 people online at any given time.

In short, yes. Buy it and play it.

Has anybody played it on PC? Is there a good community playing it online on PC?