Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Out of the serious and patriotic military shooters out there Call of Duty 4 is by far the best one. Which may not seem much considering the competition, but it really is an amazing game that i spent way too many hours on.

Nowadays its easy to think back to its campaign and think its generic bombastic hollywood action, but the game marked a huge turning point for shooters. The setpieces and explosive moments created in this game manage to be memorable even after a decade of Call of duty sequels as well as other franchises that tried to ape the same concept. Its diverse, and it definitly knew how to handle the more intense segments with more slow down sections. There is definitly an anti war theme throughout the whole game, even if tries to sell itself for being patriotic. That said, the campaign still has its flaws, like the boring mission intro filled with needless militaristic language (reminds me of tom clancy's game, and i hate the plot in those), and there are way too many doors that can only be opened by NPCs. Its a game that plays like a rollercoaster, meaning that there is really very little interaction you can have except follow the straight path and shoot down enemies. Because of the infinite enemy waves and hitscan weapons, the game becomes infuriatingly hard in veteran difficulty.

But the campaign is really a basic intro for the meat of the game, which is the competitive multiplayer. Nowadays i have mixed feelings about the design of this series, but i can say that i loved the time i spent with it at the time and how easy it is to new players. There is no need for pinpoint accuracy and fast reflexes when everyone is conditioned to use aim on signts to hit anything after 5 meters. The reduced POV means that most kills will actually happen by enemies that you didnt see, which can be annoying but also an incentive to move fast and know the maps. The time to kill is short, the weapons have very little recoil and are extremely easy to use. At the same time, the killstreaks make someone who is doing well completly destroy the opposition. This combined with the regenerative health and ample ammo supplies means that going on very long killstreaks is a common occourrance in this game. While it is undoubtedly satisfying to be in that position, this unfortunalty ends up being one of those games that is only satisfying if you are doing well.

Last time i checked, it was literally impossible to play on servers do the huge amount of hackers, but the remaster will change that. This game is probably the equivalent of getting the best hamburger in mcdonalds. It still fast food, but sometimes its just what you are aching for.

First off, this has a campaign which is actually really enjoyable! As a huge CoD fan, I usually never say this about many of the campaigns. Most of them are kind of just one-and-gone playthroughs. I've found myself playing this through plenty of times over the years. I'm still very intent that All Ghillied Up is the best mission we've seen in the game series entirely, as many other players will say the same.

The multiplayer feels *really* well crafted. Map flow is great here, gunfights are always a joy, it's one of those shooters you'll have a blast (pun unintended) playing even if you're losing the entire time. It feels unbalanced, aged, and very arcade-y in a way thats' only aged well. This game came out god knows how long ago, and it's as loveable as ever.

One of those essential shooters that crafted the genre by so much as existing.

The base game is actually not that good, but it was so close to being good that people took things into their own hands and made a better version of it.

CoD4 Promod is a modification for the game that modifies and disables certain elements of the game in order to create something that is both more competitive and more fun.

Promod is originally based on Counter-Strike but it has tons of individuality. The movement is my favorite part, the game just feels very fluid and bugs from the original which allowed you to gain extra speed like strafe jumps and wallrunning have been turned into features. There's so many fun little quirks about the game that make it feel unique.

It's hard to summarize why it's so good but this version of the game earns an easy S rank.

Promod subreddit
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The base game on the other hand? Maybe a B.

Cod 4 came out in a landscape in which the FPS genre was near exclusively ran by Halo. Halo was THE multiplayer game, until Cod 4 came out. Cod 4 within a few months was able to take on and compete with Halo not just industry wide, but on Halo's home turf the Xbox. To this day Cod is a massively successful franchise and owes this to how iconic cod 4 was.

Come on. You can't deny this games' legendary status. Enough said.