You may have heard of this game called Call of Duty 4. All the kids are playing it these days.  With almost unanimous agreement, COD4 is being heralded as the best game in the series, and a great candidate for game of the year. Since this is a review site,I am here to give my two cents on the PC version of the game. Though, any honest person would point out how there’s a minimal difference between the PC and console versions of the game.

Gameplay is significantly more hectic then previous installments. Any sort of repetitive attack pattern or even stopping to regroup can result in the impressive AI instantly swarming the position.  Though really, as a whole, the enemies are noticeably effective and intelligent, using tactics to avoid your fire and flank you as frequently as possible. The AI isn’t perfect, and you will come across the occasional wandering enemy, or the guy who thinks he can shoot through a wall, but these instances are few and far-between. The levels are almost always teeming with enemies, you will always be heavily outnumbered and you will always be required to move and use your terrain to your advantage to stay alive.  This results in a fast-paced, impressively fun experience in the single player.

Graphics are nothing short of spectacular. Players will find themselves in gorgeous, detailed environments throughout the entire game. There was nothing that screamed out “cookie cutter” or “superfluous”, and although the environments are still somewhat static, which was a major shortcoming in Call of Duty 3, they are now more interactive than ever before. The increased interactivity of the levels is accompanied by a completely redone physics engine, a problem that Call of Duty has always had. Thing is, we’ve been seeing comparably good physics since Half Life 1. Better late than never, though, right? To their credit, they have implemented and integrated it into their well-known, dramatic and often over-the-top death animations you see in the series quite often. What this means is, if you manage to take am enemy down with a gut-shot, they will go through a typical “oh, I’m dying” scene, but if a grenade lands next time them, they will go flying through the air. This adds a great deal of immersion not seen in earlier games, and gets rid of the problem of throwing a grenade under a table and watching it get suppressed.

Multiplayer is the game’s strong suit. It is apparent the developers planned a sprawling multiplayer experience from the start. And it shows. Instead of simply giving the single player element to the online game the developers added an intricate experience system. Everything you do from shooting enemies to completing objectives to simply being on the winning team will net some of these experience points. With these points, players get higher levels allowing better, and more numerous classes, as well as an impressive create-a-class feature. Rather than giving the users pre-determined classes, users can create their own layout allowing them to adapt to any situation and use whichever weapons they want. There are also perks for each class, such as greater bullet penetration, higher “Hit Points” or even the ability to kamikaze a grenade while dying, (which actually nets more kills then you may think). On top of all this there are many game modes and maps, as is expected. Not only that but, there are loads of unlockable equipment including stocks, scopes and more, which are obtained by completing weapon challenges which adds lots of value to an already great game.