From the SG User Blog of Pherstothelee

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is regarded by most as one of the greatest shooters on the new generation of consoles. Not only have the critics agreed, with scores keeping within the 90-100% range on reviews, but consumers have shown their support for the title with a considerable amount of sales. As of only January 2008, Call of Duty 4 had sold over seven million copies. There are actually many reasons why Call of Duty 4 has been as successful and well received as it is. I figured it all out. Answers after the jump.

1. Well Organized Multiplayer Design

Most of the people who still playing Call of Duty 4 now are playing multiplayer online against people around the globe. The main reason that people are still playing is that the design of the multiplayer is just amazing. The whole of the system revolves around the ranking system, which increases from levels 1 to 55, with a new upgrade being unlocked on each level, whether it be a perk, a gun, or a challenge. Challenges are there to add an extra slice of replayability for those who don’t like the monotony of playing with the same gun all the time or playing every game the same. Such challenges range from getting a set amount of kills or headshots with a certain gun, to surviving a dangerous fall, to the more bizarre, such as killing an enemy, stealing his weapon, and then killing him again with his own weapon.

But don’t think that if you get to level 55 that you’re finished with the ranking system. There is a price that one can pay to look good online. If you enter what is called “prestige mode”. Here, you can get a spiffy new badge next to your rank… for a price. When you enter prestige mode, you lose all of your ranks and you must start all over again with the standard guns and perks. For those who don’t get too attached to their dear Barrett .50cal, this is yet another feature that adds replayability to the title. Couple that with the fact that you can do this multiple times to get badges that garner more respect.

2. Avoiding the Console Curse

In this new generation of consoles, there is one type of first person shooter that is known above the rest. In these kinds of shooters, it appears that everyone is some kind of super soldier and that their body must be seemingly pumped completely full of lead before they die. I find these shooters to almost be a waste of space. And some of these shooters, such as Warhawk and Resistance: Fall of Man, have an obscene amount of auto aim in the game. There is so much auto aim that it generally affects your gameplay. Call of Duty 4 has an answer to this.

First off, there is very little auto aim in Call of Duty 4. I tend to think of it as the perfect amount. It’s good enough for people to actually kill other people, but not too much so that it affects the gameplay. What I think is one of the greatest aspects of Call of Duty 4 is its hardcore mode. In this mode, you will die in one shot or less. It’s realistic, and it’s what PC gamers have had for some time now. I, personally, am addicted to the hardcore deathmatch mode in Call of Duty 4. It is just amazing. You can really feel the power of being able to drop an enemy in one shot rather than in ten to fifteen. It makes any other console shooter seem irrelevant.

3. Downloadable Content

If there’s one thing that I can agree with greedy producers about, it’s that it’s completely fine to take a good game and milk it for what it’s worth. I am completely supportive of downloadable content, and I’m sure that I don’t want this getting out to the publishers, but right now I would pay quite a steep price to get my hands on more Call of Duty DLC.

There has only been one map pack released thus far, with three maps included (I haven’t played Killhouse in the month that I’ve had this map pack, so I don’t count it). The maps are of a crazy good quality, with one rising to becoming my favorite map in the game. Infinity Ward is really doing good with taking a great game and making it even better. And I’m sure they’re happy with taking a good $60 game and turning it into a great $70 game.

As you can see, a game’s success can sometimes be caused more by smart design choices than excellent gameplay or graphics. I’m not saying that the gameplay and graphics aren’t great in Call of Duty 4. They are amazing as well, but that may be left for another blog post. These design choices are what have made Call of Duty 4 the only game I’m playing right now, and the PS3 game that I’ve played for the longest time, as I have been playing since January of 2008. Call of Duty 4 is just an excellent game to the core, and they have the reviews and sales to show for it.

Tweet This