Xbox 360 Game News, Reviews, and Columns - XboxFocus

A Call of Duty 4 Wishlist

by Steve Wysowski May 20th 2008 12:40 AM CDT2 Comments

Since the game's release in November, Call of Duty 4 has taken up a good portion of my life. In my personal view, the game is the epitome of a modern shooter, and is currently the most enjoyable game to play with a group of friends online; and that is across all genres and platforms. While it may lack some of social networking features Halo 3 brought to the table last September, it has made up for it with some of the industry's best gameplay. That is why the game effectively did what we all considered to be the impossible at one point or another; it stole away Halo 3's top spot on the Xbox LIVE rankings. And the game fully deserved it.

The simple gist is this: Call of Duty 4 iwas last year's largest surprise, and is in my opinion, the most complete shooter that I have come across this generation. Still, there is no such thing as a perfect game (unless that game is called the "Ocarina of Time") and there are some features that I wish Call of Duty 4 would have boasted. It may be hard to ask for more to possibly come out of such a complete package, but after playing the game to death, I'm starting to run out of fuel in the tank.

1. Anyone who has played the game's campaign (which suprisingly isn't too many when compared to the masses who have simply stuck to the game's multiplayer) knows what it was. The single-player was a fast, mind-blowing, adrenaline rush; and the gameh had your blood pumping as hard as it could and for as long as it lasted. Which sadly, wasn't very long at all.

In the end, that was my biggest gripe with the game as an entire package. I finished the single player in one, long, day; and I believed the entire campaign lasted only about five hours. Infinity Ward had a huge task when they converted the once World War II franchise into a modern shooter, and by all means they succeeded at making the game's core gameplay near flawless. But still, the game was uncharacteristically short from an Infinity Ward release (which usually wind up lasting a good twenty hours or so), and seeing the ending come so fast was the game's biggest disappointment.

2. The amount of detail and thought that has been put into some of Call of Duty 4's map design has been astounding thus far, and I'd be willing to say that some of the game's map designs are truly perfect. But most gamers (like myself) crave the satisfaction that comes from blowing to bits all the great work a developer has put into designing a game

With such mass destruction weaponry as RPGs, air-strikes, and helicopter support, Call of Duty 4 would seem to a prime game to possess true, destructible, environment. Besides being able to shoot through walls, there is little to none interaction with game's level design. Imagine blowing up actual buildings with an airstrike, or bursting partial holes through walls with an RPG. Better yet, picture having a helicopter crash onto the map below, destroying concrete blocks, buildings, and players in its path. It would require some real-time physics and a bit of a framerate boost, but it would make the game feel so much more alive.

3. For the brief moments you get to face them, the game's killer dogs were downright scary. I remember my first encounter with one of the canines, and I have to be honest; I was taken quite off guard. Now by no means am I saying that Infinity Ward should transform the franchise itself into a horror series, but all I'm saying is that I'm craving some more of those heart-pounding moments from the game. Since I'm asking for a longer campaign primarily, I don't see why some more canine encounters can't be added.

4. Whenever I have a friend over, I can't enjoy Call of Duty 4 as I normally would. Instead I'm forced to take turns with my friend, rather than play a full game by myself. There is no way to play split-screen on Xbox LIVE, which seems like a huge deficiency for a multiplayer title of COD4's stature. It's just hard to understand why Infinity Ward seemed to forgo such a given in most of today's mulitplayer titles. Not being able to play the game's coveted multiplayer with at least one local friend is has always been a killer gripe for me.

5. In all of Infinity Ward's games, there seems to be a limited amount of customization and creativity one can put into creating their own private matches. There are times where I wish I can create some different rules and weapon settings in personal matches, but due to the game's chosen interface, there is no means for me to do so. As a player with a great connection (fiberoptics FTW), I'm usually the host of most of my friends' private matches. However, due to the lack of customization one can make within the game, it's really pointless to create private matches as your options of customization are fairly limited. Therefore, it's not that much fun to play the game a group of friends outside of the party system, and I just wish Infinity Ward would open up some room for user creativity in their future titles.

6. For those who are skilled at the game (*raises hand with a cocky smirk*), you know it's pretty damn challenging to continue your kill streak after your helicopter is brought down. Once your streak gets up to around fourteen or fifteen kills, you're probably running out of ammunition and looking for a place to hide. Hence, another level of artillery would greatlyhelp some of the more trained players become even stronger.

Perhaps at around sixteen or seventeen kills, one could possibly unlock a new layer of ammunition, or if IW wants to really get going, add some more artillery. Who wouldn't like to see some mortar shells fly down after on your opponents after achieving twenty kill streak? That sight alone would definately make up for the lack of ammunition you may have, and I personaly believe you deserve a treat like that after accomplishing sucha feat.

7. Everyone has seen the recent addition of cell phones to Grand Theft Auto IV's multiplayer interface. Why not have a similar walkie-talkie like feature in Call of Duty 4? Sometimes there are only a handful of people I truly care about talking to on one specific team, and being able to separate their voices from the rest in a secluded chat (or "walkie-talkie") would be an added luxury that I would love to have at my disposal.

8. The player models in Call of Duty 4 move about fluently with the help of the game's framerate, but that doesn't necessarily mean they are rooted with some great physics. My main issues with the some of the game's physics come in the form of some unrealistic bodily motions. The game's models tend to simply drop to the ground at freefall speeds rather than flop about like true bodies would. Since such an emphasis was put on the game's player models, more realistic death animations would have been appreciated.

9. Too often do the camouflages from both teams cause confusion due to their likeness, and it is often hard to tell who is on your team when their names are covered up by external objects. If you can't see your teammate's name floating above for whatever reaons, it's hard to tell whether or not he is on your team. The uniforms just look too similar sometimes, and a simple change in color would easily fix that recurrent problem that causes dozens of misguided deaths.

10. Halo 3 has spoiled many gamers with the array of stat checkers that you can see from Bungie.net and from within the game itself. Now that Call of Duty 4 has respectively grown above Halo 3 in terms of popularity, I believe it should have a similar set up as well. Somethings as the ability to view the smallest of stats, a newer none-EXP based leaderboard, and a separate "medal" system to compound the current presitge system are all some things I've been desring for quite some time. Top that off with a more attractive interface (the smoky background that COD4 currently boasts is painfully dull) and I believe that the best multiplayer game in the world can get a whole, lot, better.

In the end, this list is nothing but a bunch of wishing and nitpicking. The lack of any of the features above will not be hampering my playtime with the game, nor should it affect anyone else'. Still, it's not like it isn't fun to imagine what Call of Duty 4 would be like if it had some of these features (especially the destructible environments one, that would welcomed the most). I personally would definitely like to see Infinity Ward make a push at some of these in future endeavors with the Call of Duty franchise, but if they don't and decide to go in a different direction, I'll probably wind up loving it as well.

Oh, and if you're wondering what advice I'd give for Treyarch and the upcoming Call of Duty 5......who really cares?