Call of Duty 4 Multiplayer Beta Impressions

Call of Duty 4 stood out amid a sea of first-person shooters at E3 2007, so much so that the game managed to earn even more buzz than heavy-hitters like Halo 3, Metroid Prime 3, and Crysis. Infinity Ward has been cranking out top-tier shooters for years now, but none since the original CoD has managed to garner the level of excitement that their first foray into modern combat has in such a short amount of time. Fans have become so rabid for the game that Activision has been having problems keeping the official CoD 4 website online – every time a rumor hits that the Xbox Live multiplayer beta is about to open for business, thousands of gamers descend onto the server and turn the bandwidth to sludge. Thankfully for us, Activision was kind enough to send a few members of the AMN crew some early-entry codes so that we could avoid the mad rush when the beta opens to the public on Monday, the 27th. After spending countless hours filling hostiles with lead, upgrading our equipment, and calling down airstrikes, we’re pleased to say the hype is warranted.

10-minute Direct-feed Multiplayer Video

The multiplayer beta contains three maps and several gameplay modes. Overgrown is a bombed-out village with a drained ravine cutting through the middle. The map is fairly open and lends itself to mid-to-long range sniping exchanges, but barns and farm houses scattered throughout provide cover and offer enough rooms to house small, close-range skirmishes. Many of the buildings also offer second floor windows to use as sniper perches, and the long grass that covers most of the ground does well to camouflage snipers in ghillie suits as well. Vacancy takes place in an abandoned Russian shipment center, complete with cubicles, loading docks, and lots of confined, intersecting hallways. The area surrounding the center is crowded with shipping containers that server as cover. Most of the battles in these builds are close range affairs, and most of the structures are made of penetrable materials so staying behind one piece of cover for too long isn’t advisable. Finally, Crash is the requisite Black Hawk Down level, complete with a downed helicopter’s wreckage in the center. The map has a huge vertical element since most of the surrounding structures have multiple floors, and those players maneuvering through the streets will likely find themselves dodging gunfire raining down from above. All of the maps are incredibly well designed, filled with choke points, abundant cover, and several routes into and out of every location. All of the maps work with all of the available game types. Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch are standard fare, Search and Destroy tasks one team with detonating a bomb at one of two locations while the other team defends, and Domination has both teams vying over possession of three flags spread over the map. The deathmatch modes are simply fun, but the objective-based game types – specifically Domination – are the highlight.

Like the previous Call of Duty titles, Modern Warfare leans toward realism without hitting the extreme side of the spectrum reserved for the likes of the Tom Clancy titles. Like those games, CoD features real-world weaponry, modeled and designed to act exactly like the real thing, from accuracy and rate of fire to the types of sights and upgrades available. It generally takes two or three solid body-shots to take an enemy down depending on range and weapon selection, or one well-placed head-shot. Recharging health is back from Call of Duty 2 and sure to raise the ire of traditionalists, but it feels like it takes significantly longer to actually start recovering this time around. It’s not lenient enough to let a player caught unawares or in the open escape and survive, but it’s enough to punish sloppy players for failing to make their first shots count against entrenched opposition. Speaking of entrenched positions, grenades are pretty handy for forcing enemies out into the open, which is why it’s a little disappointing that Infinity Ward has placed a seemingly abstract limitation on the number of grenades a player can carry. One frag grenade and one secondary grenade? That’s a little stingy.

The gameplay feels significantly faster in CoD 4 than in CoD 2 or the Tom Clancy titles, and that can be attributed to several factors. The default run-speed is quicker than Rainbow Six Vegas and GRAW, and there’s also a sprint button that offers a short-lived burst of speed, vital for moving quickly from cover to cover. Furthermore, there’s no real cover mechanic a la Gears of War or Rainbow Six Vegas, and since players can’t ever shoot without leaning around corners and putting themselves into the open they’ll rarely if ever park themselves behind a piece of cover for an extended period. The urge to camp is further diminished by the addition of bullet-penetration physics and a post-death kill-cam. In most games, a player can lean out from behind cover, take a few shots and then get back behind cover for protection when the enemy responds. In Call of Duty 4, different weapons will be able to penetrate different types of materials, including wood, drywall, and even some stone and metal. So that piece of cover that sniper keeps kneeling behind isn’t quite the safe-haven he thinks it is. The fact that players also get to see exactly where their murderer shot from tends to force snipers and campers to constantly reposition themselves around the map. Finally, the respawn system is one of the best we’ve seen in a long time. Players spawn quickly and resume the fight beside one of their comrades – typically one that’s not too far from the action but never in the middle of it. All of these new mechanics keep players moving throughout the level and keep the action at a fever pitch.

Players are rewarded for playing well with far more than an announcer shouting made-up words. Streaks of kills earn abilities that can help turn the tide of battle for the team. A streak of three kills earns a UAV that will highlight enemy positions on the map for a few seconds. A five kill streak earns the use of air support, and players need only point to the specific target on the map to rain fiery death on that position. Finally, a seven kill streak unlocks an attack chopper that will circle the battlefield and shoot at any enemy soldiers the gunner sees – it will even pursue enemies and shoot them through soft cover. Teams will have to work together to make the most of the abilities, however – earning an attack chopper or aerial bombardment will take away the UAV ability, so those hoping for an effective bombardment will have to request a UAV scan from one of their teammates. It’s a great addition that makes staying alive and building streaks of kills far more satisfying and important than in any other game we’ve played to date.

The most interesting (and addictive) feature is the new experience system. Players rank up by earning experience points, which the game dolls out for kills, assists, streaks, using earned abilities and winning matches. Earning progressively higher ranks unlocks new weapons as well as new abilities call perks. Players can assign up to three of these perks, which can grant improved stats like increased bullet penetration, greater armor, greater endurance for longer sprints, as well as some nifty abilities like UAV jamming and our favorite, the ‘last stand’. Last stand is an automatic ability wherein a player that takes enough damage to die falls to the ground in John Woo fashion and pulls out their hand-gun to try and take out as many enemies as possible while they bleed out. Enemies can finish them off with a single shot, but there’s nothing more satisfying than paying your killer back by killing him from the ground with a pistol. Even better is when you shoot from the ground to trigger the enemy’s last stand, causing a ground-based pistol duel. Upgrades for weapons can be unlocked through a variety of challenges, like scoring 25, 50 or 75 kills with a specific weapon, or 25, 50 and 75 headshots. Unfortunately the multiplayer beta currently has a lowly level cap of 11, so we still haven’t unlocked even half of the cool toys or techniques. Building up EXP is so addictive, however, we’ve been spending time earning upgrades for guns we probably won’t ever use again!

We’ve been playing the Call of Duty 4 beta non-stop since Activision let us in, and we’re still not tired of it yet. In fact, once these impressions go up, we’re going to hop right back on and start playing again. Infinity Ward has a perfect storm of name recognition, familiar setting, unbelievable presentation, and addictive gameplay brewing with Call of Duty 4, and several other shooters being released this winter might want to take care that they don’t end up drowning in its wake.