Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (DS)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 3.5 stars Very good
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 7.0 (3.5 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Frank Provo
• Reviewed on: 11/12/2007
• Released on: 11/05/2007
• Originally published on GameSpot: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (DS) Review

The Nintendo DS rendition of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare delivers every ounce of action and suspense as the console versions, save for the awesome online play. In this portable first-person shooter, you play the role of a special forces operative who has to stop terrorists from detonating a nuclear weapon. Your travels take you to various locations in Russia and the Middle East, where you'll unleash a wide variety of realistic weapons against the bad guys who constantly appear as you make your way through each 3D environment. The controls, environment layouts, and CPU behavior in the DS game aren't as nicely put together as they are in the console versions, but those rough spots really don't take away all that much from the couple of days' worth of Jack Bauer-style escapades that the single-player campaign provides. However, the DS version doesn't offer any of the online modes that its console counterparts do, which means that your interest in the game will probably wane significantly after you complete that initial play-through.

From the moment you dive into the campaign, you'll be struck by how slick everything looks and sounds. The large, twisty 3D environments actually do resemble such places as the ghetto alleys of Mogadishu or a paramilitary base hidden deep in the Russian wilderness. One mission takes place on a tanker out at sea where you skirmish with terrorists and a helicopter before venturing into the hold below. There are plenty of decorative details, such as trees and vehicles. You'll sometimes get to watch in real time as the rockets from your air support create makeshift entryways into buildings for you. The character models also look nice. They move gracefully, while their crouching and shooting behavior is authentic. The level of detail is good enough that you can easily make out whether someone is wearing a friendly uniform or terrorist garb. Backing up the gorgeous visuals are a richly orchestrated musical score, a healthy selection of realistic gun effects, and loads of recorded dialogue. This dialogue includes mission briefings and real-time battle chatter as well.

The gameplay itself involves the typical sort of first-person-shooter gunplay mingled with some of the trappings usually associated with a Call of Duty game. When the bad guys appear, you want to place your targeting reticle over them and press the shoot button. Head shots are more effective than shots to the body, of course, and enemies will sometimes try to crouch or duck behind cover to defend themselves. For your part, you can crouch and hide behind cover too. As in the console versions of Call of Duty 4, you and the enemy can throw grenades. You can even pick up and toss back live grenades. The red flashing damage indicator is in here too. You don't have a health meter in the traditional sense; instead, every hit you take adds some more reddish tint to the screen. To heal, all you need to do is take cover and wait for that tint to dissipate. Getting through each mission generally involves moving from checkpoint to checkpoint and killing any terrorists that appear. However, you'll also find yourself stopping at various points to man gun turrets or solve minigames that let you disarm bombs and jimmy door locks. Some missions shake things up by putting you in a support role, which lets you control the gun turret on a moving armored vehicle or pilot a high-altitude bomber aircraft.

Some aspects of the controls are sketchy, but for the most part, the stylus-heavy control scheme gets the job done. You move with the D pad, shoot by pressing either of the shoulder buttons, and adjust your aim or look orientation by dragging the stylus across the touch screen. Double-tapping the touch screen toggles the aiming mode between the standard targeting cursor and a more precise "down the sight" view. Icons on the touch screen also let you easily switch weapons, throw grenades, reload clips, and pick up objects with a simple, single tap. If an enemy tosses a grenade your way, the hand icon will appear, indicating that you can pick up and hurl the exploding potato back at your foe. Occasionally, a binoculars icon will appear, giving you the chance to summon an air strike on enemy vehicles. The one major problem with the controls is that the game has trouble recognizing the aiming toggle, run, and crouch commands--commands that require double-tapping the stylus or D pad. Sometimes, you'll double-tap and nothing will happen. Other times, you'll be creeping in a crouch with the scope active then suddenly revert back to the normal view and an all-out run. These unexpected changes can be frustrating in the heat of battle. Thankfully, you can take a lot of hits, so fiddling with the controls rarely gets you killed.

Continue reading