3 inches of Modern Warfare - Game Review
When the Boy Genius bought me a (pink) DS for Christmas in 2006, I blew through Tomb Raider, which is awesome on any platform, then spent a good chunk of my DS game time on the casual games like Brain Age, that test your basic IQ skills and serve up a myriad of Sudoku puzzles. I have canoodled with a few titles since, like World Championship Poker, King Kong, Over the Hedge, Pirates of the Caribbean, and of course Mario World and a walk down memory lane with A Link to the Past. I popped in Call of Duty 4 and took it out a Friday night spin and I was really surprised with what can be done on such a small device. This popular Activision title was developed for the DS by N-Space, an Orlando based dev shop that is also pumping out Star Wars, The Force Unleashed, for DS later this year.
This is my first FPS on the DS and it could be critically dangerous in contrast as I am simultaneously soaring through the graphical superiority summarily paved by Crysis. Impossible comparison notwithstanding, I was pretty impressed. The graphics are nothing close to the crispy clear HD next gen shooters we play on the PS3 and Xbox 360 of course, but they are surprisingly good for 3D rendering squished onto 3 itty bitty inches.
So the gist of the story is actually a step or two away from the Papa versions, in that your missions are on a smaller scale and you don’t directly affect the outcome of the war. You play as several different soldier characters totaling 11 levels in all to complete the campaign, on missions varying from escapes to weapon detonation prevention. Some of the cool DS playability features are touch screen pick ups and bomb arming and disarming with flip panel wiring screens that ad a little bit of flair to your game play.
I was shocked by how good the sound and audio effects are; even the voice recording has a really high production quality and totally adds to the games class level. Over all I think that CD4 on DS is a really great game for its genre and platform, but the bigger question is would I play through it all? No. The game comes in a great looking and sounding package, but it just doesn’t deliver on play.
- Uncomfortable controls. The D pad moves you directionally but your camera is touch screen, and your triggers are the left or right bumper. While in theory that might sound cool, your right hand is pretty much rendered useless because the touch screen isn’t yet accurate enough for this kind of navigation with fingers so you really have to use the stylus to get any decent control. This leaves either your ring or pinky finger for right hand trigger action or your left hand index finger to trigger, which is counter intuitive to our trusty console controllers we are used to, and difficult to balance the dpad moving on the same hand.
- Lots of inaccuracy on the movement. Tapping for scope view doesn’t always work right; neither does double tapping to remove it. This tends to get you off on vertical visuals of the sky of ground while you’re being riddled with baddie bullets which also adds to the games vertigo induction.
- I am not usually one to bitch about unrealistic shot per kill behavior, but I at least need consistency. Headshots are more effective, as it should be, but you can still hammer 20 or 30 rounds into a enemy soldier before he drops and other times, one shot in the foot will drop him like rock. The Boy Genius and I oft debate about this issue in gaming as a whole and I feel sure it would be the game downfall for his approval.
- It’s an FPS on a DS. There are just too many great games for the PC, 360, PS3, and even the Wii that offer such a great experience without trying to fit it into such a tiny area. One of the other big complaints is that the DS version doesn’t have online play which nowadays is bad news bears for the cyber social addicts of the gaming world.
The DS will never be able to complete for my FPS attention because the competition is just too stiff. Its my waiting room entertainment, my in-the-meantime distraction, and served up best by Brain age, poker, and Mario. Though for many, like the mini BG with his endless capacity for Pokemon, it’s their main attraction and if you are uber skilled with your touchscreen and trigger fingering - it might be your portable shooter dream game. I feel sure that if it was my only system, I would give Call of Duty 4 DS a second date.
Kiss Kiss
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Modern Warfare is only good for those times when you need something to enliven you. But when it comes to analytic games, I’d prefer Brain Age.