World War II was certainly no picnic to live through but it’s become one of the most influential forces on gaming in a long time. There’s been many a game based in World War II in recent years - some might say an egregious number. From Commandos through Return to Castle Wolfenstein and on to Medal of Honor: Allied Assasult, Company of Heroes and Brotherhood of Arms - not to mention all the flight sims - gamers have been fighting World War II for quite a long time. There was one title that stood out from the rest showing exceptional game design with amazing graphics and that was Call of Duty from Infinity Ward and Activision.

Call of Duty played less like a historical recreation of World War II and more like it was based on World War II action movies. It had all the shooter action you could ask for and added car chases and some fantastic scripted sequences (anyone else remember starting the Stalingrad mission without a gun?) Call of Duty was followed by a worthy sequel in Call of Duty 2 which helped launch the Xbox 360 but Call of Duty 3 felt like a bit of a misstep. It was developed by Treyarch rather than Infinity Ward and brought some new aspects to the CoD multiplayer model (like classes and vehicles) but it just didn’t capture that same essence. With Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Infinity Ward is back as developer and they’ve thankfully left World War II behind in exchange for 21st century weapons and technology. We’ve only been able to play the multiplayer during the Xbox 360 beta but if it’s any indication of the overall quality of the game than CoD 4 is already a day-one purchase.

Call of Duty 4 takes the class system from CoD 3 and adds a leveling component to the equation that grants access to different weapons and gear as you progress. You start off with access to the standard classes of Assault (M16A4), Demolitions (W1200 shotgun), Heavy Gunner (M249 S.A.W.), Sniper (M40A3 sniper rifle), and Spec Ops (MP5). The classes come configured with perks and sidearms that will give you a taste of the different weapon classifications. Once you hit level four - this could change for the final release - you’ll get access to Create a Class. This lets you pick and choose your guns and perks to fit your play style and makes the prebuilt classes somewhat obsolete.

The perks are the most interesting thing about Call of Duty 4 because they allow an even deeper customization. Want to be a semi-invisible sniper that can kill through walls? Just grab a sniper rifle, an M9 with a silencer, smoke grenades and then pick the remote charge C4 so you can set some traps, the UAV Jammer perk so you won’t show up on the radar, and the Deep Impact perk so you can do more damage shooting through walls. Or if you’re not as concerned about showing up on the radar swap the UAV Jammer perk for Stopping Power and your bullets will do more damage. There are also perks for greater accuracy shooting from the hip, increased health, increased sprinting, and other small advantages you can combine to your liking. I’m not sure how useful the perks for increased bullet damage or increased health are yet. It seems like they only allow you to get hit by one more bullet before dying or use one less bullet to kill someone. In a game this fast where the guns are shooting this many rounds a single bullet here and there won’t change the game.