Now let me first point out that before Call of Duty 4 (which will be referred to as CoD 4 because I'm lazy and you don't have a choice) I had only played three First Person Shooters in my life. Metroid Prime 3, Portal, and Duck Hunt (play Duck Hunt again and tell me that that isn't a FPS, I dare you). Now this provides me with an interesting point of view. Whether this is a good or bad thing is up to you.

But you didn't come here for a monologue. You came here for one of three reasons. (1) You want to see my opinion on whether CoD 4 is a good buy or not. (2) You already bought the game and just want to make sure that everybody, including me for some reason, agrees with you. (3) You're 7 hours into your night shift and you're too bored to really give a flip about what you read.

Let's begin.

The game starts you off with a tutorial of sorts that has you running through a drill which actually matches up pretty closely to the start of the first 'real' level. I would like to state that this was really, really helpful to a guy with almost no FPS experience. After the tutorial the game suggests a difficulty level for you. It recommended the second to lowest one for me, so I took it up on it's offer.

***Game Hint*** Run through the tutorial two or three times before selecting a difficulty level for the most accurate suggestion. Don't worry, the tutorial's actually fun and won't cause you to chew your own arm off, unless you like that. ***Game Hint***

Now I don't want to spoil the game for you, but let me describe the intro to the first level. You're flying towards a ship in a helicopter with your fellow squadmates. Your captain has a cigar lit, with burning tobacco being carried off into the raging wind. Rain pelts the helicopter and the ocean pounds away at the ship coming up below. Then, your guys drop some rope down onto the deck, which you and your squad use to make a surprise attack on the crew of the bridge. The crew are labeled as expendable, so you end up shooting a man who's had too much booze and is singing off-key that needed to be put down, anyways. But the great thing about this first level is that if you don't, your squad will.

That's right, an actually useful squad! While they start to let you do more of the work as you progress in the game, they start off being very useful for newbies (yeah, yeah, like me), but give you enough time to do the job yourself for the more advanced players.

***Game Hint*** Have somebody over who doesn't mind blasting away dozens of Metroids but can't stand games like CoD 4 because of the blood (they do exist)? No problem. Just turn it off. The only down-side is that it makes it a little hard to tell if you really killed somebody, or if they're gonna whip a pistol out on you and take you down before recieving thier 72 Virgins. ***Game Hint***

The rest of the game is just as grand, too. Living a soldier's final breaths before dying of nuclear radiation, escaping a sinking ship and barely making the jump to the helicopter, seeing the execution of the president of an unnamed middle-eastern country (*cough* Iraq *cough*) through his own eyes, dropping bombs on the enemies' heads safely from a Bomber... It's all just grand. The story is pretty typical but it's told so well that it makes me forget about that, the graphics are gorgeous, and the gameplay is what Gamium.org is all about... FUN! What a shocker!

The controls handled excellently, too. Then again, I played the PC version of the game, so I can't really give an opinion on the console versions.

However, the single-player mode does have it's minor problems. Your squadmates (after the first mission) tend to wait for you to make an all-or-nothing rush straight into enemy fire until you reach a safe spot, which is when they suddenly remember what their job is. Meanwhile, you're on the brink of death and hoping that none of the AI is smart enough to lob a grenade into your cozy little blood-filled (YOUR blood from the heroic dash that you just pulled off) corner.

If it were just the single-player mode, I'd give the game a Win. I mean, it's still great to play, but only one or two missions are worth going back to again. One being the mission from the Bomber. There isn't quite anything like dropping bombs on helpless Commies while you're safely thousands of feet in the air.

But the real beauty is the multi-player mode. I could go on for another half-hour, but I'll spare you the read. The ability to create your own "class" (what guns you start off with and what perks does your guy have, like extra grenades and such) is a welcome addition. There's a few game modes for you to choose from (may I suggest Search and Destroy?), and a hardcore mode for some servers that takes away your HUD and let's the guns act like... well, guns! If I shoot you in the chest with a pistol, then you sure as heck better go down! Hardcore mode makes sure of this.

Also, whilst a lot of FPS's (according to others who have played much more FPS's than me) give both sides different powers, CoD 4 has all sides playing the exact same, whether you're Spetsnaz, USMC, SAS, or Opfor. While some may argue that having both sides play different gives you diverse gameplay, I argue that one side usually has the advantage in such games. With this system, it's all down to skill... or whoever's using noob tactics the best... Remember to teamkill those individuals for me with a Frag Grenade. You'll go down in gaming history as a martyr... the good kind.

***Game Hint*** Don't use grenade launchers if you want people to treat you with respect. That's called a 'noob-tuber' and are pretty low on the heirachy of CoD 4 players. Also, the Matyrdom perk is looked down upon and, to a much lesser extent, so is Last Stand. These aren't perks, they're handicaps. If I dare catch you noob-tubing I'll make sure to stick a shotgun where the sun don't shine. And you know what? I'll pull the trigger. No, I'm not kidding. ***Game Hint***

Because of the multiplayer mode (which still has me playing it almost every day 3 months later), this game receives an Awesome from me. Wish I didn't have to give my first review such a high score, making me look like a guy who would give any game with moving colors at least a Win, but it can't be helped.