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The Call of Duty series hits the Nintendo DS. The Call of Duty series is known for pushing the technical bar of whatever platform it is on. The Nintendo DS is an interesting platform for the series because its technical limitations. But despite the weaker hardware, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare manages to provide enough theatrics to make it fit right alongside the rest of the series.
Call of Duty 4 takes you to a number of locations in the Middle East and Russia, as you play as an operative trying to stop terrorists from blowing up the world with a nuclear bomb. The story isn’t particularly amazing or captivating, but Call of Duty 4 manages to deliver the highly scripted yet frenetic and chaotic gameplay found in the PC and console versions of the game.
The gameplay is about what you would expect from a first person shooter. You’re going around various environments and shooting enemies. You can take cover behind certain items and you’ll notice that the enemies take cover, too. Like the console versions, there isn’t a health meter per se but instead the game lets you know when you’re taking damage and you need to take a breather before going back into battle. You can even pick up the grenades enemies throw at you! As you clear checkpoint through checkpoint, you’ll also have to solve some minigames such as disarming bombs or unlocking doors.
The game’s control scheme works well with the Nintendo DS. You use the D pad for movement, shoot with the shoulder buttons and adjust your aiming with the touch screen. You’ll also use the touch screen to enter “down the sight” view, as well as to throw grenades, reloads and pick up objects. You can also throw grenades back using the touch screen, as well as occasionally summon air strikes.
Call of Duty 4 includes a four-player local multiplayer mode. N-Space included a good number of environments that are apt for 2-4 players for the game’s deathmatch and capture-the-flag modes. While the multiplayer mode is appreciated, it would have been even better if the game included online play, considering that previous Activision games have done so in the past for the platform.
Call of Duty 4 features an amazing 3D engine on the Nintendo DS. The game’s environments are quite varied and N-Space’s 3D engine manages to capture all of this on the Nintendo DS. You’ll notice that the environments are quite large and packed with foliage, enemies, buildings and vehicles. The character models all look good and have good animation, as well. You can easily tell what side the characters are on (which oddly enough isn’t as apparent in the console versions) and everything generally looks great.
The game’s soundtrack is just as nice. There is a good amount of voice acting for a Nintendo DS as you’ll hear mission briefings as well as a good amount of dialogue during the actual battles. The sound effects, highlighted by the guns, all sound good, as does the orchestrated musical score.
Call of Duty 4 manages to bring the frenetic, highly scripted gunfights of its big siblings to the Nintendo DS. It’s definitely one of the handheld’s best shooters, although it would have arguably been the best with the inclusion of online multiplayer. -- Adam Nunez, PGNx Media
---- Nov 26, 2007
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