Just finished:

Why did I wait so long to play this game? Half-Life 2 Episode 2 was my ultimate single-player experience. It held the title for about a year. Shame on me for not playing COD4 sooner. The game does a good job of giving you an incredible amount of variety. I was always doing something new. Whether it be carrying a wounded pilot back to my chopper amid a hale of enemy gunfire, pinpoint bombing human targets from a mile up in a AC-130 Spectre gunship, or crawling between enemy infantry and armor while camouflaged in a sniper ghillie suit, the tasks never seemed repetitive or dull.

The story does not disappoint either. The game jumps between campaigns with the British SAS and United States Marines. The two stories converged fairly quickly and towards the endgame joint operations area carried out between the two forces. You play with the same assortment of troops and the game does a fair job of making me care about the characters I battled alongside. Your comrades are invincible, they can't die from enemy fire (or friendly fire). For me at least, it didn't make them any less my comrade. I still hustled to help any of them out when they called for aid. I honestly teared up twice during the course of playing. That has never happened to me before in a game.

COD4 was a blast to play from start to finish. I never once felt like the game was padded or that I was doing anything that would constitute 'filler'. I completed the game quickly, between 6-7 hours of playtime. Some people might gripe about that, but I would rather be entertained like this for a shorter time than having to drudge through more levels created soley to increase playtime (I'm looking at you Timeshift and Prey). An excellent effort by the developer who has managed to (in my eyes at least) raise the bar on what a single-player FPS experience can be.

I'll be sending this one back to Goozex for trading now, while the point value is still high. However, I have every intention of picking it up again once it comes down in value. This game will have a permanent place in my collection.

p.s. BTW, for those who may be curious about my thoughts on multiplayer...I've heard it's a great online shooter. I just don't have room in my life for another online FPS. Team Fortress 2 and Counter-Strike Source occupy enough of my gaming hours without adding another to the mix. While I type this, I'm looking at the copy of Quake Wars I bought at launch and never played.


Van out.