While CoD4 is a short single player experience, it's multi player will keep you coming back time after time.
Throughout the Call of Duty 4 campaign, you will experience many moments that you will want to play again. The campaign is short, really short... probably 4-6 hours if you play on normal difficulty, and dont have to repeat anything. But the quality of that story is certainly not something to be overlooked. While the main plot is one that has been done in countless games before it "Good vs Evil in a power struggle" something about the Call of Duty 4 campaign just...clicks. You play as Soap MacTavish, a Sergeant in the 22nd SAS regiment. Your goal... Stop the ultranationalist Imran Zakhaev from returning Russia to it's soviet state. Over the course of the campaign, the story seems to become more and more...exciting. The missions you do later on in the game have that "Action movie" type feel to them. Including fighting off waves and waves of enemies simply to help your squad survive, and reach the extraction point... Chasing after a target on foot, while avoiding enemy gun fire, and many many more. The campaign comes to an end with a dramatic, emotional, slow motion scene that really caps off the whole experience. It was a great ending to a great game.
Graphics:
Top notch graphics and animations that look amazing on pretty much any TV you play on.
Sound:
The sound in CoD4 was good. Not great, but good. Something that can be improved on for the next game.
Multiplayer:
Now, the campaign is fun and all... but the real selling point for Call of Duty 4, is the Multi Player. One of the deepest, most addictive multiplayers that I have personally ever seen in an FPS. You start out like any other game... Level one. The primary feature in the multi player is the class based system. At level 1 you have 3 classes unlocked. Once with an Assault Rifle, One with a Sub Machine Gun, and one with a Light Machine Gun. As you play through the multiplayer, you gain experience points... everything you do in an online match gains you experience. Getting a kill, assist, capturing an objective, completing a mission in the barracks... all of this experience is used to level up... as you level up you unlock more classes, and the ability to create your own class. When creating your own class you can choose from numerous weapons, perks, attachments, and sidearms. Perks are used to gain an advantage in the field of battle. There are perks for everything, from extra grenades to increasing your hip fire, to being completely silent on the battlefield. All of these perks can be used together, as long as each one you choose is in a different perk slot. Blue, Red, and Green. Blue Perks are primarily your explosives... Extra grenades, C4, RPG, Grenade Launcher(actually an attachment, but uses the blue perk slot) C4, and so on. Red perks and Green perks are more... varied. In the red perk slot, you have things like.. Stopping power(bullets do more damage) Juggernaut(You have more health) UAV jammer(keeps you hidden from an enemies UAV, and a multitude of others. Green perks consist of things like.. Steady Aim(increases hip fire accuracy), Dead Silence(you make no noise while this is equipped) Last stand(pull out your pistol for an extra chance at a kill before you die) and again, many others that assist you in getting kills. Another feature that is used in CoD4 is the prestige system...which if chosen by the player, resets all of their stats and weapons to level one, replacing them with a special prestige icon. This is used to add re playability to the multiplayer... some people get bored of using the same weapons all the time, and prestiging is an easy way to force them into using other weapons. It may not sound attractive at first, but it's certainly something to look into.
Overall:
Overall, Call of Duty 4 is by far one of the better First Person Shooters to be released in the past 10 years, and is a must buy for anyone looking for a meaningful story, fun and addictive multiplayer, or simply...anyone who wants a great FPS or action game.