A lovely looking and sounding game that's let down by a short single player experience
Also the sound effects are fantastic and add greatly to the experience
I've enjoyed playing it immensely and especially liked the C130 gunship level and thought that was very good (although a few extra sound bites from the actors would have been nice as they do say the same few things repeatedly)
On the downsides though, and frankly thats why I've given it a score of 8.5 is for the following reasons:-
* There's no separate Music slider in the Options, and at times the music blaring out drowns out the in game speech. Most games these days have options for music, speech and sound effects, this game lacks that and it's surprising
* The campaign is over just as you're getting into it. It is most definitely way too short. Sorry but multiplayer just gets old with any game after a while and COD4 is no different unless you have a huge variety of maps to choose from
* On the subject of the campaign, linear doesn't even begin to describe it. You are led down corridors, tight streets and alleys etc. There's no real alternative paths to take, you are firmly hand held through the levels
* Set pieces:- No doubt part of the reason for the hand holding is so you witness some great set pieces... very nice to look at but once seen a few times could possibly become boring and "skippable"
Granted, personally I enjoy the single player part of the game more than multiplayer. I've not given the game a poor score by any means, but thought a review that went into more detail about the lack of single player longevity and point out the few issues with the game was warranted
Oh and be warned!!! COD 4 is a high spec game. Not a bad thing as games should always move forward, but you'll need a pretty serious PC to run the game at a steady frame rate with max graphical settings!