A couple of games I have played before transcend their genre, and COD4 is beyond a great shooter, it's a great game.
Enter Call of Duty 4. I have to admit, citing my former complaint, I felt that war games were just as used up (if not more so) than horror shooters. Maybe Infinity Ward felt the same way, cause this game is absolutely engaging from the moment you start playing, to the final scene of the game.
On a story level, it's nothing new. Radical group in middle east in danger of overthrowing current government, and potentially has a nuclear device.
The gameplay is what sells this simple story, and allows it to transcend into a larger plot. When you're on the streets of Iraq, it feels like you're in the middle of a street firefight, trying to find any cover you can to save your life. The firefights there are possibly the most intense even made for a video game. Shootouts in a tv station newsroom, rushing through backlots to save a stranded tank, and calling in helipoter aid to mow down a building...and all of it feels genuine, fast paced, and in a word...real.
The SAS missions, are where IW got very creative. Starting from the opening mission of being dropped on a ship in the middle on an ocean storm, sneaking into camps saving informants, or holed up military leaders, the most eerily realistic infrared gunship providing ground fire to allow the SAS unit to escape...
...and last but not least, one of the most well concieved sniper missions of all time. (I SWEAR, this mission, alone, is worth playing the game!)
A quick insert on combat is worth noting. This game obviously aims (no pun) to be a realistic shooter. But unlike Far Cry and Crysis, where that realism seems to slow the combat, COD4 is fast. Your characters run fast, they aim fast, they shoot fast. They also get shot at fast, enimies duck for cover fast, and RPG shells and grenades come in fast. Combat feels like combat.
The authenticity on every mission is what sells the story. The tone of the NPC's matches the mission. In the middle east, your lieutenant is shouting orders quickly and frantically, which sells the realism, but he's genuinely giving you good information to complete an objective, so he really feels like a superier, and one worth listenting to. Switch from that, and the calm on the gunship, with the pilot chuckling as bodies flying from high caliber explosions seems eerily well suited for that environment.
And did I mention the sniper mission yet?!?
Others have said the campaign is short, but I don't find it lacking, and actually was surprised that it was able to cover so much ground so quickly, without ever feeling chopped, or left feeling like they short changed me to rush a product out. From first mission to last, it's a well conceived story, fleshed out by the missions, which for the player and the story, provide alot of variety and twists to keep it all moving, with an insane amount of kinetic momentum and play variety in the missions to keep you moving along.
I haven't mentioned the multiplayer, so I'll sum it up here real quick. It's awesome! So are alot of the players who play. If you're coming from Halo 3 to this, be prepared to get your @ss handed to you for a good while. If you're willing to allow yourself to die alot, some of the games are genuinely satisfying, and the teammode games, with the right people, give a real sense of accomplishments. Oh yes, sidenote, you're gonna hate grenades...alot!
You know how sometimes a movie will come out, and you'll ask your friend what is was about, and they say "well, it's like...um, just go see it, cause i can't really describe it!" cause it's that unique, and it's that good. That's COD4. No review really has, or really can, do this game the justice of explaining how amazing a game it is to play. Cause it was meant to be played, and it's a throughly rewarding gameplay!
Great things transcend their genre. Van Gogh was not just another oil painter. Seven Samurai was not just another hack and slash samurai movie. And Call of Duty 4 is not just another military shooter. It's a well concieved masterpiece.