Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Overview

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is a 2007 first-person shooter developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision. It is the fourth main installment in the Call of Duty series. The game leaves the World War II setting of earlier entries for modern times. It was developed over two years and released in November 2007 for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Windows. A Wii port, developed by Treyarch and subtitled Reflex Edition, followed in 2009.

The game uses a modern military arsenal that includes flashbangs, night vision and suppressed weapons. The player can stand, crouch or go prone, and health regenerates when the player avoids further fire. The campaign is played from several perspectives, including British Special Air Service and United States Marine Corps characters, and has 30 collectible pieces of enemy intel that unlock cheats and visual filters. Finishing it unlocks Mile High Club, a standalone epilogue mission aboard a hijacked aircraft.

Multiplayer has free-for-all and team modes on a set of maps. Players earn experience for kills and objectives, rank up, and unlock weapons, perks and custom class options. A custom class holds a primary weapon, sidearm, attachments, a special grenade and three perks. Console versions have a Prestige mode that resets rank and unlocks for a new insignia, repeatable up to ten times, and killstreak rewards such as a UAV scan, an airstrike and an attack helicopter.

The story starts in 2011, with a civil war in Russia between the government and Ultranationalists and a coup in an unnamed Middle Eastern country. A British SAS team led by Captain Price, with new recruit Sergeant John Soap MacTavish, and a United States Marine squad follow a trail that leads to the Ultranationalist leader Imran Zakhaev and a nuclear threat against the United States.

Infinity Ward made the game over roughly two years with a team of about 100 people. After Call of Duty 2 the studio wanted to move away from World War II and settled on a fictional modern conflict. The team observed a live-fire exercise at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms and consulted Marines with recent combat experience. The engine targets 60 frames per second, and the killstreak system replaced an earlier idea of fighting over air-support trigger zones. The score was written mainly by Stephen Barton, with a main theme by Harry Gregson-Williams, and orchestral parts were recorded at Abbey Road Studios.

Call of Duty 4 came out in North America on November 5, 2007, in Australia on November 7 and in Europe on November 9. A Limited Collector's Edition was made for Xbox 360 and Windows. The game received universal acclaim on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. In the United States the Xbox 360 version sold 1.57 million copies in November 2007 and the PlayStation 3 version sold 444,000. Activision said it was the best-selling game worldwide for 2007, and by November 2013 it had sold 15.7 million copies.

Retrospective reviews rank it among the best games in the series, and many credit its multiplayer with setting conventions later used across the genre, including experience levels, Prestige, create-a-class, perks and killstreaks. A remaster, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered, followed in 2016 and 2017. It has full trophy support. The original has none, because it came out before trophies existed on PS3.

Official trailer

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Trailer, Gamehelper. Watch on YouTube

Screenshots

Game details

Genres

First-person shooter

Developer

Infinity Ward

Publisher

Activision

Series

Call of Duty (fourth main entry)

Engine

IW 3.0

Composers

Stephen Barton (score), Harry Gregson-Williams (main theme)

Designers

Todd Alderman, Steve Fukuda, Mackey McCandlish, Zied Rieke

Writers

Jesse Stern

Producers

Mark Rubin

Directors

Jason West

Modes

Single player

Yes

Online multiplayer

Yes

Local multiplayer

Yes

Players

Local

1 to 4

Online

up to 18

Release dates

Editions

Buy this game

Disc IDs

The serial printed on the disc and the case. It tells you which region a copy is from.

Trophies

TrophiesNo trophy list

Platinum possibleNo platinum

Space and patches

Space neededAbout 5.2 GB

Update patch01.40

These are the patches Sony still hosts for this disc ID. The game's real history can be longer.

DLC

The Variety Map Pack came to PS3 in April 2008, after a timed Xbox 360 release. It is still sold on the PS3 store for US$9.99.

Items

Name	Date	Adds	Price	Obtainable today
Variety Map Pack	2008-04-24	Four multiplayer maps: Broadcast, Chinatown, Creek and Killhouse	US$9.99	Yes

Playable today

Playable offline todayYes

The campaign, split-screen and online play all still work.

Online

Online servers runningYes

Plays offlineYes

Services

Service	Status
Online multiplayer (PS3)	running

What remains

Everything: the campaign, split-screen and online multiplayer all still work.

Reception

Aggregates

Outlet	Platform	Score	Scale
Metacritic	PS3	94	100

Critics

Outlet	Score	Scale
Eurogamer	9	10
Game Informer	10	10
GamePro	5	5
GameSpot	9	10
GameSpy	5	5
IGN	9.4	10
Official Xbox Magazine	10	10
X-Play	5	5

Staff and cast

Staff

Role	Name
Director	Jason West
Producer	Mark Rubin
Writer	Jesse Stern
Composer	Stephen Barton
Main theme	Harry Gregson-Williams
Designer	Todd Alderman
Designer	Steve Fukuda
Designer	Mackey McCandlish
Designer	Zied Rieke
Programmer	Richard Baker
Programmer	Robert Field
Programmer	Francesco Gigliotti
Programmer	Earl Hammon Jr
Artist	Richard Kriegler
Artist	Chris Cherubini
Artist	Joel Emslie
Artist	Robert Gaines

Notes for collectors

• The PS3 version has no trophies. The game was released before PS3 trophies existed.
• Sony lists six disc IDs for the PS3 game: BLUS30072 (North America), BLES00148, BLES00149 and BLES00155 (Europe), BLJS10013 and BLKS20048 (Asian releases).
• The only patch Sony lists for these IDs is version 01.40, about 12 MB, with a minimum system software of 01.90.
• The Limited Collector's Edition with an art book and a bonus DVD was made for Xbox 360 and Windows only.
• Finishing the campaign unlocks Mile High Club, a short standalone mission.
• The Variety Map Pack reached 1 million paid downloads on Xbox Live in nine days, a record at the time, and came to PS3 later.

Credits

Publisher

Activision

Developer

Infinity Ward

Director

Jason West

Released

2007-11-05

Age rating

ESRB M

Disc ID

BLUS30072

Region

US

Time to beat

about 6.9 hours