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 game in the Call of Duty series and leaves the World War II setting of earlier games for modern times. It was developed over two years and released in November 2007 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Windows. A Wii port by Treyarch, subtitled Reflex Edition, followed in 2009.

It uses a modern military arsenal that includes flashbangs, night vision and suppressed weapons. You can stand, crouch or go prone, and health regenerates when you avoid further fire. The campaign is played from several viewpoints, 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. The 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 engine targets 60 frames per second. 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. Before release there was an Xbox 360 multiplayer beta.

It came out in North America on 5 November 2007, in Australia on 7 November and in Europe on 9 November. A Limited Collector's Edition was made for Xbox 360 and Windows, with a hardcover art book and a bonus DVD about the SAS and the making of the game on Xbox 360. The Variety Map Pack came to Xbox 360 first, under a timed-exclusivity deal, with four maps: Broadcast, Chinatown, Creek and Killhouse.

The game received universal acclaim on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 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 in the series, and many credit its multiplayer with setting conventions used across the genre since, including experience levels, Prestige, create-a-class, perks and killstreaks.

Official trailer

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

Gameplay

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Xbox 360) | Full Game | Longplay | No Commentary, Riptide Longplays. 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

Local multiplayer

Yes

Online multiplayer

Yes

Release dates

Editions

Buy this game

Achievements

Achievements37 (1,000G)

1000G possibleYes

Total

37

Gamerscore

1000

Gamerscore, base game

1000

• Make the Jump Infiltrate a cargo ship 20G 97.12% of players
• Earn a Winged Dagger Complete 'F.N.G.' 20G 99.89% of players
• Win the War Complete the game on any difficulty 40G 71.94% of players
• Dancing in the Dark Kill the power 20G 93.71% of players
• Save the Bacon Protect 'War Pig', the Abrams tank 20G 86.18% of players
• Death From Above Operate an AC-130 gun ship 20G 82.93% of players
• Wrong Number Find Al-Asad's safehouse 20G 78.57% of players
• Piggyback Ride Carry Cpt. MacMillian to safety 20G 76.08% of players
• Desperate Measures Corner Zakhaev's Son 20G 74.3% of players
• Look Sharp Find 15 enemy intel items 20G 31.44% of players
• Eyes and Ears Find 30 enemy intel items 20G 17.57% of players
• Down Boy Down Survive a dog attack 20G 73.24% of players
• New Squadron Record Complete the cargo ship mockup in less than 20 seconds 20G 35.74% of players
• Rescue Roycewicz Save Pvt. Roycewicz on the stairs 20G 82.02% of players
• Your Show Sucks Destroy all the TVs showing Al-Asad's speech 20G 21.36% of players
• Man of the People Save the farmer 10G 54.52% of players
• Straight Flush Kill 5 enemies with one shot while in the AC-130 gunship 20G 77.65% of players
• Ghillies In The Mist Complete 'All Ghillied Up' without alerting any enemies 20G 57.67% of players
• Mile High Club Sky dive to safety on Veteran difficulty 20G 15.4% of players
• No Rest for the Weary Stab an injured crawling enemy 10G 69.94% of players
• Deep and Hard Complete the game on Hardened or Veteran difficulty 90G 26.21% of players
• The Package Complete 'Crew Expendable' on Veteran difficulty 40G 46.14% of players
• The Rescue Complete 'Blackout' on Veteran difficulty 40G 45.02% of players
• The Search Complete 'Charlie Don't Surf' on Veteran difficulty 40G 36.48% of players
• The Bog Complete 'The Bog' and 'War Pig' on Veteran difficulty 40G 31.28% of players
• The Escape Complete 'Hunted' and 'Death From Above' on Veteran difficulty 40G 31.8% of players
• The First Horseman Complete 'Shock and Awe' on Veteran difficulty 40G 30.59% of players
• The Second Horseman Complete 'Safehouse' on Veteran difficulty 40G 27.14% of players
• The Shot Complete 'All Ghillied Up' and 'One Shot, One Kill' on Veteran difficulty 40G 24.49% of players
• The Third Horseman Complete 'Heat' and 'The Sins of the Father' on Veteran difficulty 40G 23.41% of players
• The Ultimatum Complete 'Ultimatum', 'All In', and 'No Fighting in the War Room' on Veteran difficulty 40G 20.2% of players
• The Fourth Horseman Complete 'Game Over' on Veteran difficulty 40G 25.57% of players
• Daredevil Kill an enemy while blinded by a flashbang in the single player campaign 10G 82.91% of players
• Roadkill Kill 2 enemies by blowing up a car in the single player campaign 10G 80.42% of players
• Bird on the Ground Shoot down an enemy helicopter with an RPG in the single player campaign 20G 38.68% of players
• Four of a Kind Kill 4 enemies in a row with headshots in the single player campaign 20G 81.66% of players
• Three of a Kind Kill 3 enemies in a row with your knife in the single player campaign 10G 49.96% of players

Space and patches

Space needed7.6 GB

Update patchTitle update 4

The title updates on record for this game.

DLC

The Variety Map Pack came to Xbox 360 first. The Xbox 360 Store closed on 29 July 2024, but the pack is free on the Xbox store today for the backward compatible version on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.

Items

Name	Date	Adds	Price	Obtainable today
Variety Map Pack	2008-04	Four multiplayer maps: Broadcast, Chinatown, Creek and Killhouse. It passed one million paid downloads on Xbox Live in its first nine days.	Free	yes

Playable today

Playable offline todayYes

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

Online

Online servers runningYes

Plays offlineYes

Online multiplayer runs over Xbox Live with player-hosted matches. The Xbox 360 Store closed on 29 July 2024, and Microsoft said online multiplayer was not affected.

Services

Service	Status	Shutdown date
Online multiplayer (Xbox Live)	running	None announced

What remains

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

Reception

Aggregates

Outlet	Platform	Score	Scale
Metacritic	Xbox 360	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 Limited Collector's Edition with an art book and bonus DVD was made for Xbox 360 and Windows only.
• The Variety Map Pack reached 1 million paid downloads on Xbox Live in nine days, a record at the time.
• The Xbox 360 list has 37 achievements worth 1,000 gamerscore.
• Finishing the campaign unlocks Mile High Club, a short standalone mission.
• An Xbox 360 multiplayer beta ran before release.
• The rap song over the end credits was performed by Infinity Ward lead animator Mark Grigsby.

Credits

Publisher

Activision

Developer

Infinity Ward

Director

Jason West

Released

2007-11-05

Age rating

M (Mature)

Region

US

Time to beat

about 7 hours

Copies in the shop

• Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (XBOX 360) CA$14.99