I have played a lot of First person shooters in my day. With many different themes and settings, i've shot nazis in Wolfenstein 3D, i've shot the Covenant in the Halo series, heck i've even shot little girls in Bioshock. I was starting to grow tired of the FPS genre until ... the masterpiece which is Call Of Duty 4.

I'll start with the single player, you start off as a british S.A.S. member called "Soap" first mission is just your standard training level - do the course in a set time limit, shooting range etc. But it's not until the second mission you truely see the re-vamped series. The mission sees you infiltrate a russian ship in the dead of night, although it is heavily scripted it is still fun to play over and over again. The graphics are the first thing that hit you. On The way to the ship a member of your team is smoking a cigar in the helicopter and the lighting is unbelieveable.
http://www.gamer.nl/images/content/trennas/200706/1181737391_1_4.jpg
The second thing that hits you is the gameplay, it is the same basic control scheme as the other Call of Duties and other FPSs, R1 to shoot, X to Jump etc. It's just that everything runs and feels so smooth it becomes second nature by the end of the campaign.

Although it maintains a 60 fps throughout and the visuals are stunning it is a bit short lived. Dont get me wrong there are some brilliant missions like "All Ghelled Up" and "Charlie Don't Surf" but the campaign lasts no more than 6 or 7 hours depending on your skill level, but thats where the multi-player comes in.

Online COD 4 is unmatched there is a total of 16 maps from the start, they vary from middle eastern ruins and cities to russian apartment blocs and fields. Not all are as good as others, after playing all of them it is clear which ones are not as good as others the thing is though they all look stunning, displayed in HD they look near identical to the single player counter-parts. It is not the maps though that make this game stand out it is the Create A Class Option and the clever leveling system.

Create A Class is unlocked after you reach level 4 (of 55 not including prestige which i'll get into later). Essentialy it lets a great amount of custimisation you get to pick you primary weapons from - Assault Rifles, Sum Machine Guns, Shotguns, Light Machine Guns and Sniper Rifles. You Also Get To pick "perks" which are power ups which can grant you extra health, more ammo, after death bonuses etc. But Then you get the overpowered weapons and perks which everyone uses ie. the P90, Martydom. But For the most part infinity ward have done a good job balancing it.

Leveling is what keeps most people hook it's the same basic principle as any MMO, you get the urge you must outrank other players and be the best, kinda like Pokémon. Ultimately there are 55 ranks then once you reach level 55 you can do prestige mode in which you start again with a snazzy icon next to your name. You earn guns depending on your rank ie. you earn the P90 at level 40 and when you do prestige you lose EVERYTHING. There are 10 prestige modes so really there are 550 ranks.

In Conclusion it is a really good game with excellant re-play value if you have Xbox live or PSN. The Visuals Are stunning as is the gameplay mechanics.