Call of Duty 4 Hands-on Preview

VOIP of Another Soldierly Attribute

There are a few other enhancements and technological bits of gear which players are kitted out with which are also worthy of note.

The most prominent of these is the new advanced night vision goggles, but players will also get to have a go with remote control bombs, IR beacons and, if Infinity Ward is telling the truth, helicopters. We haven’t had a chance to check out the vehicle sections, but if the rest of the game is anything to go by then the helicopter sections will be an experience unto themselves.

The night vision is what caught our eye the most however and, while the IR beacons and remote bombs are just a modern evolution of the bombs and flares from the previous games, the night vision goggles are entirely without precedent in the series.

The night vision isn’t just the usual “OMG!GREENZ!” tint either, but a rather spectacular effect which makes the view take on an oddly detailed but grainy appearance. Yes, it’s green, obviously, but it also has some nicer effects worked in. Laser dots are the most obvious and, whereas with normal vision you’d just see a red dot on a wall, with advanced night vision you’ll see the whole beam moving in real time.


It doesn’t sound dramatic or interesting when put like that. However, when you’re storming a building and there’s smoke everywhere then it’s fantastically scary and exhilarating to have the smoke cut through by a dozen beams of green light searching desperately for your body so they can fill you full of holes.

Other new elements have crept into the game, like the ability to jump over cover, has been added in to make moving around easier. You can also lean around corners and drop from a crouch to a prone position if you want to use cover more effectively or want to get a steadier sniper scope. On top of this, breathing also becomes an important part of the game as an extra level of realism. Players wanting to hit targets far in the distance will have to steady their breathing by using the shift key to get a more accurate shot.

On the downside, there are a few new or redone elements that we didn’t really like in the new game. The first was what is probably called an “Advanced Targeting and Objective Assistant Tool” but, in reality, is a massive yellow marker over areas you must travel to. Someone yells at you to go grab a rocket launcher or to blow up a building and the next thing you know the building in question takes on the appearance of the world's most oddly placed nightclub, blanketed in pulsing neon.


Some of the objectives we got a chance to have a go on were a little samey too and the game is full of the standard ‘go there, put a bomb on the AA gun’ missions. Really, Infinity Word, we’re getting a little tired of blowing up AA guns. Get an NPC to do that and let us do something new like jumping out of a plane or riding rabid badgers across a battlefield laced with mines. Just a thought.