Before I even start talking about MP, I strongly suggest you download the following clip if you haven’t already – it’s a PC-specific video of multi-player, and in HD, so you really can get a good idea of what the game looks like, movement, on-screen HUD, etc: (Deep Impact video - http://www.gametrailers.com/player/21127.html ).
Multi-player was a major focus for COD4. The MP Lead was allowed to put together his own team early on and was tasked solely with MP, not double-duty between that and SP. They had the mode up and running at a basic level only 3 months into development. MP was designed with 4 main things in mind:
a) fun – this goes without saying
b) community – giving options, customization ability to those that play the game itself
c) accessibility – allow both new and veteran players to easily get into the game
d) depth – keep people playing it long after release
Putting all of these together, their goal, direct from Grant, was simple: “to be the top competitive multi-player game” on the market. From what we saw so far, they’re well on their way to that goal.
Our demonstration of the MP mode wasn’t very long, but it was packed with info, and we did get to see quite a bit for the time we had. Everything was unlocked in the version we were shown. In it, one of the IW staff there in the theatre with us played a round vs some QA staff located in another room. We weren’t given any definitive “lists” of items, but instead had to make quick notes of what we saw on-screen as options were selected. Some of the main points I’ll talk about are: Weapons; Challenges & XP (experience pts); Perks; Create-a-Class; Bullet Penetration; and Game Modes/Types.
Weapons
Multi-Player will have around 30 “shooting” weapons, not including grenades or add-ons. Some will be available right away, but some will have to be unlocked/earned. Don’t panic, it won’t take a ridiculous amount of hours/pts such as in Battlefield 2…this is just a little something extra to strive for over a bit of time. I’m not an expert on guns/weapons, so some of these number designations may not be totally accurate, but some of the ones I saw myself in the select menu were:
- USP .45 pistol
- Desert Eagle pistol
- RPG
- Sniper Rifle (M403?)
- MP5
- G36C
- M4A1 Carbine
- M249 SAW
- W1200 shotgun/trenchgun
Others that were seen either in SP or inferred from various videos on the Net are:
- M9 pistol
- Uzi smg
- AK-47
- M-16
- Dragunov sniper rifle
Light Machine Guns:
Sniper Rifles:
Shotguns:
Sub Machine Guns:
Side Arms:
Grenades:
Attachments:
Add-Ons - Many weapons will be somewhat modular in nature, able to have add-ons attached to them, such as different sights, grenade launchers, silencers/suppressors, grips/stocks, etc.
This was mentioned in another article online already, so I’ll give a teaser…at least one weapon from the WWII setting of COD/UO/2, will also be included in the game as a nice nostalgia item for long-time fans of the series.
Grenades - frag, stun, smoke, and flash-bang grenades will be available (you always have frags with you by default).
Melee – close quarters melee attacks in COD4 are in the form of a knife only, not bashing someone in the head with the butt of your weapon. Pulling out the knife is a very quick animation, often with deadly results. As can be seen in this video, you can interrupt the reload animation to use the knife in melee combat:
(Lighting & Effects, 00:45 sec - http://www.gametrailers.com/player/20797.html ).
Achievement System – XP, Challenges, & Kill Streaks
Touching on all 4 goals of fun, community, accessibility, and depth, the COD4 team wanted to give PC users some sort of achievements to work toward. They wanted this to be a bit of a bonus, but not an end in itself requiring hundreds or thousands of hours. They also wanted it to occur as naturally as possible during gameplay.
As you play the game in MP, you will accumulate XP through various means. One way is through killing opponents, and even getting assists for wounding opponents (either through direct fire or explosive splash damage) that your team-mates may kill. Your team winning certain maps/game modes may reward you with more XP. Another way is through completing certain individual Challenges…mini-goals, often involving disposing of your enemies in a certain manner (eg. basic things like melee knife kills, smg kills, sniper kills….to more advanced ones like “humiliation” - killing an opponent, taking his weapon, then killing him again with that weapon.). Challenges will have different levels of difficulty as well (eg. killing 1 opponent with an RPG may complete a challenge, but to reach the next level you may need to kill 3 or 5 opponents in a round). Again, this is to help players experience different weapons, use different tactics, but not to complete long, drawn-out or near impossible tasks. The list of different challenges available was quite extensive at the time of our preview.
Once you receive a certain amount of XP, you will get a promotion (Private, Sgt, etc, etc) and level up. Leveling up, and reaching certain amounts of XP will unlock items in the game, such as different weapons, add-ons, camo weapon skins, and Perks. Grant mentioned that they wanted people to be able to rank up at a good pace, and unlock new items without too much difficulty. He said that a lot of cool things will become accessible early, and that many of the later/higher unlocks would be more visual/cosmetic things that don’t affect the game as much, but are more nice-to-have’s.
Kill streaks of various lengths will also reward you with XP, as well as enabling some special actions for that particular round/map of gameplay. For example, killing 3 in a row will give you the ability to send up a UAV radar scan to give you and your team-mates a quick spotting of enemies on the ground. Killing 5 or 7 (and maybe more?) in a row will allow other actions such as summoning some fast-moving jets for a carpet-bombing air-strike, or calling in an A.I. driven chopper for some close-air-support strafing your enemies on the ground. There are audio cues to warn you and your team-mates when friendly air-support/strikes are inbound. These aircraft can also be shot down by the opposing team using RPG’s. Because these are tied into killing streaks, and do not require ridiculous numbers, they will be relatively easy for most players to get as they develop some skill. They will reset after every round, and will not carry over between servers – everyone starts each round/map from scratch.
You can see the XP system in action in this clip (Deep Impact, at 00:25 to 00:29 sec - http://www.gametrailers.com/player/21127.html ). At the 00:25 sec mark, you see the player inside the building with the M249 SAW firing upon his opponent on the outside. Notice the yellow bar at the bottom of the screen – this is the XP meter. Also take note of the single icon at the bottom middle of the screen – a picture of NV goggles and a [V] to indicate the key press to activate it.
As the player inside the building continues firing and kills his opponent, several things happen on-screen. First, you see the visual “You killed _____” text near the bottom of the screen, and the yellow “+10” text near the middle of the screen indicating the XP gained. The XP meter at the very bottom of the screen has now increased, with those 10 XP added. You’ll also notice that a small radar-dish icon has now appeared beside the NV icon, with “[4 or 7]” text under it.
As you let the video roll toward the 00:29 sec mark, you’ll see large text at the top of the screen telling you that you just got a “3 kill streak”, smaller text under that giving you new information “press 4 or 7 for Radar”, and also an audio voice in your headset telling you “UAV recon standing by”.
The player will now have the ability to call in the UAV scan by pressing 4 or 7. This sequence can also be seen at near the beginning of the same video, from 00:15 to 00:19 seconds.
MULTI-PLAYER
Perks
Perks are special abilities, unique to your character, that you’ll be able to take into MP gameplay when you spawn. Some will be available immediately, and some will be unlocked as you gain XP and level up in the game. Some will affect your character’s body, and some will affect the items/weapons you have. Only 3 total perks can be enabled in-game at any one time, and only certain combinations will be available. More on that in the “Create-a-Class” section. Two Perk videos have already been released…
(Last Stand - http://www.gametrailers.com/player/20884.html )
(Deep Impact - http://www.gametrailers.com/player/21127.html )
…, with information on new perks scheduled to come out about once a week from here forward from IW. Detailed info on what these 2 perks do already has been posted by IW, so I won’t go into them too much more. Here are some of the known perks:
Last Stand – when mortally wounded and about to die, you have a last-ditch effort to take your enemy along with you. Laying on the ground, you bring up your pistol and attempt to kill him as well. You only have a few seconds, but if you’re fast enough, you can even have time to reload before dying from blood loss. If your opponent shoots you again while you’re down, that’s it. You also have the option to “suicide”, or quickly bypass those few seconds if no one is around you. Technically, if both you and your opponent have Last Stand enabled, they could first shoot you putting you into Last Stand, you could then wound them putting them into Last Stand, and then either one of you could fire that one shot to kill the other. IW said that some MP matches were decided in this manner. If you’re in Last Stand, and a grenade lands close enough to you, you should be able to throw it away when the indicator comes up, to buy yourself a few more precious seconds, or to deny an enemy his kill or assist. If you receive a devastating enough wound however, such as a headshot from a sniper rifle or getting hit by an RPG, there’s no Last Stand; you just die and wait to respawn.
Martyrdom – When you are killed, you’ll automatically drop an activated grenade. If your opponent decides to gloat over your dead body, or take your weapon, he’ll be hurt or killed when the nade goes off. Opponents will see the grenade indicator however, thus having a couple of seconds to either run, or pick up the nade and throw it away.
Deep Impact – increased bullet penetration through various materials. Again, explained in pretty good detail in other articles already posted.
Extreme Conditioning – ability to sprint further/longer.
Stopping Power – bullets do more damage to other players’ health.
Juggernaut – increased health.
Sleight of Hand – more dexterity for faster reloads
Eavesdrop – ability to hear opponent communications from a certain nearby distance
Dead Silence – ability to sneak/make less noise while moving
There are also “item” Perks, that allow you to carry such things as a UAV Jammer, an RPG, or C4 explosives, or allow modifications/add-ons to your weapons.
The full list of perks was also quite robust. Only a sampling was able to be noted in the brief time the list was on-screen. Again, only 3 total perks can be used at any one time, so the player has to be wise in the choice of which ones he spawns with, depending on his goals.
So, how does all of this stuff tie in together with your character in multi-player?...“Create-a-Class.”
Create-a-Class
Player character classes have now come to COD4, but with the added twist of being able to modify existing ones, or customize and construct your own. All of the gaining XP, completing Challenges, and leveling/ranking up unlocks different weapons, add-ons, weapon skins, and perks that you can now use to build your custom soldier.
Default classes are Assault, Heavy Gunner, Spec Ops, Sniper, and Demolitions. You will, of course, be able to choose which faction you want to play as. In the version we saw, again everything was unlocked so these were all available. Some folks have written that initially only 2 of these classes will be unlocked, (at least on public, ranked/competitive servers) so that players will have to put in a little bit of time getting used to the XP/Challenge system in-game to get to use the others, then finally unlocking the ability to create classes to really customize their experience. Note that for private, or non-competitive servers, it’s most likely that admins will be able to have these items unlocked for everyone to use.
Both existing and custom classes have the same options for building your character. I’ll describe this as if we were building a custom one. If you are making a new class, you will be able to give your class a specific name, and it will be available to you when you move from server to server, without having to build it over again. No word on how many different custom classes you can save, but some IW staff had several of them set up for when they play.
First, you select a single primary weapon, such as an smg or sniper rifle. To this you can add various attachments you’ve unlocked, such as different sights, silencers/suppressors, grenade launcher, grips/stocks, etc. You will also have the ability to apply a camo pattern to your weapon…some of the ones we saw were: Desert, Woodland, Gold, Tiger, Digital.
Next, you select your sidearm, such as the Desert Eagle, or the USP .45.
You are given frag grenades by default, so if you’re able to carry special grenades, you can select them now, from Stun, Smoke, and Flash-bang.
Finally, you select your perks. There are 3 categories, each with its own drop down list, with different perks in each list. The first category are more item-related, such as allowing you to carry C4, a UAV Jammer, or an RPG. The second and third categories are more character-related, giving abilities like more health, faster reloads, more endurance, etc. The default classes also have perks, drawn from the same lists, they are just pre-set for you.
As told to us by IW, a lot of planning/testing has gone on between the various classes, weapons, and perks to ensure that there’s lots of variety available, but that the classes are still balanced and some don’t rise above the others.
Not only do the classes allow you to be creative with your own gaming experience, customizing classes could hold a lot of potential for clans/groups who enjoy playing different game-types and matches against each other. Some will build their characters for speed and endurance as scouts. Some will load up on heavy weapons and extra damage. Others will opt for stealth. If a team loses a match, they may choose to change their tactics and go with a different set of classes that might match up better against their opponents. There’re a lot of possibilities here.
Part of the excitement is also realizing that with these systems now in place, new weapons, add-ons, camo, Perks, and Challenges could potentially be added to the game with future patches and/or expansion packs.
Game-Types & Rules
COD4 will feature familiar game types such as Team Death Match (TDM), Free For All (FFA), Headquarters (HQ), Capture the Flag (CTF), Search & Destroy (S&D), as well as a new game-type called “Sabotage” that we were asked not to give details about. New “game rules”, some based on mods the COD community put out in the past, can be set on top of these existing game types to give them a new flavour. Servers can run them as Classic, “Hardcore”, or with “Old-School” settings. No details of that last one was given, but in Hardcore, you’ll play with no HUD (no icons on screen), no crosshair (iron-sights/ADS only), increased bullet damage, and no health regeneration. For those who like realism, this setting may be right up their alley.
Bullet Penetration & Cover
Although this is seen in SP as well, I left it for the MP section both due to the tie-in with the Deep Impact perk (and video), and how it will change the way many play MP. In COD4, many objects are susceptible to bullet penetration, depending on things like the ballistics of the weapon, relative thickness & density of the object, and distance from the weapon to the target. Now, “cover” is not always good enough…players will have to find “hard cover” in order to be well-protected. In a building, walls are now able to be shot through, as well as ceilings. Outside, wood and thin metal will offer little protection. The application of the Deep Impact perk will make the battlefield an even more dangerous place. The addition of bullet penetration will have a lot of implications for those who like to camp in one spot for long periods of time. No longer will an opponent have to come through the door to get you. People who act lame on servers then hole themselves up somewhere will also no longer be safe. When pursuing an opponent, no longer will them ducking around a corner to set a trap for you be a safe bet…not when you have the potential to shoot them through the wall. Again, the perk only adds to this effect - every weapon in the game will have the potential to interact with/shoot through various kinds of cover by default.
Maps
The map we saw in MP was called “Overgrown”, and was situated somewhere in Russia. The setting was daytime, small hills, rocks, and grassland, along with some old, run-down looking buildings. As in previous COD’s, there are no closed doors that you have to open to enter or exit a structure.
For those familiar with previous COD maps, one of the community members at the event estimated this map to be about twice the size of “Brecourt”. COD4 will have a variety of map sizes, some smaller, some medium, and some larger to suit different game-types, playing styles, etc. Maps will not scale with number of players on a server – they are of a set size. No solid numbers were given as to how many maps would be available at launch, but when an example of “6 to 8?” was asked about, the response was “more than that.”
Other MP Items/InfoPlayers/Server – the game will support at least 32 players per server, but more can probably play on them as well.
Anti-Cheat – A/C will be available out-of-the-box upon release. They were not able to say which one would be used however, for legal reasons and as agreements hadn’t been finalized yet.
Post-Release Mod Tools – these are planned, and will be available to the community at, or as soon after release as possible. No specifics were given, but they fully understand the importance of such things to the modding/customization community.
Ranks – right now, COD4 is planned to have a ranking system in MP, although different from that in a game like Battlefield 2, for example. Nothing is yet decided, but ranks/stats may be stored locally on a user’s machine, instead of on a global server, and preferred Game Service Provider partners may not be used to run ranked servers (thus being cheaper for those running the servers). It’s still early though, and this is up in the air.
Vehicles – there are no drive-able vehicles in COD4. The vision for this game was an infantry-based shooter, with the various maps, weapons, and upgrades being tested and balanced toward that end. While some people enjoy vehicles, they do tend to change the nature of how maps are played and can be a source of frustration for those who don’t like using them. No confirmation or denial of vehicles in a possible future expansion, however.
Kill Cam – this feature returns, and will be a server-side option. This time around, the kill cam has the ability to show you what Perks your opponent had enabled at the time you were killed. This may help to soothe the egos of some people who thought a certain kill may have been suspicious. There is a very brief flash of this (just a couple of frames) in the following clip (Deep Impact - http://www.gametrailers.com/player/21127.html ) at the 00:24-00:25 sec mark, just after the “Killed by Primehunter” text disappears off-screen. You have to be quick, but if you pause the video and advance it slowly frame-by-frame, you can see it. Opponent perks are listed at the far right of the screen.
VOIP & Automatic Audio Cues – although we didn’t see it demonstrated, VOIP communications are to be in COD4. In addition, there will be audio cues between team-mates in close proximity for certain actions. For example, you may hear “Cover me, I’m reloading” from a team-mate beside you while he’s putting a fresh magazine into his weapon. This will be done automatically, without action from the player. These audio cues may be the kinds of things picked up by an opponent with the Eavesdrop perk enabled, however.
Dedicated Server Install Files – a case was made by many of the server admins to have these included in COD4, as they would make uploading and installing the game and future patches/updates much quicker. The Dev team said they would explore the issue.
Mac Version – the game will likely come out on the Mac, but only after the PC version is completed as the Mac version is usually a port.
Demos – it has been written on IW forums that a SP demo will come out for COD4. No confirmation or denial of any MP demo, however.
System Requirements – again, the game was still in a pre-Alpha state, and was not yet optimized, so minimum specs were not yet decided. Since many of the visuals in this game require DX9, it’s a safe bet to make sure your video card can handle that if you want to see some of the terrific things they’ve been able to do in this game. It has been written in articles on the web that the plan is to optimize COD4 so that even users with lower-end cards will be able to play and enjoy the game, although on much lower graphics settings.
Wrap-Up
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, took a bold step in moving away from WWII, but it was a carefully planned step. One can almost feel the energy this change of pace has brought both to the game and to the team making it. Visually, the game looks amazing thanks to advanced lighting, textures, and mapping techniques. A plot-driven single-player mode set in modern times will definitely be of interest to many. Still many more will be looking forward to the classic feel of COD multi-player gameplay, but using today’s weapons and locations. The addition of achievements for PC, as well as custom player classes, have the potential to keep the multi-player game-modes fresh and exciting. The new visuals make the possibilities for the modding community quite hopeful as well. This game is definitely worth keeping an eye on, as it is quite likely to become a huge hit later this year.
I’d like to thank all of our gracious hosts from Infinity Ward, Step3, and Activision for putting on this event. You folks were a class act all the way, and it was a real treat to see this game in-person. To Grant C, Jason W, Michael B, Todd A, Robert B, Rob T, Steve F, Jon L, Kathy B, Vince Z, Zied R, Joel E, Richard K, and to anyone else whom I’ve regrettably forgotten to mention, thank you all again for your hospitality, and best of luck with COD4! Thanks also very much to Matt P from PlanetCallofDuty.com for giving me the opportunity to attend.
To those from the community who were also at the event, it was great meeting you all as well.
I hope you’ve all enjoyed reading this article.
Article by Whiskey - http://www.planetcallofduty.com
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