The first-person shooter genre has many points of great change throughout gaming history. The Doom games laid the foundation and established what the genre could be, while the Halo series brought a new evolution of FPS games to home consoles in a big way. But the first-person shooter genre underwent another major shift that not only impacted games in the early 2000s, it changed the way most titles would approach online multiplayer in the years that followed. The game responsible for that was Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, and gaming would never be the same after it released.

Most entries in the Call of Duty series bring a lot of great elements to the genre in nearly every release, all the way through to the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. Many of the games take place in historically important battles like World War II, but Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was the first to bring the action closer to the present day. Instead of using legacy weapons that could be seen in museums, the battles took place in current-day settings with soldiers that were very familiar, even though the story was fiction. But the game’s release would bring more than just a new setting and become one of the most significant first-person shooters of all-time. Here’s why, 18 years ago, the release of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare changed gaming forever.

Systems

Released November 5, 2007

ESRB m

Developer(s) Infinity Ward

Publisher(s) Activision

Engine IW

Multiplayer Local Multiplayer, Online Multiplayer, Local Co-Op

Franchise Call of Duty

A shift in the genre

It didn’t belong to Halo anymore

It can be argued that the biggest game for a time in the early 2000s was the first Halo, with Halo 2 continuing the momentum for the series after. It was a pop culture milestone that brought a mega popular FPS game to consoles that almost everyone played, which worked out very well for the original Xbox and their Xbox Live online service. Although there were other games in the genre, like Call of Duty and Medal of Honor, most people would think of Halo whenever they discussed the shooters. And for a time, that was the main focus for everyone that played games online.

This would eventually change in 2007, when the Xbox 360 was on the market and Infinity Ward would release a new entry for the Call of Duty series. This was a time when Xbox Live was mega popular among gamers who jumped into the online gaming frenzy, despite PlayStation having their own take on it with PlayStation Network. Most people played their shooters online through Xbox Live on the Xbox 360, which included other shooters like Gears of War and eventually Halo 3. However, things took off when Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare finally arrived for everyone to play on consoles, and everything immediately shifted.

Credit: Activision

While the game had a very attractive single-player campaign that pushed boundaries for everyone at the time, it was the online multiplayer that drew a lot of attention. It was a game that ran incredibly smooth and responsive offline and online, with a lot of emphasis on fantastic visuals that stood apart from the competition. By the time Call of Duty 4 was out, Halo 3 had already been around for a few months, but it was clear that Infinity Ward’s game was offering something very different from what players knew about Halo, and it garnered a lot of attention.

Bold gameplay for everyone

Online multiplayer was never the same

If there’s one thing that anyone could say about Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, it’s that the online multiplayer was the reason so many people jumped on board with it. The gameplay within a match in Call of Duty 4 was faster, more erratic, and layered than other first-person shooters, with a twitch-like pacing that kept players respawning into matches and getting into skirmishes fast. Other games at the time were still competitive, but they didn’t have the speed and chaotic nature of what would happen in Call of Duty 4 online multiplayer match.

A big part of this also came from new additions to the gameplay, such as the “create-a-class” system and killstreaks. These are two genre-changing aspects that would become incredibly important for future shooters that are released later. Players could customize their loadout of weapons, equipment, and perks to use on the map, which could shift things in or out of favor for a team. But it’s the addition of killstreaks that would be the most impactful on everything, which rewarded players for doing well in matches with the ability to call in extra perks for their team. Calling in a UAV could help the team, but calling in an airstrike or helicopter could be a devastating move to win a match. Although everyone had the same killstreaks available at the time, it would be a system that would be iterated on and improved in future Call of Duty releases.

Credit: (YouTube) Cycu1

Taken together with the faster player movement and chaotic nature of maps, Call of Duty 4 became a monster hit for anyone that played games online. Features like online lobbies, party chat, playlist settings, and more would help build out the culture of modern online gaming as we know it today, more so than what was previously seen from series like Halo, even though it was the reason for things like Xbox Live taking off. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare pushed everything further and molded a lot of aspects of it that most games have as a standard today.

Spectacle that remains memorable

Cinematic nature that was glaring

As much as the online multiplayer of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was the reason everyone played, the single-player content of the game is still highly regarded by many. The biggest reason why for most players is how cinematic the single-player campaign was to play through. It not only looked amazing on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, but it had an interesting story to follow with some big moments that were shocking at the time. At a time when other games were doing their own versions of a cinematic story, what players would see in Call of Duty 4 would deliver something that felt entirely unique.

Credit: Activision

Fans of the game remember the mission where you first drop onto a cargo freighter for an infiltration mission, which leads to a massive shootout and many crazy set pieces. Or the stage where you and a teammate are wearing ghillie suits for a sniper mission, taking out targets with stealth and patience instead of rushing into battle. And hardly anyone can forget the mission aptly named “Shock and Awe”, where a nuclear explosion goes off and depicts the player’s character dying from radiation poisoning as a giant mushroom cloud is seen in the distance. There were many other moments throughout the campaign that built upon the action-movie cinematic nature of the experience, and everyone loved it.

For a lot of people who played the game back then, the campaign in Call of Duty 4 remains one of the best that the series has ever produced. Some would argue things were taken to an even higher level with the sequel to the game that released in 2009, but most would agree that the first Modern Warfare campaign remains the peak of the series.

Credit: (YouTube) SycoSquirrelSSU

The aftermath of greatness

Since the initial release of Call of Duty 4, the gaming industry has undergone many changes. The way we play games online and how we approach the range of experiences they deliver can be traced back to what was done in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Other franchises would try their hand at things like killstreaks, playlists, and delivering a cinematic campaign, all of which would have varying degrees of success. But the release of Call of Duty 4 more than 18 years ago was a truly significant shift in the genre, and ultimately, video games as a whole. For reasons that are both better and worse at times, nothing has ever truly been the same since then.

Systems

Released November 5, 2007

ESRB m

Developer(s) Infinity Ward

Publisher(s) Activision

Engine IW

Multiplayer Local Multiplayer, Online Multiplayer, Local Co-Op

Franchise Call of Duty