Honestly, I just wanted to shoot something because I was tired of doing homework. If you will ignore Papa’s Pizzeria and dress-up games, Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare Remastered was the first proper video game I played.
I didn’t start gaming until my second year in college because I thought that first-person fighter games were too complicated. The graphics, sound and the intensity of these games were intriguing but intimidating. I didn’t want to start and then suck at it.
However, one morning I decided that I would try the offline single-player mode so that nobody except me would ever know that I played the game. When I started shooting people, I knew that I would probably obsess over this for the next few weeks.
#1 The Gameplay
When I started playing the game on my laptop, the amount of effort and coordination astounded me. I had to learn to drop different grenades (tactical and lethal), switching guns and aiming while I was running. The game put me in situations where I had to think fast to survive. Even if the direction was just to shoot, it was about figuring out a position where I could shoot at someone without getting killed. It was about figuring out where the hidden shooters were. It was about dodging the random grenades and just staying alive.
Call of Duty didn’t just have the easiest missions either. The first mission they handed me was infiltrating a sinking ship. The number of times I died because I didn’t know how to navigate with the map is too embarrassing.
Something I really liked was that Modern Warfare was from the first-person perspective. I had never played video games like that before. It was intense with the amount of control I had with my character. It gave me vertigo because of the number of times I spun my head to locate someone.
The intel that was in the most obscure of places also made for a good treasure hunt. I remember leaving teammates out to dry just to search for these tiny laptops.
#2 The Shooting
The amount of times I shot enemies in the butt is innumerable now. I prided myself on getting headshots or killing enemies without killing myself, but I vividly remember shooting most of my enemies in the butt when they ran away.
It was also funny how enemies seemed to keep appearing like rabbits from nowhere at all to only get shot. It was like they were eternally regenerating. But I was happy to engage everyone I encountered with a rain of bullets.
Excessive? Definitely. I was always out of ammo.
Half the time, I felt that my character was randomly dying. I barely made sure I was safe until my vision got red-colored. Another thing was that I didn’t use my mouse to aim when I spotted an enemy. I located an enemy on the screen and, with the powers of my eyesight, hoped that I would kill him with my gun.
#3 The Enemies
The enemies were relentless. They were consistently trying to kill me all the time. The amount of foolish bravery I saw in these virtual men alarmed me. They threw themselves in front of my gun and sometimes ran straight into me, filling the entire screen with them to get in my face, swinging blindly to get a hit.
Those were the ones that scared me the most. However, the most formidable enemies were the ones in close range that threw grenades at you, and your only options were to either run at him or die.
With the number of times I’ve shot my men in some battles thinking they were enemies, I don’t even know why they were still on my team anymore.
#4 The Sniper Mission
The All Ghillied Up mission was the scariest and most stressful mission that I’ve played in almost all the Call of Duty. The music was eerie and got my heart rate spiking each time I thought I would get spotted. The helicopter shot at me the entire time and each blast was right next to my ear. I didn’t even know how to run and this mission expected me to launch a missile at a helicopter.
It was frightening because of the risk of getting spotted. Unless you were careful and sniped all the guards, surviving this mission was nerve-wracking enough. The worst part of the mission was that it didn’t matter what you did, ultimately a helicopter would crash into your captain and impale his lower body, forcing you to carry him everywhere with no way for you to shoot through a barrage of endless soldiers. The pressure was real.
Another part of the mission that made me break out in cold sweat was crawling through the field while a TANK and an ARMY of soldiers strolled past me. I tried lying down at every place where I thought they wouldn’t find me, but the only place I could find was to lay on top of my teammate. Cuddles on the battlefield is the way to go, I guess.
I think I was sweating bullets by the time this mission ended.
#5 Your teammates are the best and the worst
You would be surprised at the number of times you die because of your own teammate’s flashbang or your own.
I’ve been thankful for teammates for taking bullets for me. They’ve usually tried to give me backup fire and keep me from getting hit. Each time one died, another replaced him, so there wasn’t a shortage. They kept shooting the few enemies and pointed out locations for me.
But these idiots will give away your position. The number of times I’ve tried to take a shot only to have my teammate stand in front of me to protect me, while awkwardly moving is horrible. Some were worse when they occupied your position, pushing you out in the open only for enemies to shoot you, and you need a new hiding spot now.
Just find some other place, dude. Stop getting me killed when you’re trying to protect me.
However, I can confidently say that I am happy that I chose Call of Duty to be my first FPS game. It introduced me to gaming, and I’ve never felt that accomplished with a game until Black Ops.
About the Author
Shreya is a content writer, gamer, and extraordinaire living the chaotic nerd life of writing and gaming. With her big personality and vocabulary, she is the cinnamon roll who looks like she could kill you. She’s studying Business and Financial Journalism at the Asian College of Journalism.
