- Main bad guy - a Russian ultra-nationalist called Zakhaev, who will do anything in his power to bring Mother Russia back to the days when Stalin ruled with an iron fist.
- Zakhaev is being backed by a significant group of dodgy Russian businessmen, mafia and military, so has a lot of meaty hardware at his disposal, which he promptly uses to start a civil war in his mother country. However, Zakhaev knows that the other world powers will eventually get involved in his little conflict, so he hatches a scheme to occupy the attack dog of the West, the USA.
- More realistic animation and liquid-smooth visuals whizzing past at a solid 60-frames-per-second.
- As before, AI soldiers point the way towards objectives, and you have multiple paths through the levels.
- Explosions now have a physical shock wave - walls collapse sending rubble and dust particles into the air and vehicles can be shot to pieces and will blow up if damaged enough. You can now pick up grenades that have been thrown at you and chuck them back as well, with access to tear gas and flashbangs as well as smoke and frag grenades. The ballistics and impact of every weapon have been accurately modelled too, allowing you to use, say, a heavy machine gun to shoot through walls and ceilings to kill bad guys.
- If the beautiful terrain wasn't populated with mad Commie terrorists trying to kill you with rocket launchers, you'd believe it was a sneak-peak at a new Elder Scrolls game.
- Also, to aid your immersion, Infinity Ward have gone further by reducing the amount of HUD information than in other Call Of Duty games - they've got rid of the mini-map in single-player, and information on weapon choice pops up then fades away quickly.
- "You'll be in Russia doing some spy-type stuff in camouflage suits, then you'll head to the Middle East with squad warfare supported by helicopters, then become a gunner on an attack helicopter, then back to Russia protecting a defector from Zakhaev. COD4 even has back-story missions where you go back 15 years in time for a Highlander- flashback."