well, fun thing is: its a war-themed shooter, but it isnt cliche by far. maybe its what will be copied over and over to become a cliche...
the singleplayer indeed is short, but very well done. its definitely worth its money in my book...
multiplayer works better than i imagined. it works superb, id daresay. i was very sceptical on the whole idea of levelling up, collecting xp, unlocking weapons et al... but it works. it totally works. it does result in imbalances in the way that you are at a disadvantage with your default m-16 loadout against a player on the higher levels with a few nasty perks (three frag grenades instead of one, for example... thats one youll notice badly), but if you choose and play wisely, the three classes that are available from the beginning can be played successfully against higher level players.
its quite obvious i see the whole affair the other way round from veresae: i wouldnt say that "there are some good effects", but what i see is a damn lot of purpose behind the effects - something that has fallen out of vogue since ages. see the hallmark titles of the hailed unreal3 engine, for example: gears of war and ut3: now thats nice effects, and lots of them, and without low framerates even. but they are pointless... the effects are hollow, literally bling-bling... the unaesthetic garish overkill of ut3 is just about what needed to come round eventually: effects overkill to the degree that even the most profane of uses for effects goes out the window: eye-candy, and no well-thought out game physique. for the kind of game ut3 strives to be, the movement engine wont hold up. (only effects exception: blurry vision underwater. now theres a gameplay use behind the effect)
depth of field, or the hdr effects for example are put to storytelling (singleplayer) and gameplay (singleplayer and predominantly multiplayer) uses in cod4. where there is no use for what cod4 is about, there is no bling-bling used. you wont see swinging lanterns, just to demonstrate dynamic shadows and because they can. there is no glow/bloom overload except where it suits the overall aesthetic directive.
two thumbs up from me. and now off, unlocking the acog scope for the m4