Believe the snipe

Reliving COD 4’s electrifying Chernobyl hit

There’s a good chance ‘All Ghillied Up’ is the best videogame flashback of all time. The PS3 era was blessed with some classic timejumping scenes – see Batman: Arkham Asylum’s wonderful Scarecrow/young Bruce set-piece. Still, even the Bat’s traumatising trip down memory lane can’t quite match Call Of Duty 4’s scintillating stealth masterclass.

Modern Warfare’s most memorable mission is arguably the greatest FPS level ever. Skipping back to 1996, the Chernobyl-set hit places you behind the terrific ’tache of a young Captain Price (then just a lowly lieutenant), as COD’s iconic asskicker teams up with the supremely Scottish Captain MacMillan during an assassination attempt on MW’s Big Bad, Imran Zakhaev.

What elevates the tense sniping set-piece from every COD level before or since is a supreme eye for both exceptional pacing, and a healthy respect for player agency. While Infinity Ward carefully nudges your walking bush of a soldier through those formerly irradiated fields with care, the game never takes control away from you. Rest assured, if you miss one of those early targets, angry attack dogs will rip you to shreds, and if you shimmy into the path of troops during that terrifying tank convoy crawl, it’s Chernobyl-curtains.

The sense of starring in your own war movie is riveting and, unlike in later CODs, where you often feel like a mere extra, success here demands a cool head and steady hand. Filled with both thrilling spectacle and chilling sobriety – the ghostly laughs of children in that decimated Pripyat complex – MW’s sniping section has never been topped.