This game exceeded my expectations in almost every area.
I have to say Call of Duty 4 exceeded my expectations in almost every area. The story was enjoyable, especially for the FPS genre. But even more so, the single player campaign and gameplay is what impressed me the most. As soon as I played the demo, I started looking into the game in earnest, only being daunted by the "strong language" warning on the ESRB rating, but even that wasn't as bad as allot of games sporting the same moniker.
My only significant disappointment being the multiplayer through system link. I've grown so accustomed to Halo's awesome multiplayer modes through system link, I had hoped CoD4 would be equal to or expand on that experience, but alas, for the best multiplayer experience it has to be on Xbox Live, which we don't have.
Nonetheless, this is a great game, with an engaging story. I hope Infinity Ward has more in mind for us, continuing the high-watermark quality that I have found in Call of Duty 4.