Written By: Daniel Richtmyre
D&W Reviews Associate Editor
You know the old saying "If it ain't broke, don't fix it"? Well Infinity Ward did the exact opposite, by managing to take a game that was nearly perfect in the first place, and somehow make it exceedingly better. The first Call of Duty: Modern Warfare was almost inarguably the perfect example of what a first person shooter should include: an excellent story-driven campaign mode, beautiful life-like graphics, and a multiplayer mode that always leaves the player wanting to come back for more. Modern Warfare 2 takes the model of its predecessor and turns something that was simply excellent into something that is absolutely phenomenal.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 comes packaged with 3 game modes: Campaign, Spec Ops, and Multiplayer. The campaign mode begins five years after the end of the last game, and the Russian Ultranationalist group that was previously terrorizing the world has taken over Russia. To be brief, things go sour, and an all out war begins between the United States and Russia, with the Russians bringing the initial attack onto American soil.
Speaking from a visual standpoint, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is extraordinarily impressive right from the start. Everything looks much sharper and more defined than previously. Character models move and react quite realistically, which helps create a much more emotionally intense game. Infinity Ward is obviously pushing the engine they used in the previous Modern Warfare to its outermost limits. The gameplay is still as intense, thrilling, and fun as ever before. While it doesn’t really change too much from Modern Warfare, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’s locales are much more interesting seeing as the game is packed with tons more action than before. There are certain explosive and action-filled levels in the game that never cease to impress me.
While the campaign mode in Modern Warfare 2 is certainly fun, there are a couple minor but noticeable faults that underlie it. The first being its length. On my first play through (playing on the regular difficulty setting), it took me some time to really enjoy the story and characters (who, in fact died at a pretty regular pace). Nothing too extreme happened that would have slowed me down, I completed the game in six hours flat. Now, the emphasis in the newer Call of Duty games hasn’t really been on the story that much. In fact, I’m fairly certain a large proportion of the people purchasing Modern Warfare 2 will never even touch the campaign. Nonetheless, six hours is incredibly disappointing for a single player (campaign) mode. While arguably; yes, those who do play the campaign often do multiple playthroughs on different difficulty settings, but it would have been nice to have enjoyed playing something that lasted slightly longer (ten hours at least).
The second issue has to do with how the game actually plays out. While I understand that Modern Warfare is supposed to take place in a near future setting and that it’s an action game first and a war game second; there are just certain things that seem a bit too implausible. For example, near the end of the game you’ll go on basically a "do-or-die" mission in which you and two other soldiers fight against an entire army. Another instance is when you jump over a vast chasm on a snow-mobile in slow motion. While in all honesty, it’s not that big of a deal, these “action-packed-to-the-extreme” moments actually make the story somewhat muddled. On more than one occasion, I had to do a double take to figure out what was going on. It’s at these points in the game that the story seems to focus on things blowing up first and an actual narrative explanation second.
Besides the campaign, there’s also the brand new Spec Ops mode. Spec Ops gives you missions, mostly based off of levels from the campaign, with specific objectives to achieve. When you achieve a certain objective, such as playing a mission on a harder difficulty, more stars will be unlocked. Those unlocked stars translate to even more missions and earned achievements. Spec Ops is playable as either solo or with another person co-operatively, though it’s fairly obvious Infinity Ward meant it to be played with a second person because certain mission become obscenely hard to do alone or on a higher difficulty level. For example, completing all of the Spec Op missions on Veteran difficulty takes a considerable amount of time. Although, I would have preferred campaign co-op, Spec Ops with a friend is definitely just as welcoming of an addition to the series.
Of course, there’s also the heart and soul of the Modern Warfare series: multiplayer. Nearly every possible annoyance apparent in previous versions of the multiplayer component is fixed. Say, you don’t like the Juggernaut or Martyrdom perks? Now they’re reserved as death streaks, meaning they only benefit a player once they’ve died a few times, and the next time they get a kill, it disappears. Don’t you hate it when the host leaves the game and the match is forfeited? Well now when that occurs, the game finds a new host and gameplay is only interrupted for mere seconds. Modern Warfare 2 also adds Killstreak Perks, so instead of just UAV, airstrike or helicopter, you can choose three perks from a multitude of match intensifying elements that vary in difficulty to achieve.
You also gain experience points from many other accomplishments as well, rather than just kills and challenge completions. While the two aforementioned still gain experience, you also receive points for headshots, killing the person who last killed you, and also for ending someone’s killstreak. The standard leveling process is still present; but weapon load out customization is much more complex, challenging players to master each weapon. There are also emblems and logos to be unlocked if you want to customize your name appearance, which shows up when you punish your enemies. And of course there’s also new maps, guns, and perks; none of which I have really any complaints with.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is a no-brainer purchase if you are a gamer who loves to go through all aspects of a game; i.e. both single-player and multiplayer. There’s a ton of content here that never seems to lose its shine and will keep you coming back for years upon end. If you know for a fact that you will only play the single-player portion of the game, at the very least this game a must have rental. The campaign, while fantastic in its own right, is unfortunately short and solo spec ops will provide some enjoyment, but the real meat of the experience comes from playing with friends or from sniping that nine year old from across the map and being accused of being a cheater in the post-game.
Overall: 10/10
Pros:
-There’s a ton of content to keep players coming back for more.
-Spec Ops is a fun experience with a friend.
-Somehow pushes the first game further to even more levels of fun.
Cons:
- 6-hour campaign.
- Story gets a little muddled at times.
dandwreviews - 7/24/2010 (reply)
Not long enough. Hence it's placement under "Cons".