The creatively titled Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is the direct sequel to the game Call of Duty 4, a game that holds a special place in my heart for being one of the quickly dwindling games that not only had exciting and challenging game play, but also an intelligent and engaging story to boot. For this review, I will be playing on the Xbox 360 (the game is also available for PC and PS3), and I will be only discussing the single player. (I don?t have Xbox Live, and I haven?t played enough of Special Ops to form an opinion yet). For those of you new to the Call of Duty series, they are a series of first person shooters that mix the arcade-like action of games like Halo with the gritty tactical realism of titles such as Ghost Recon.
The plot of Modern Warfare 2 is set 5 years after Call of Duty 4. The premise is this: after the death of the no-good Russian rapscallion Zakhaev (by the player) and putting a stop to his dastardly plan to nuke the world due to never being loved enough as a child (Or something along those lines) his right hand man, Vladimir Makarov, took over Russia, and has since tried to spark hatred against Europe and America. Eventually, he declares war on the United States, and it is up to the player and his friends to stop him. There are a number of twists throughout the game, but they aren?t exactly explained very well, and while the story starts off intriguing, it quickly devolves into the depths of stupidity. The moment that made me stop taking the plot seriously is the scene when Russia invades the United States by starting a land war in suburban Virginia, and sends paratroopers in from the sky as if it were World War II. As far as I could tell, the theme of the game seems to be on the idea that history is written by the victor. A potentially interesting idea on its own, but it isn?t shown nearly as much as it could?ve been, and near the end, the only reason why characters even bring the topic up is to make cheesy action movie one-liners.
In proper Call of Duty tradition, you play as multiple characters throughout the campaign. Some of the time, you play as James Ramirez, a member of the Army Rangers, defending America from endless waves of terrorists via a mix of synchronized dance and polite conversation guns and more guns, with bigger guns thrown in for variety?s sake. However, most of the time, you will find yourself in the combat boots of Gary Sanderson, member of the newly formed international counterterrorism squad Task Force 141 (a.k.a. the worst stealth team in history), and defend the rest of the world from endless waves of terrorists via a mix of gunplay and stealth. There are some familiar faces, including ?Soap? McTavish, the silent protagonist of the first game, who is leader of Task Force 141 and your commanding officer. This time around, Soap has grown not only a thick (Scottish?) accent, but also a silly looking mohawk, which I assumed he grew to cement his leadership position. However, there are also quite a few new faces, such as General Shepherd (who has a thing for sending you out on nigh-impossible missions), and Ghost, another Task Force 141 member, who fills in the role of Gaz in the first game (same voice actor, too), and wears a mask for some unexplained reason. The characters aren't characterized very well, which is a shame, considering how attached I became to my squad in Call of Duty 4.
As the title might vaguely hint at, the emphasis of the game is on modern warfare, and you use quite a bit of modern weaponry as a result. The staples, such as the M16 and AK-47, are present at the party, but so are a few more newcomers, such as the Tar-21, F2000, and the ?Vector? (the Kriss Super V in disguise). Though they are by no means realistic, the weapons are all incredibly distinctive and satisfying to fire, enough so that I often found myself picking up new weapons after firefights, simply for the sublime joy of firing them at different surfaces, surfaces that my allies just tragically had to run into, netting me a big fat juicy game over. All weapons can also be outfitted with attachments, including red dot sights, ACOG scopes, grenade launchers, shotguns (sadly, this doesn?t work on other shotguns), silencers, heartbeat sensors, and Pez dispensers (I can dream, can?t I?). There are also two new additions to the series ? one is the ability to dual wield weaponry, while the other is use of a riot shield. I didn?t use duel-wielding too much, due to them being an instant recipe to make yourself a bullet-riddled corpse on harder difficulties. (I played the game on Hardened, the third of fourth hardest difficulties.) However, the riot shield is perhaps my personal favorite video game weapon in a long time. While you can?t use any weapons with it, it affords cover from all bullets from the front, and a melee attack with it is an instant kill. Though it is only given to you in a few sections in the game, I found myself keeping it as long as I possibly could, just so I could give myself the hilarity and added challenge of trying to beat down a squad of heavily armed soldiers with nothing more than it.
The game consists of about 20 or so levels, but they are for the most part, quite short, taking anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes apiece. However, where the game lacks in length, it makes up in for sheer amount of environments. Throughout your roughly 6-7 hour play through, you will scale the treacherous and frigid mountains of Kazakhstan, only to snowmobile off them a few minutes later. You will fight across the war torn streets of suburban Virginia to reclaim fast food places, only to wonder how exactly the sky changed from the light blue that it normally is to an apocalyptic dark red in about an hour. You will race past the sunny shantytowns of Rio de Janeiro, only for you to be perplexed by how the swarms of ragtag militia trying to kill you became so heavily armed. You will storm a heavily guarded Soviet gulag to rescue a valuable prisoner, only for it to be bombed by your own allies in a display of sheer stupidity.
Though the game boasts quite a few locations, they are not all designed very well. The game is essentially linear, and though I have no problems with that in of itself, the game overdoes it to a point where it destroys the illusion that you are actually fighting on a battlefield. One thing that irked me throughout the game was that while the game often places you in near impossible situations, it never gives you a decent way of getting through them. Instead of, say, giving you higher ground or a hiding place, the game usually forces you to run and dodge bullets, shoot for a bit, run towards cover, and then run away from said cover because your enemies threw 5 grenades at it. You will repeat this process of dying over and over again, but not so much because of a mistake in your plans, but more of blind luck. Enemy AI is quite a bit smarter in this game (and the cheap infinite spawning enemies trick has been replaced with adding more enemies in every encounter), but the average intelligence remains about the same, because with every hour that Infinity Ward spent on making the enemies smarter, it seems like they spent another hour making your allies dumber. Though story essential allies are invincible, they also barely kill enemies, and even worse, they outright lie about your flank being covered. One hilarious (and mildly frustrating) moment for me was when a ally soothingly reassured me that my left flank was secure, only for an enemy to run past him and another ally and instantaneously kill me with a shotgun. Either a mini-map onscreen, or the ability to issue squad commands, would have helped quite a bit.
However, my biggest problem with the game play is that the game never makes the best use of its many environments. One of the parts that disappointed me was a level that took place in the shantytowns of Rio de Janeiro. I expected the level to initially be a climactic chase across the rooftops, making the most of the verticality that the environment provides. However, there was only one firefight that involved clever use of a large area, and the rest of the level was spent moving up what was a linear corridor, but one that enemies could attack me from above in. Another level that had some missed potential was a stealthy mission, where Task Force 141 had to enter an oil rig and save the hostages inside. However, instead of being able to play the entire level stealthily, your team ends up messing the mission up after about the third enemy, and it devolves into a linear shooter again. Don?t get me wrong, there were a few moments that I really liked in the game. One such moment was a more open ended mission in suburban Virginia, where you are tasked with defending a large shopping center from Russians. I personally liked this level a lot, because it cemented the fact that you were actually fighting in a battleground, and the area actually changes as a result of the ensuing battle (for example, in one section, a building you are meant to defend blows up).
Overall, Modern Warfare 2 isn?t a bad game at all. In fact, it is pretty good, and well worth the price I paid for it (I borrowed it from a friend). However, it doesn?t really change much from the original, and there wasn?t much reason to replay it. If you are looking for a good single player game, I would suggest renting this, but buying it isn?t worth it. Or, if you haven?t played the original, you can spend an extra bit of money and just buy that instead. It has slightly worse design, but the game?s intriguing story makes up for that.
NOTE: This is my first review, and criticism would be appreciated. Also, if anyone could tell me how to post pictures, it would be greatly appreciated.
The plot of Modern Warfare 2 is set 5 years after Call of Duty 4. The premise is this: after the death of the no-good Russian rapscallion Zakhaev (by the player) and putting a stop to his dastardly plan to nuke the world due to never being loved enough as a child (Or something along those lines) his right hand man, Vladimir Makarov, took over Russia, and has since tried to spark hatred against Europe and America. Eventually, he declares war on the United States, and it is up to the player and his friends to stop him. There are a number of twists throughout the game, but they aren?t exactly explained very well, and while the story starts off intriguing, it quickly devolves into the depths of stupidity. The moment that made me stop taking the plot seriously is the scene when Russia invades the United States by starting a land war in suburban Virginia, and sends paratroopers in from the sky as if it were World War II. As far as I could tell, the theme of the game seems to be on the idea that history is written by the victor. A potentially interesting idea on its own, but it isn?t shown nearly as much as it could?ve been, and near the end, the only reason why characters even bring the topic up is to make cheesy action movie one-liners.
In proper Call of Duty tradition, you play as multiple characters throughout the campaign. Some of the time, you play as James Ramirez, a member of the Army Rangers, defending America from endless waves of terrorists via a mix of synchronized dance and polite conversation guns and more guns, with bigger guns thrown in for variety?s sake. However, most of the time, you will find yourself in the combat boots of Gary Sanderson, member of the newly formed international counterterrorism squad Task Force 141 (a.k.a. the worst stealth team in history), and defend the rest of the world from endless waves of terrorists via a mix of gunplay and stealth. There are some familiar faces, including ?Soap? McTavish, the silent protagonist of the first game, who is leader of Task Force 141 and your commanding officer. This time around, Soap has grown not only a thick (Scottish?) accent, but also a silly looking mohawk, which I assumed he grew to cement his leadership position. However, there are also quite a few new faces, such as General Shepherd (who has a thing for sending you out on nigh-impossible missions), and Ghost, another Task Force 141 member, who fills in the role of Gaz in the first game (same voice actor, too), and wears a mask for some unexplained reason. The characters aren't characterized very well, which is a shame, considering how attached I became to my squad in Call of Duty 4.
As the title might vaguely hint at, the emphasis of the game is on modern warfare, and you use quite a bit of modern weaponry as a result. The staples, such as the M16 and AK-47, are present at the party, but so are a few more newcomers, such as the Tar-21, F2000, and the ?Vector? (the Kriss Super V in disguise). Though they are by no means realistic, the weapons are all incredibly distinctive and satisfying to fire, enough so that I often found myself picking up new weapons after firefights, simply for the sublime joy of firing them at different surfaces, surfaces that my allies just tragically had to run into, netting me a big fat juicy game over. All weapons can also be outfitted with attachments, including red dot sights, ACOG scopes, grenade launchers, shotguns (sadly, this doesn?t work on other shotguns), silencers, heartbeat sensors, and Pez dispensers (I can dream, can?t I?). There are also two new additions to the series ? one is the ability to dual wield weaponry, while the other is use of a riot shield. I didn?t use duel-wielding too much, due to them being an instant recipe to make yourself a bullet-riddled corpse on harder difficulties. (I played the game on Hardened, the third of fourth hardest difficulties.) However, the riot shield is perhaps my personal favorite video game weapon in a long time. While you can?t use any weapons with it, it affords cover from all bullets from the front, and a melee attack with it is an instant kill. Though it is only given to you in a few sections in the game, I found myself keeping it as long as I possibly could, just so I could give myself the hilarity and added challenge of trying to beat down a squad of heavily armed soldiers with nothing more than it.
The game consists of about 20 or so levels, but they are for the most part, quite short, taking anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes apiece. However, where the game lacks in length, it makes up in for sheer amount of environments. Throughout your roughly 6-7 hour play through, you will scale the treacherous and frigid mountains of Kazakhstan, only to snowmobile off them a few minutes later. You will fight across the war torn streets of suburban Virginia to reclaim fast food places, only to wonder how exactly the sky changed from the light blue that it normally is to an apocalyptic dark red in about an hour. You will race past the sunny shantytowns of Rio de Janeiro, only for you to be perplexed by how the swarms of ragtag militia trying to kill you became so heavily armed. You will storm a heavily guarded Soviet gulag to rescue a valuable prisoner, only for it to be bombed by your own allies in a display of sheer stupidity.
Though the game boasts quite a few locations, they are not all designed very well. The game is essentially linear, and though I have no problems with that in of itself, the game overdoes it to a point where it destroys the illusion that you are actually fighting on a battlefield. One thing that irked me throughout the game was that while the game often places you in near impossible situations, it never gives you a decent way of getting through them. Instead of, say, giving you higher ground or a hiding place, the game usually forces you to run and dodge bullets, shoot for a bit, run towards cover, and then run away from said cover because your enemies threw 5 grenades at it. You will repeat this process of dying over and over again, but not so much because of a mistake in your plans, but more of blind luck. Enemy AI is quite a bit smarter in this game (and the cheap infinite spawning enemies trick has been replaced with adding more enemies in every encounter), but the average intelligence remains about the same, because with every hour that Infinity Ward spent on making the enemies smarter, it seems like they spent another hour making your allies dumber. Though story essential allies are invincible, they also barely kill enemies, and even worse, they outright lie about your flank being covered. One hilarious (and mildly frustrating) moment for me was when a ally soothingly reassured me that my left flank was secure, only for an enemy to run past him and another ally and instantaneously kill me with a shotgun. Either a mini-map onscreen, or the ability to issue squad commands, would have helped quite a bit.
However, my biggest problem with the game play is that the game never makes the best use of its many environments. One of the parts that disappointed me was a level that took place in the shantytowns of Rio de Janeiro. I expected the level to initially be a climactic chase across the rooftops, making the most of the verticality that the environment provides. However, there was only one firefight that involved clever use of a large area, and the rest of the level was spent moving up what was a linear corridor, but one that enemies could attack me from above in. Another level that had some missed potential was a stealthy mission, where Task Force 141 had to enter an oil rig and save the hostages inside. However, instead of being able to play the entire level stealthily, your team ends up messing the mission up after about the third enemy, and it devolves into a linear shooter again. Don?t get me wrong, there were a few moments that I really liked in the game. One such moment was a more open ended mission in suburban Virginia, where you are tasked with defending a large shopping center from Russians. I personally liked this level a lot, because it cemented the fact that you were actually fighting in a battleground, and the area actually changes as a result of the ensuing battle (for example, in one section, a building you are meant to defend blows up).
Overall, Modern Warfare 2 isn?t a bad game at all. In fact, it is pretty good, and well worth the price I paid for it (I borrowed it from a friend). However, it doesn?t really change much from the original, and there wasn?t much reason to replay it. If you are looking for a good single player game, I would suggest renting this, but buying it isn?t worth it. Or, if you haven?t played the original, you can spend an extra bit of money and just buy that instead. It has slightly worse design, but the game?s intriguing story makes up for that.
NOTE: This is my first review, and criticism would be appreciated. Also, if anyone could tell me how to post pictures, it would be greatly appreciated.
