Why the hate on Modern Warfare 2?

[NeutralMunchHotel]

I ask this because I really want to try and get my head around this.

Here's where I'm at: I started gaming this generation (well, I was very late with a PS2. GBA on 7th birthday FTW though) and my only real experience with an FPS is Halo 3 which I thoroughly enjoyed for a whole year and a half. That was, until I bought Modern Warfare 2 on the recommendation of several friends for Christmas. And it was a blast. I enjoyed it far more than Halo (yes, the novelty might wear off but I think I'll play MW2 more in the future). So, excitedly I hop onto the Escapist forums.

I realise this is perhaps a small, vocal minority but there seems to be a lot of hate for MW2. I think the word 'shit' is used most frequently, and all I can ask is... why? Perhaps I am inexperienced and not 1337 enough to play a hardcore game of Counterstrike, but the fact is MW2 is, to me, fun, and I can't possibly see how people can't get a little enjoyment out of it.

I realise this may sound like 'I like it so it must be awesome', but what I really want to know is why people dislike this game. Because I just can't see it.

[small]Oops. There it is again.[/small]

 

[sephiroth1991]

I guess it's cos it dosn't add anything and is there just to gain money

 

[Kollega]

1) It's pretty damn overhyped. It's a good shooter, but not a second coming of Christ. Same deal as with Halo.

2) PC crowd is angry because there's no dedicated servers, no modifications, no other usual PC stuff.

3) I, personally, don't like it because of it's additude. People call it "realistic representation of modern warfare", but it's really just a popcorn action flick. This game is not realistic in departments of:

- Gameplay (Wolverine regeneration FTW? More like WTF!)
- Overall story and setting ("dirty communazis" seemed like a discredited trope by now).
- Many, many missions (i thought they'd ride right into the helicopter after snowmobile chase, but to my surprise they didn't).

First part was more serious in tone, if anything - it tried to be Black Hawk Down. This one tries to be 24.

And that's not to mention multiplayer, and it's...

-Model 1887's, some people use them way too much, and i understand its cause they rock but the fact is they are just annoying with the range they have. [I am aware of the patch]
-Tactical knife, Marathon, Lightweight and Commando pro, these people just run about and stab stab stab, and no matter even if you headshot them within a metre of you they still kill you.

 

[BigHandInSky]

Well its because of how some things in the game are so bloody annoying in the Multiplayer that you wish you had the power to go through the screen and punch that player in the face.
EG:
-Model 1887's, some people use them way too much, and i understand its cause they rock but the fact is they are just annoying with the range they have. [I am aware of the patch]
-Tactical knife, Marathon, Lightweight and Commando pro, these people just run about and stab stab stab, and no matter even if you headshot them within a metre of you they still kill you.

 

[SextusMaximus]

It doesn't have much replayability...
Frankly, spec ops just isn't fun. It's a load of garbage.

 

[MurderousToaster]

Well, people hate it because it's popular. As you probably know, people think they're "going against the wave", and because of that "cool" if they dislike popular games. For example, anything that's popular will get flamed, regardless of whether or not it is a shining representation of videogaming heaven.

EDIT: Not saying MW2 is the above, before I get flamz0rd

 

[Doug]

It is only because you do not have extensive experience playing FPS games that you find MW2 enjoyable. The people with half-beards growing on their sleep deprived bodies will be the ones that cast MW2 aside as garbage.

Seriously though, most people myself included, hate it because of the PC port. Either it was malicious or it was the laziest port OF ALL TIME.

It has to be malicious, because they put effort (although that might be too strong a word) into IWNet, despite the fact they were using, for all technical intents and purposes, the same game as MW2; apparently, hackers did find out that MW2 is capable of running DS's, but it has been disabled in game. Stupid, lazy, aggronant, customer hating bastards.

 

[MurderousToaster]

Well its because of how some things in the game are so bloody annoying that you wish you had the power to go through the screen and punch that player in the face.
EG:
-Model 1887's, some people use them way too much, and i understand its cause they rock but the fact is they are just annoying with the range they have. [I am aware of the patch]
-Tactical knife, Marathon, Lightweight and Commando pro, these people just run about and stab stab stab, and no matter even if you headshot them within a metre of you they still kill you.

The tacknife dickheads are easily cast aside by the powur of a fully-automagical shotgun.

 

[Doug]

2) PC crowd is angry because there's no dedicated servers, no modifications, no other usual PC stuff.

And IWNet doesn't work. I could forgive them in IWnet made good matches and we didn't have lag every other game, or crashs, or host migrantions every few minutes *sigh* although I would miss 32 vs 32 matches even so.

 

[Kollega]

- Gameplay (Wolverine regeneration FTW? More like WTF!)

This has been going on since COD2 and you complain about it now?

But i don't remember CoD2 being praised for ultra-realistic representation of WW2.

And come to think of it, what the fudge is with health regen anyway?! First Halo got it perfectly right - regenerating shield, medkits for health! Why not do same thing with, oh say, body armour made of self-repairing polymeres or something?

 

[Mcupobob]

Well, people hate it because it's popular. As you probably know, people think they're "going against the wave", and because of that "cool" if they dislike popular games. For example, anything that's popular will get flamed, regardless of whether or not it is a shining representation of videogaming heaven.

EDIT: Not saying MW2 is the above, before I get flamz0rd

You said it all man, I didn't play MW2 much but liked what I saw, I didn't see really anything to hate about the game besides its story and even then the story is just sorta there to move the game along. Its fun, just like Halo was fun and sometimes I just want a bad guy to kill and a easy to objective to accomplish and other times I want story and something to make me think.

 

[Insert Funny Name Here]

I play it on the PC and as I don't do the multiplayer side, I just do the spec ops by myself and play through the campaign.

And in the words of a great reviewer and critic, I have to give it a resounding "Eh".

It's a good game but has the same mechanics as the first one, nothing really new to challenge you. If you can complete the first one on vet, you can do the second easily on vet. Hardest part will be trying to find a partner for the spec ops co-op.

But thinking of it on it's own, not as a sequel to Modern Warfare, the game is okay. It's not going to set the world of fire, but I would save the labelling "shit" for a game that actually deserved it. I'm still playing some of the spec ops so it's good for wasting time, but I KNOW it'll get old quickly.

And it pulls a dick move and finishes on a cliffhanger. Can't forgive it for that.

So in conclusion, not shit. But disappointing and lacking compared to the hype it was given. For more examples of this kind of game see Fable 2 which was severly overhyped and called shit because of it.

 

[Kollega]

Cod4 was praised for being a realistric portayal of modern warefare, and it had the same health system as Mw2. But then again, people are only complaining about it now.

Alright, it's a minor nitpick on my part. But CoD4 was at least somewhat serious in it's tone.

 

[HardRockSamurai]

The Top 5 Reasons the Internet Hates Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare 2

5. It's an FPS. The internet hates FPS games.
4. It has a pretty short single player campaign. Being mad about this is actually understandable.
4. It's not Call of Duty 6. Seriously, we should be playing Call of Duty 6: Future Warfare by now!
4. It's published by Activision
1. It's popular.

Ironically, most of the people who lash out against the game online probably own at least two copies. Just remember that as long as there is an internet, there's always going to be a small or large group of people who hate something. I like to call it "Fad Hype."

 

[Beartrucci]

I believe I would have enjoyed it a bit more if it wasn't so damn OVERHYPED!

 

[Beartrucci]

Cod4 was praised for being a realistric portayal of modern warefare, and it had the same health system as Mw2. But then again, people are only complaining about it now.

Alright, it's a minor nitpick on my part. But CoD4 was at least somewhat serious in it's tone.

I agree with that, but Mw2 was still a fun experience. The US missions still hold that gritty realistic warfare aspect of it (well, the feeling, not the gameplay). But like the first it was focused too much on SAS missions. I would've loved to see of seen more American missions, like the bridge level that was in Spec Ops, why was that not in the main game?

Perhaps they couldn't find a way to fit it into the main story, because I think it's set on a real bridge (forget the location and the name of it though).