Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Review

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is the big brother of FPS games. It came. It saw. It took most of my summer up blasting people from Russian nuclear silos to abandoned factories. It was fun, I loved it and the community loved it. So when Infinity Ward announced Modern Warfare 2 it was thought that the game could do no wrong. Well the game didn’t, it was the people behind the puppet that started pulling the wrong strings.  With the run up to the launch of MW2 the community divided and people started to think that MW2 wasn’t going to be the greatest follow up.

You see in reality, or at least my warped version of it, MW2 is the little brother to MW which means it’s not really its fault, the game works and it does some bits well, however there are some areas that don’t seem to have changed since the last time I picked up MW. So take a seat while I run you through while MW2 feel more like MW1.5.

I suppose the game itself is pretty much the same core package as it was the first time. “If it isn’t broken then don’t fix it” springs to mind as I am typing this however, while I can see that there has been some spit and polish to the game, like the graphics have had a update, a lot of the same core dynamics of the game are still pretty much the same.  MW2 starts 5 years after the first game and if you really didn’t pay attention to the storyline in the first, don’t worry as at the beginning of the game you get a montage of what happened in the original.  After you get a refresher’s course you will have to go to “the pit” and run a gauntlet style challenge which will eventually set the difficultly of the game for you. Interestingly enough it is pretty much the same as the original opening of the first game.

After all of this you start your first mission. During the missions again I didn’t see any major difference from the original MW however, the AI has had a bit of a tweak and now the set pieces are a little bit more inventive. While all of this feels good the single player should take you around 6 hrs to complete if you are half decent with a rifle and probably not much more if you’re not.

While the single player seems a little short and a little rushed together with a lot of action and random cut scenes, sometimes you do feel you’re being pushed around a bit simply to move the story along. The problem is that you play quite a few characters in MW2 leaving you confused about who you were and what you were doing. It is a shame that at some points I could see myself not caring about the plot; I just wanted to get to A to B to get to the next part. The storyline is good and once you get into the plot it really does draw you in, however, like I’ve said it ends too soon and leaves you wanting more. The voice acting is good and all characters show real emotion, especially when in a fire fight. When they shout,  “I’ve been pinned” or “cover me” and you’re rushing ahead it really adds to the depth and the realism whether it is coming from your team or your opponents. The game has a lot of twists and turns and some levels will suddenly raise the bar, with the game’s dramatic music will kick in. However some levels especially a few in the first segment of the game there is hardly any music at all, in fact you can only hear the whistling wind and the snow crunch before your feet as you slowly take out some enemies hiding in the snow storm.

So after playing the single player mode I decided it was a time for a break in the storyline so I went on to the new feature of MW2 which is Spec Ops. Spec Ops can be played alone with a friend or across Xbox Live the idea is that you complete challenges that are set by the game and once you have completed these challenges you are given a number of stars depending on how well you did. There is a total of 23 missions and they are broken into three packs, Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, and Echo at the end of each mission you are given a stats screen showing you how long you took and how many kills you did as well as additional information. The first set is Alpha and seems to cover pretty much all the basics that you have just learnt in the first few levels of single player. While this may not seem appealing the more you unlock the better the challenge is. While I have only played this mode for a short time I can see that this is going to be a good hit with most fans as it uses the best parts of most of the levels and brings that back into a challenge mode. Even though this can be done on your own I recommend you play with a friend as it’s a lot more enjoyable. Also while playing this through with a friend you will be able to take the advantage of both your using different setups, But be warned some levels will only give you certain weapons to use as you play through, this can be slightly annoying if your used to a certain weapon, however to does add to the amount of challenge that is upon you.  For example one of the missions requires you to re-run the snow mobile chase which you have done in one of the first missions. This time you are set a time limit in which to complete this course. Once completed you will get a rank out of three stars, depending on the difficultly level as well this may be hard or easy to complete. Not to completely ruin the story line but one mission you are faced with has a time limit of taking out a certain number of enemies. The kicker is the fact that there are also civilians running around and trying to get in your way. While playing this on normal mode I found that there wasn’t too much of a challenge however stepping this up into veteran mode you will notice you will have a lot of attack dogs coming to attack you as well as more heavily armoured enemies come to take you down.

So, we finally move on to the part everyone wants to speak about: the multiplayer. While again on the Xbox 360 version nothing has changed much there are a few tweaks here and there that keep the games balanced and running smoothly. The 6 v 6 or 9 v 9 feels a lot better and you will soon learn that the best type of match is one with only 6 on each team. Even though I have played MW maps with 32 players, I feel in this version MW2 the 9 v 9 is a little too hectic for the style of maps they have chosen. The map selection seems very simple with a lot of clutch maps that allow teams to sit in a few positions covering doorways. The maps are close and spawn points are normally only a few feet from the action. While this is both a gift and a curse I can’t help remember the issues of running over a map in MW just to find out all your team died and are behind you or your teammates have already got rid of the enemy who are now spawning behind you ready and waiting to shoot you while you’re running the opposite way. The kill streaks have had an update allowing you now to choose three from a list of bonuses ranging from harrier jump jets to a full blown nuke.

While there is a range of different kill streak rewards you can only bring three into battle at a time personally which means you will have to choose which ones you want. Also you will have to unlock certain ones as you level up: so choose wisely. The perks themselves have also had a few tweaks, so now that there are extra peaks which give you a better bonus if you complete challenges for them.  The gameplay itself in multiplayer is effortless, everything runs smoothly and I haven’t had any problems grabbing a few games of COD and enjoying it like the good old times. While there are still issues that you can’t kick players from matches I am are sure this will be resolved later on with patches. Some of the perks have been tweaked and some have been dropped all together. They have now included a whole new section called death perks. These are activated once you have died three times or more in a row. These range from a health boost once you respawn or for you to drop a grenade after you die to try and kill some remaining enemies around you. While the death perks are only active after a string of deaths they are nice attention and are sure new comers to the game will love them and experts will be screaming at the screen when these are in effect.

There is also a few extra modes within the game and even one allow you to play the game in third person, even though it felt tempting to do this I was unfortunately not able to play this mode as you needed to be a high to access it something I just couldn’t level up to in time.
Within multiplayer you get a host of weapon goodies to play with and a lot of these are equally balanced. You will start with a modest selection of weapons to play with ranging from assault rifles to sniper rifles. The biggest surprises in the weapons arsenal are the throwing knife which is great fun once you get used to it and the riot shield which will stop most bullets dead and even will protect your back when you are not using it. However the riot shield is very much overpowered in a one on one fight, most people will try and take you down at a distance and you can only use a secondary weapon instead of a main weapon while using this. Again a lot of thought has been put into balancing the weapons like in the original COD: MW, Again like in COD: MW there is a range of attachments that can be added to each gun giving more range or a grenade launcher, but the best of all is the heartbeat sensor which is straight out of aliens and comes in very useful.

So there you have it. COD MW2 or should I say MW 1.5 is a great shooter and everything seems to work as it should. Like I have said you get a few tweaks here and there and there are some bits in some missions such as the snow mobile chase that you will love and want to do again and again. However the game doesn’t really bring anything new to the table and while I do like this new version it seems that there is just something missing that the original MW had.
The graphics are good, the new spec-op is brilliant to play however there is nothing ground-breaking either everything just feels a little too safe.

Going back to my first comparison MW2 is the little brother of the family he wants to do everything his big brother does, it’s just such a shame that some of it feels like it just isn’t living up to a good enough standard and hasn’t really moved one since the last edition we had.