Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Review

Written by: Darren Cartledge Posted: 17th November 2009

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It's time for war!

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Details:

Goto Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Game Page

	First Person Shooter
	PC/PlayStation 3/Xbox 360
	Infinity Ward
	Activision

TBC

Out Now

In 2007 Activision released Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, it became an instant hit and set a new benchmark for online play in the first person shooter genre. Now two years later with what is set to be the biggest video game release ever has finally arrived, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2!

The game is set five years after the original Modern Warfare and places you in the roles of various servicemen fighting to stop terrorists from starting an all out global war between the super powers. The games story, as you would expect is full of the usual black ops twists, corruption and betrayal that will keep you gripped right until the very end.

As we all know modern day combat no longer has set frontlines, opposing forces positions are often blurred and intertwined and this is something that Infinity Ward has tried to show in Modern Warfare 2, and ultimately succeeded. During the campaign you often find yourself in the middle of the action, quite literally. Enemies seem to come from all directions, often travelling over rooftops or through buildings to get the drop on you which of course results in the new splatters of blood appearing over the screen, making it very difficult to see what the hell is going on! Whilst these new splatters of blood look extremely authentic in comparison to the simple reddening of the screen we’re use to, it can be a little irritating to be stumble around almost blind looking for a safe place to hide while you recover, and this often results in your death but then surely that just adds to the authenticity of war? Overall the core gameplay is mainly unchanged from what has come before, missions are pretty much what you would expect offering a glimpse into the lives of Special Forces servicemen. However, the game does feature one level that has already caused something of an outrage and whilst some may find this extremely distasteful it isn’t out of context serving to illustrate the lengths government agent’s have to go to. Modern Warfare 2 is much more than just a mere mission based war game in this sense, giving players an insight into a dangerous world in which death is often lurking over the shoulders of men who risk everything for the greater good!

The core gameplay isn’t the only area in which the game feels very familiar as the game looks almost identical to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. With several levels, especially multiplayer ones looking very much like COD4. But this isn’t a bad thing, as the game played and looked brilliant, so if it’s not broken don’t fix it!

As you would expect Modern Warfare 2 introduces a plethora of new weaponry and equipment to aid you in restoring peace and highlights include, Thermal Scopes, Heart Beat Monitors and the ability to dual wield certain machine guns and shotguns. In certain missions you are also given access to remote controlled Predator missiles, which fire from a drone flying over the game map and onto unsuspecting enemies below causing outright carnage, which rather morbidly is brilliant fun! Another new addition is the addition of brief vehicle sequences which help to mix the combat action up. These however, aren’t really anything spectacular despite being implemented well, and overall feel fairly standard.

Away from the campaign there is a Special Op’s challenge mode, this mode challenges you to move your way through levels bypassing enemies or surviving waves of ever increasing numbers of bad guys. For the most part it’s fairly enjoyable and can be played with other players. However, it seems like a bit of a strange addition considering that the games main focus is its excellent multiplayer.

As you would expect from a Call of Duty title, Modern Warfare 2 serves up a pretty good challenge with excellent A.I even on normal difficulty. Missions are extremely intense with gunfire constantly raining in on your position, and enemies are more than happy to put you down should you pop your had out at the wrong time. Sadly though like its predecessor despite the fact you travel to various gloriously created locations, the single player campaign is very short and it shouldn’t take anymore than five to six hours for most gamers to get through the title, which is a real shame since it’s so damn good. But thankfully the game does once again flex its multiplayer muscles!

The games multiplayer once again delivers a highly addictive and simply brilliant playing experience. All the game modes from Modern Warfare return with the addition of some third person modes. However, certain areas of the games multiplayer have been mixed up a little. Firstly kill streaks now have to be unlocked and you can customise which three you have access to during matches. Whilst this can be a little frustrating especially when you are use to getting a kill streak at a set number of kills it really does increase the challenge when trying to go from say four kills to eleven with no assistance from an attack chopper. This also tends to make matches a whole lot more competitive than Modern Warfare especially when coupled together by the introduction of death streaks which are designed to give you a helping hand should you find your match a little to challenging. Death streaks aren’t as rewarding as kill streaks and include things such as Copycat that allow you to steal the class of the player that killed you or painkiller which gives you a large health boost when you respawn.

Perks also have had something of a reworking and will now also level up whenever you achieve a set number of kills using them, giving you even more of an edge over your rivals. Infinity Ward has obviously taken great steps to make the multiplayer aspect of Modern Warfare 2 more competitive and I’m pleased to say that this has mostly been achieved. During my time playing online I found it rare to see one player completely dominate as they seemed to do in MW and World at War, this for me was very refreshing making Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer more accessible and should keep even more gamers playing for longer and once again raises the bar for multiplayer shooter action.

As you would expect from a Call of Duty title, Modern Warfare 2 offers an intense and exhilarating single player experience with the only disappointment that it doesn’t last very long. However, this is more than put right by a packed multiplayer experience that offers more competitive matches then before that will keeps gamers hooked until the next instalment. So does it stand up to the hype? We think so!