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now back to Modern Warfare 2
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Review: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 [360,PS3,PC]

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

The name Call of Duty brings up a lot of emotion amongst people, whether it's pure joy, pure hatred or nostalgia. Two years ago Modern Warfare shaped the landscape of online multi-player, mixing fun easy to jump in and out of game-play with a ranking system that took ques from mmo's like World of Warcraft. Now on the heels of one of the biggest releases of the year Modern Warfare 2 has huge potential to do new and innovative things in the video-game medium and deliver more of that awesome multi-player experience that gamers have been addicted to for the past two years.
Modern Warfare 2 revolves around 3 basic game modes; Single Player, Multi-player and the new addition Spec Ops. Spec Ops acts as a replacement to co-op and runs you through various missions ranging from sniper missions to snowmobile chases. Many of the missions are taken straight from the single player but shaped to support two players and although you can play by yourself it is evident that these levels were intended for two. The multi-player is very similar to that of COD4 which is not an issue seeing as COD4's multi-player is some of the best we've seen in video games ever. There are enough game-modes to keep the action fresh and the ranking system will keep you hooked for months to come. The HUD is much more polished than in previous games and the maps are in my opinion the best yet and with the promise of support from infinity ward through patches and DLC, MW2 is a great choice for anyone looking for a multi-player game to sink into for a long time. My one complaint about multi-player isn't so much a complaint as it is something I found odd, with a new reward system in MW2 numbers are flying all over the screen at a constant pace and although it's far from distracting it seems as though the game was intended for people who constantly need to feel rewarded kills early on reward you with so many points you'll be a little stunned.

Modern Warfare 2's single player however is a much different beast. The campaign sends you through some really incredible action scenes that will leave your jaw on the ground the only problem is that the story fails miserably at trying to make sense of them all. The story which centers around several playable characters all of which are bland and unimaginative. Modern Warfare protagonist Soap Mactavish returns and is just as stereotypical and unappealing as ever and despite being an incredible badass is not memorable, most other characters are merely palette swaps of Soap's personality with a few minor tweaks or fit into another stereotypical soldier persona. The central antagonist of modern warfare 2 is Makarov is also not a bright spot amongst the cast, a flat and well predictable villain Infinity Ward made little to no effort making Makarov a fully rounded character with clear intelligent motives and a persona, the one issue with Makarov is he doesn't seem human he seems like a monster which you're probably going 'well he is a monster' let me tell you the best villains are the ones you feel empathy towards which is something that video-games struggle to do that cinema has done so well. The one semi-well developed character is prisoner 627 (to avoid spoilers I'll refer to him as 627). 627 isn't a hero nor is he a villain, he is merely a man stuck on the protagonists side, he is flawed, rude, ill mannered and stubborn and this makes him all the more interesting. His dialogue is smart and snappy and was my highlight of the latter half of the game. The campaign ranges from 4-6 hours depending on your difficulty which would be fine if the game didn't lack replay values; seeing as MW2 campaign relies so heavily on shock value the second and third times through lack the oomph that the first play through had had. Shocking is definitely something Modern Warfare 2 attempted.

[SPOILER WARNING -first act airport scene- SPOILER WARNING]

The first Modern Warfare's infamous nuke scene garnered the game praise from much of the game critic population, so it wasn't surprising that MW2 would try to top it. The airport sequence where you play an undercover agent amongst a terrorist group shooting at civilians is initially gut wrenching and quite the moral dilemma but after several seconds the inherent game-e-ness sets in, every person in the airport ranges from 20-40 and almost every fifth person is wearing the same outfit. Had the crowd been more diverse the scene would have had far more of an impact. The idea of seeing a family murdered defenselessly in cold blood would have sent the message Infinity Ward was trying to send rather than a seemingly failed attempt at being deep, the sequence over all does not take a huge part in the plot other than moving the plot forward.

[SPOILER WARNING -END- SPOILER WARNING]

The game is tied together through power point like presentation with chatter taking place in the background and although it looks cool it feels like a sloppy and dated way to tell a story. The over arching narrative is a cluster fuck... to say the least. I found myself pausing to get a grip on character motives and plot twists, in fact it felt like segments of the game were missing and they had rushed and crammed the narrative in to what was left over.
Complaints aside MW2 is an amazing game Spec Ops and Multi-player are near perfection but they won't suit everyone. Don't expect MW2 to change the way you view COD games if you didn't like them before don't expect to like them now. A pure adrenaline rush of action MW2 is worth your money it's just a shame that at the end of the day MW2 didn't go that extra step it very much took the safe bet and isn't going to change the face of gaming. Modern Warfare 2 is an awesome game that couldn't quite do the extra little thing to place itself amongst the pantheon of greatest games of all time.

Update: COD-pocalypse

"... zomg have you seen d'em d'ere Call of Dutyz "

... this is whats been echoing thorugh my head for the last week. As much as I'm glad Call of Duty is making videogames a topic in the mainstream i can't begin to define my frusturation with people's blind obsession with this game. Much like how a sports fan nods mindlessly along to a casual sport enthusiast ranting during the super bowl about how great those patriots have been I can't help but wish that they weren't talking to me about the subject. Before you start going 'oh he just hates things that are popular' hear me out, I understand why people like Call of Duty 4, it was a great game that made online multi-player fun and addictive for both casual and hardcore gamers. It did a hell of a-lot right in fact it is hard to pick out major flaws but what my problem is, is that i expected the aftermath of COD4 to be much different.

My hope for Call of Duty 4 was to suck some of the casual user base into the hard-core circle, to be blunt i wanted COD4 to be people's videogame equivalent to a gateway drug. I wanted to see people jump from Call of Duty to games like to games like Metal Gear and Splinter Cell and then to games like Shadow of the Colossus and Half Life but instead they used Call of Duty 4 as a standard for which to base there interest in other games upon. People simply tried to find games similar to COD4 and use them as a distraction for a week or two before they return to COD4. Now it was foolish of me to assume people would naturally become accustomed to games of a different artistic outlook in fact most people didn't like Call of Duty 4 for its deeper moments like the nuke blast and I guess that the mainstream isn't looking for a deep experience what they want is the Transformers 2 or Gears of War experience (More gore, more action, more violence more explosions...) . All i want is these artistic games to get a fair shake and I fear that COD is what may be preventing them .Can You Name the Game above? If you can't never talk to me again ever ...

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The following Paragraph contains minor spoilers from the opening segment of Modern Warfare 2

I'm excited for Modern Warfare 2 don't get me wrong, it's just i can't help but feel left out when it comes to how excited everyone else seems. Is it that I'm not a huge fan of multi-player? No because when it comes down to it the single player should still be enough to motivate me to play the game. It's the potential of MW2 that has me a little uneasy, MW2 has the potential to send a message through a game without suffering sales wise because it has such a large dedicated fan base, so in my eyes if Infinity Ward doesn't jump at the opportunity the game will be a failure in my eyes. A few days back upon hearing of the opening level of MW2 my excitement rose tremendously and then came to a crashing halt. The opening level in which you are an undercover agent disguised as a terrorist in an airport and instructed to take down civilians has the potential to be a moving moment that only a video-game could portray. The bitter feeling of killing innocents in order to save millions is subject matter that movies have delt with a lot over the past decade and it is something that could be a huge step forward for videogames but then when I heard that it was an optional segment my respect for Infinity Ward flew out the window, if you have something to say as a developer ... no as an artist, you say it you don't make it optional. I'm going to steal an example from a podcast i listened to a little while back that i cannot remember the name of (sorry), would Saving Private Ryan let you skip the opening scene, no they wouldn't , because that opening scene demonstrates the brutality of war the pain suffering and agony of battle and sets the tone for the film and leaves you afterwords with a different mindset than you came in with.

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I was going to save that last segment for the review but decided otherwise because MW2 isn't out yet, i have not played it, and there is still the opportunity for it to change my mind and impress me and i just wanted you the reader to understand my mindset heading into Modern Warfare 2. Until Next Time ... See You Later Space Cowboy (!)