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.