Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
By Nick Manteris · 1 Comments · Leave a Comment
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is the sequel to the immensely popular Modern Warfare, which was itself a sequel to the original 1998 game that was set in World War II. The single player campaign for Modern Warfare 2 takes place five years after the events of Modern Warfare and the gameplay is similar, but just about every aspect of the game is an improvement over the original. I have to admit that I never finished Modern Warfare – I played through over half of the game (and watched others play through about 95% of the rest), but it seemed more like a chore than a fun diversion. The enemies seemed never-ending in the first game and until you could locate their spawn point or just “run and gun” your way to the next checkpoint you could pretty much count on being endlessly attacked until you were killed…and then you’d have to start back at the previous savepoint. This proved to be more frustrating than fun, but Modern Warfare 2 doesn’t seem to suffer from this problem. (Sometimes non-player characters still want to walk across your line of fire or get in your way, but overall this is a minor complaint.)
Things start out slowly – after a nicely designed practice run – and you’ll quickly find yourself behind a mini gun on the top of a truck. Then you get to watch some cinematic-style visuals and take a slow ride through town. The pace picks up quite a bit during your leisurely drive and the amount of resistance that you encounter raises to levels that are comparable to Modern Warfare. Except it never feels like you’re trying to get to some specific unknown point on the map and your teammates don’t wipe out the first wave of enemies that should have been yours to kill.
The next level takes place in the snow and the intro starts with an ice climb that really only exists to showcase another cinematic-style moment. Shortly after that you are left almost to your own devices in order to accomplish the “Plan B” objective and things get really cool after that. (There’s a scene on the game trailer with snowmobiles that looks like a cutscene or something, but it is, in fact, a playable part of the game.)
The controversial “No Russian” level is next…you play a CIA operative that is deep undercover and you have to be a part of an attack on an airport full of innocent people. You can skip the level if you want, but it’s an integral part of the storyline that gives you the proper perspective for the bad guy. You can just walk through the level without actually murdering any of the people in the airport, but you’re locked into the slow walk of your fellow terrorists and you have to witness their atrocities. It’s pretty powerful and disturbing stuff. (This is also a perfect example of something that can only be accomplished in video games…movies can’t affect you quite like this.) I don’t want to spoil all the levels for you, but I do have to mention that, after the relentless favela stage, the setting of the next battle is a little troubling…and completely awesome because of it.
In addition to the single-player campaign there are two other gameplay options: Multiplayer and Spec Ops. In Multiplayer you can play either online against random players (and your online friends) or you can play offline in splitscreen mode. There are about a dozen different environments that are awesome to fight in…and several other maps that you probably won’t choose very often. I’ve played a decent amount of 1-on-1 deathmatches, but I haven’t really had the chance to explore the other types of Multiplayer gameplay. (Playing against random online people is always a less-than-desirable experience for me since I’m not particularly great at first-person shooters and the other players are always either exceptionally skilled, completely daft or extremely annoying…and sometimes they are some mixture of the three.)
Spec Ops lets you play by yourself in little mini-missions or splitscreen co-op with another player. This mode offers a variety of quick gameplay that you can experience on your own or with a friend and there are quite a few missions to choose from. (A few of them require you to have a second player though.) In fact, there are more missions in Spec Ops than in the entire single-player campaign.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 looks and plays great…Infinity Ward have created an excellent game. They seem to have fixed all of the issues that made Call of Duty: Modern Warfare frustrating and un-fun for me. (Yes, I am aware of how many people loved the first game and thought it was perfect, but I was not one of them.) I still haven’t even experienced the full extent of what this game has to offer, but I can tell you one thing for sure: I’m completely ready for a Call of Duty: Future Warfare. (Try and imagine how cool it would be to play a quality FPS like this with futuristic weapons and environments. Maybe we should all start bugging Infinity Ward for this game now.)
Las Vegas players
add me at crazzyblu so we can team up
Tue, 02/16/2010 - 21:17 · Dave