InsaneBear

Review: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Score: Great
Difficulty played on: Hardened
Time to beat: 5-6 hours
Loved the most: Special-Ops mode.
Hated the most: Ridiculous and muddled story with plot holes the size of Texas.

Here it is–the game that everybody’s been waiting for for two years. Ever since Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare revolutionized the FPS genre people have been eagerly awaiting Infinity Ward’s next effort and Activision has been all too happy to oblige the anticipation with one of the largest hype machines video games have ever seen. Realistically though, it would be an incredible feat for Modern Warfare 2 to even come close to setting the standards that its predecessor did. But those are the expectations that were created, and much like the case of Halo 3, the actual product is a shadow of the hype surrounding it. That doesn’t stop Modern Warfare 2 from being an incredibly fun and addictive game though; it’s just one that’s stagnated and in some situations, even regressed from the classic that came before it.

The game starts you off with a standard orientation process that covers the controls and basics of combat for you. But what really sticks out in this rather mundane exercise is how good the game looks in motion. It definitely can’t go polygon for polygon with the likes of Uncharted 2 or MGS4, but for all intents and purposes it’s one of the best looking FPSs out there and the frame rate is steady throughout. Small details in the environment really make the world feel lived-in too. This is instantly noticeable with a pair of soldiers playing some one-on-one basketball around the shooting range, other soldiers welding broken Hummers, and the sound of a radio playing in the background. However, if you try to interact with any of these great environmental details, you’ll quickly notice how strictly linear Infinity Ward’s new game is–you are on a set path and a game of pick-up is not one of the stops.

The action quickly picks up though and you really won’t have any time to be thinking about basketball. After your training’s complete the base is attacked and you’re thrown into a full-blown counter-offensive centered around a Black Hawk Down-ish Humvee charge through town. The armored jeeps look a little funny as they zip through one-way streets on an angular rail, but the particle effects coming from RPGs on every roof-top and your relentless machine gun fire into the concrete buildings are simply superb. The way smoke meanders through the air or how sparks from raging fires blanket the surrounding area like a light rain really stand out for the course of the game. The fantastic particle effects and minute-yet-immersive environmental details make their presence felt throughout the campaign and even make their way into the multiplayer unchanged. It’s amazing how much of a difference exploding desk papers can make in a tense shootout when it comes to believability.

As for the audio, it isn’t quite as fantastic, but certainly serves its purpose. The gunfire and explosions and such are generally what you’d expect from a Call of Duty game, which is to say they sound realistic but you become so used to them that you won’t notice them. So that puts more pressure on the score and voice work to perform. The Hans Zimmer score is actually pretty good if you’re actively listening for it, but otherwise it sort of blends into the background and fails to provide any emotional tension. Likewise, the voice actors deliver their lines with a sense of believability, but without much emotional impact. It’s all very militaristic I suppose; the job is done well without any individual stand-outs.

But we all knew Modern Warfare 2 was going to look and sound great. What’s really important here is how the game plays. And for the most part, that first level is a microcosm of the entire campaign. It’s all incredibly linear, mixes vehicle-based set-pieces with intense urban combat, and moves at a break-neck pace. There’s a variety of different settings throughout and some of them, like suburban Washington, D.C. are especially cool. You get to use a bunch of different weapons and there’s a variety of different enemies, all of whom are animated quite well. It’s pretty much the Call of Duty formula we’ve known for years.

The linearity is something that I’ve generally come to accept as a better way to tell a story, but its adverse effects on gameplay are really starting to wear thin with this sixth installment in the series. I can understand a heavily guided level structure for the sake of progression, but there’s absolutely no reason why flanking maneuvers should be virtually non-existent. If I can’t control my squad at all, at least I should be able to find an alternate path (a side hall two feet away doesn’t count) and hit the enemy from the side, but that’s not so. The actual mission objectives are overly linear as well. Almost every goal involves moving from point A to B while killing people. Even the “stealth” sequences follow the same formula with silencers attached to the end of your barrel. The one mission I can think of that really deviates from this concept of perpetual motion involves you and your squad defending a fast food restaurant from legions of enemy soldiers on all sides. Some more diverse missions would have been appreciated.

This brings me to my next point. The variety of set-pieces in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare simply puts Modern Warfare 2 to shame. The opening scene, a tank escort, the AC-130 level, the assassination attempt on Zakhaev, a desperate last stand at the ferris-wheel, dying in a nuclear explosion, and so on–each major dramatic scene of the game was different than the last in terms of gameplay. Modern Warfare 2 seems to rely entirely on vehicles for its “awesome moments” and it gets old real fast. The snow-mobile chase and the airport level definitely stand out for different reasons, but beyond those nothing is especially memorable.

I think one of the reasons why none of the levels in this game quite match up to its predecessor’s is the roller-coaster ride pace of the campaign. Levels literally feel like they don’t last longer than 15 minutes a piece and a new and uninspired set-piece is thrown at you every 45 minutes or so. This is why I highly recommend playing on the Veteran difficulty, as the increased danger not only ups the intensity, but allows you to savor the level/mission design more. You’ll still be left feeling like COD4 had more variety and executed better, but at least the unwavering combat formula will be more rewarding.

These complaints don’t change the fact that MW2 features phenomenal shooting with tight controls and moderately smart enemies, but I do feel like it’s time for a change to the formula. Perhaps squad commands or a fleshed out vehicle element would freshen things up. At the very least, more mission variety is needed–maybe even optional side-objectives (gasp!).

Where MW2 really falls flat though is its story. COD4 had a truly engaging narrative with a certain real-world plausibility that made it somewhat relevant. The sequel on the other hand, is unadulterated Hollywood drivel. It’s full of unnecessarily high stakes, ridiculous double crosses, and a hell of a lot of explosions. It really had an opportunity to do something special with the infiltration of a terrorist group and the highly controversial Airport level, but it acts as nothing more than a poorly conceived device to move the plot forward. Perhaps more frustrating is the utter lack of context or dramatic tension provided for the level, as the doors open and you’re at the shooting gallery within the first five seconds. Torture is also alluded to in the game, but the player never sees or participates in it. What a missed opportunity for some social commentary on a very timely and relevant topic! And without giving too much away, MW2 takes some of the jaw-dropping things COD4 did with its narrative and executes them so poorly that I’d dare to call them cliche parodies of themselves. But most disappointing are the plot-holes. I have to wonder if Infinity Ward wrote this story in the span of two or three days, because it’s not very good.

But hey, a lot of people are going to buy this game with no intention of ever playing the campaign. And they’re in luck, because not only does COD4‘s game-changing competitive multiplayer return, but an entirely new co-op focused mode called Special-Ops really inflates the lasting-power of this game. Special-Ops essentially takes environments from the campaign, as well as some from COD4‘s campaign and crafts extremely challenging-yet-rewarding missions from them. The gameplay here actually seems to be much more varied than that of the campaign and can be attacked by one or two players. The intense difficulty level definitely favors a tandem approach, but it’s still a blast when playing solo. A few good examples of the missions you’ll be doing in Spec-Ops are defending a snowy roof-top with a sniper rifle and Predator Missile Drone, gunning your way through a Brazilian favela while avoiding civilian casualties, providing cover for your ground-bound teammate from a helicopter in the sky, or racing snow-mobiles down a tree-riddled mountain side. The variety’s fantastic and the action’s intense. Make no mistake though, it is very difficult.

As for the multiplayer, it returns as essentially the same progressive experience found in the first Modern Warfare. It’s just as addictive and just as fun, but with minor changes. New perks have been introduced and old ones tweaked, weapons are now more customizable (heart-beat sensors!), kill streaks are customizable, and death streaks have been added (although they’re underpowered). A few new game modes have been added, such as Capture the Flag, Demolition, and Third Person Deathmatch. You’re rewarded for even more things this time around, so you pretty much always feel like you’re making progress even if you’re losing. You can do things like shoot down UAVs, call in sentry guns, tactically insert spawn points, and so on. It’s really a plethora of small changes and balances that add up to make an improved experience. The perks and equipment really seem balanced out to counter each other well this time around, so there’s always a nemesis for your particular play-style. And the levels are great too, with many making verticallity a welcomed factor.

I did take issue with a few aspects of the multiplayer though. Firstly, players have been limited to one hand-grenade per round, which gives the game a much more tactical feel. As a fan of more arcadey shooters like Halo where some skill with grenades can make a big difference, I found this a little disappointing. I also feel that the objective modes are still missing something that makes them inferior to objective experiences in Halo or Gears of War. Perhaps they’re too fast paced. Another small issue is the lack of improvement on stat-tracking. The game still tracks your lifetime kills and deaths, but doesn’t go into much more depth. More importantly, there’s still no detailed post-game report to view individual game statistics. I don’t see what’s so wrong about wanting to view everybody’s stats from the last game for more than the five seconds its on screen at the end of the match. There’s a bunch of new weapons this time around, but there are also quite a few old favorites missing. Everything still feels unbalanced until you get a scope for your weapon, and lastly, party-chat is disabled in most game-types, so instead of calmly enjoying a game while talking to your buddy, you’re subjected to one of the most foul-mouthed and offensive online communities out there. There’s simply no time to mute them all before the game starts. All and all, the multiplayer is fresh enough to remain fun, but it’s not the jump in quality that Halo 2 or Gears of War 2 were compared to their precursors.

When it comes down to it, there’s no way Modern Warfare 2 could have ever lived up to the hype. It would have been highly unlikely for it to be as good as COD4, though not impossible. What we got was a game that improved the addictive multiplayer of the first, added the awesome Spec-Ops mode, and went overboard with the campaign. Infinity Ward left the end blatantly open for a sequel, so maybe Modern Warfare 3 will innovate the single player experience enough to make it fresh again. But we need to accept MW2 for what it is–a fun game that relies on old formulas, small tweaks, and cheap thrills. I just hope the insane sales of this game don’t send every other developer on ill-conceived copy-cat rampages that will kill all originality in the market for the next two to three years.

Author: Cody

Tags: activision, infinity ward, modern warfare 2, review