Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Xbox 360)

Until recently, Call of Duty Modern Warfare was probably the best First Person Shooter (FPS) game I have ever played, the game offered fantastic realism and great action, and unlike other popular FPS games (e.g. Halo 3) which were out at the time, this game actually gripped me to try to complete it in all difficulties and this was all before I got onto the online play which was a whole new level of First Person combat. Although I spent only a few ...
.../> A good majority of Call of Duty fans would agree that World at War (Call of Duty 5), was slightly disappointing, although it had a fair few elements that Modern Warfare established, it seems to have returned to its original roots off Call of Duty 1, 2 & 3 and lost the uniqueness which Modern Warfare brought.

This was why I was ecstatic when I heard that Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 was being released as the next game in the Call ... more

Until recently, Call of Duty Modern Warfare was probably the best First Person Shooter (FPS) game I have ever played, the game offered fantastic realism and great action, and unlike other popular FPS games (e.g. Halo 3) which were out at the time, this game actually gripped me to try to complete it in all difficulties and this was all before I got onto the online play which was a whole new level of First Person combat. Although I spent only a few minutes, the game took my gaming to a whole new level and it became by far my favourite FPS game around.

A good majority of Call of Duty fans would agree that World at War (Call of Duty 5), was slightly disappointing, although it had a fair few elements that Modern Warfare established, it seems to have returned to its original roots off Call of Duty 1, 2 & 3 and lost the uniqueness which Modern Warfare brought.

This was why I was ecstatic when I heard that Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 was being released as the next game in the Call of Duty franchise and was once again created by Infinity Ward when could only mean that it was going to be even better as before and there could only be speculation and hype around the first few weeks of its intended release as trailers were leaked and theorise compromised to what Infinity Ward has installed for us, and may I say, that it didn’t fall at all short of my overwhelming expectations.

Story

In all honesty, after completing the game in all difficulties and therefore having gone through the story 3 separate times, I still don’t quite understand what is going on with the games story. It may require me to play Modern Warfare (1) to understand it at all, but after reading a couple of summaries online, I think I have a very basic understanding of the story. I’ve written a very fairly revealing summary of the story, but trust me, if you don’t pay attention to ever single word during the audio cut scenes, you will be as lost as I was.

*Major Spoilers Alert*

The game continues 5 years after the first Modern Warfare game; the Americans are hunting a man called Makarov for his terrorism crimes (which I presume happened in the first instalment of Modern Warfare), to do this the Americans send an undercover agent or a mole onto Makarov’s, however Makarov is aware of this and commits a mass massacre in Russia leaving the American behind, hence the Russians think America is responsible and declare war with an invasion.
I presume America didn’t know of what Russia was planning they were hit with surprise as the invasion took hold. The following events in the game all constitute America trying to fight off the Russian invasion and failing miserably as Russian troops have overwhelmed them. To prevent the inevitable loss, a Nuke was launched at a satellite cutting off communicates and causing an EMP effect. Without communicates Russia can’t plan to send more troops in, hence slowing down the invasion.
During this slow down Task Force 141 (the group the characters are in (discussed below)) tracked Makarow to 1 of 2 locations. One being unsuccessful however producing some valuable information, however this leads to a betrayal, the other as you will see results in vengeance of the betrayal, thanks to Makarow. There is some confusion if Marakow is dead or not at the end of the game, however listening closely, Mararow gives the information up because he wants to save himself rather than help out Task Force.

This probably makes no sense, however it becomes slightly clearer when you play the game.

I have to give the story a thumbs down because as you may see above, the story is slightly confusing and even understanding it slightly leaves me confused.

Characters

In Modern Warfare 2, you play a small variety of characters in Task Force 141 who you play through the different tasks and locations. 1 set of characters are fighting in the Russian Invasion where are the others are trying to track down Makarow as well the some one time characters. Since they lead in with the story, it is very confusing about who is doing what when and why. Essentially you seem to be playing as different characters, but practically this doesn’t affect your performance in anyway, as the different characters don’t have any special perks to them. So to do a quite summary of characters involved within this game for good measure –

Sergeant Gary "Roach" Sanderson – This is the ‘main’ character you play as through the greater majority of the game. Roach is played when the story focuses on the locations outside the US, in Russia in majority.

Private James Ramirez – You play this character briefly after the Satellite is out in Washington with other characters. This characters view portrays the affect the Invasion has had on America.

Captain ‘Soap’ MacTavish – From what I understand this was a main character in the first Modern Warfare, but he returns been promoted to Captain. He is known until MacTavish until Task Force 141 rescue Captain Price who knew him as Soap. He is only playable at in the last 3 missions of the game.

Just to stress any confusion, you don’t get to select your characters at any point they are affixed as the story progresses. I’ve only mentioned them to get a better understanding of the story and progress of the game, which is slightly confusing as I mentioned. Also unless you don’t look at the mission title which is displayed briefly or careful listen to the dialog, you won’t even know who you’re playing.

Gameplay

As the games genre hints, the game is based around the first person view (Holding Gun Eye View). I’m not sure if you can switch from 1st to 3rd person view in Campaign (available in Multiplier). The game gives you a somewhat realistic point of view from a soldier’s prospect of when in battle.

Realism

I usually enjoy an action game which provides as much realism as possible. I’m happy to say that this game carries this over very well and makes the gaming experience tense and believable with the outstanding graphics (discussed below). The game creates the realistic feel by adding minor details, like when the enemy is shot they produce blood splatter and if they are shot near a wall, blood splatters on the wall behind them. Also the people tend to bleed and fall down from blasts when injured but not killed, one of my favourite realisms but annoying additions taken from the previous Call of Duty games is the enemy being significantly injured but they continue to shot you from the ground with their pistol, the final realism I’d like to mention is that the game employs a no life bar health system, this means that for every time you get hit your view gets filled with blood, to recover you simply don’t get hit for a few moments, this I find much better balanced and real than a life bar especial online. The realisms I mentioned among other minor ones but noteworthy details that makes this one of the top FPS games out on consoles and PC alike.
One complaint I do have is the fact that all enemies look identical, if you get a chance to look in the high pace of the game at the enemy characters, they look pretty much identical, although I’m being slightly picky since I only noticed by accident, this isn’t even noticeable.

Weapons

Since this is a FPS game, these weapons are quite important and Modern Warfare 2 offers a large variety of weapons in the game (Normal Addition, No Add Ons). The weapons range from different classes, from Pistols, Sub Machines Guns, Assault Rifles, Sniper Rifles, Rocket Launches and Predator Missiles. You get to use or find a use for almost every weapon within the campaign mode, as the game drops in you into a variety of situations.

The weapons aren’t left to their own devices (literally), on frequent occasion if you pick up a weapon, which you will do regularly, it has some kind of attachment from a grenade launcher, shotgun or ACOS scope and Holographic view. These are useful and aren’t just there to impress, I tend to scout around and find a weapon with a ACOS scope because it’s much more accurate.

Another fun feature which is very entertaining and unbelievably useful in online play and was featured in a campaign mission is the Predator missile. Basically allows you to launch a missile using location system you seem to just carry in your pocket and this essentially kills your target or targets.

Overall, there are a good variety of weapons which are very realistic looking and sounding.

Manoeuvres

The manoeuvres are very simple; the character is defaulted to a small jog and can be made to sprint for a brief time, which disables quick use of the weapon. You can also Crouch and Lay down on the ground, this restricts your weapon access when moving. Finally you can jump over obstacles or use the jump button to manoeuvre over an object. Although the character functions are limited, it works well and you don’t want anything else.

Graphics

This being on the Xbox 360 and Ps3, the graphics are average compared to other games available. Although everything has good detail and the people and weapons look acceptably realistic and contain a good amount of detail and quality to them. But graphically this game is an average comparing it to games like Uncharted 2 which took the Ps3’s Cell Processor to town with the quality it produced. But this game isn’t bad looking and nor does it depend on its look but rather its gameplay and features.

Game Modes

The game offers 3 different game modes, which offer their own different features and functions in the game (discussed below), these modes extend the gameplay dramatically as the story missions are quite short and these additions make the make significantly longer.

Campaign

This is the main platform of the game, which contains the story and all the characters mentioned above. The campaign isn’t all that long and it took me about 2 days to complete and around 5 hours of gameplay at the most on Regular difficulty.
However the campaign offers additional difficulties such as Hardened and Veteran which gives you the chance to play through the game when it’s slightly harder and more interesting and challenging to play. I’ve played my way through 100% of Regular and Hardened, which in all honestly don’t vary all that much, although near the end in a larger battle the difficulty advancement is noticeable in Hardened. Veteran however is almost impossible as the game warns you when you chose it, ...‘It’s Very Hard’, and this is significant in the first mission, the damage has increased to you dying at almost every hit and the explosives damage has increase to killing you at the slightest thought of it. Basically the advances in difficulty are a great way to extend your games life and provides a good few achievements/trophies.

Spec Ops

This isn’t at all story related, but are challenges that you try to complete and get Stars in the difficulty of the challenge. There are 2 options, to play solo or to play with another person, which some of the Spec Op missions require. They range from a Survival; where you have to stay alive for 5 waves of enemies to Stealth, where the goal is to get from one side to the other avoiding any enemies among other mission which involve you using all your Modern Warfare 2 skills and FPS experience to survive because they are challenging and will take up a lot of your time and provide you with a fair few achievements.

Multiplayer

Now this is the part of the game I really get excited about and hence I’ve given it its own section in the review. It is one of the best Multiplayer games I have ever had the chance to play and I have basically spend in the area of a whole day playing it none stop and trying to rank up and unlock the better perks and weapons to become more kick ass than I already am. Unlike most online games, this game doesn’t require you to complete the campaign to get any weapons or better skills; you can jump in and instantly play and start playing with the best of the best.

Gameplay

The gameplay doesn’t vary that much from the Campaign or Spec Ops, basically you have all your basic functions which you have in the campaign but instead you’re playing real people rather than the computer AI (Artificial Intelligence) which is much more interesting and fun to as the least.

Experience

As I’ve mentioned above, it is a fantastic experience playing online with Modern Warfare 2 as it provides a large variety of maps. The community consists of a diversity of Xbox Live users and ranges in different age groups so you could be playing anyone from almost anywhere in the world and there is always somebody on regardless of the time because of the games current online popularity.
The level of players also varies and you could be fighting a person who plays FPS professionally or a simple beginner who has no idea what they’re doing, this is typically judged by the rank, but this can be misleading. So the game gives you a sense of achievement when you come first in a battle as players are good and someone is always better than you, so it is a challenge in every match.
If you have a headset for Xbox Live, it is fun to communicate with your team and join in on random conversations with random people and your Party friends, but usually people in random matches don’t usually talk and you do get the occasional kid simply swearing and screaming down the microphone.

Weapons and Equipment

The weapons don’t vary much from the Campaign of Spec Ops, but if anything there is more of them. You basically start off with a Primary and Secondary Weapon as well as 2 types of Grenade, you get to pick these weapons at the beginning and this is called your Class, you can have 5 different Custom Classes, so chose weapons that suit specific situations (Snipering, Assualt, Stealth and Vehicle Take Out are my 4 favourites). You unlock more and better weapons as you progress in ranks. If you specialise in a specific weapon (use it a lot), you begin to unlock attachments for it like a Scope, Heartbeat monitor and Grenade Launch to mention a few, basically allowing you customise the weapon to your style of play. You can also pick up other peoples weapons when they have died.

Kill Streaks

One of my favourite things about Multiplayer is the Kill Streaks; these are the ‘bonuses’ you get when you killed a specific amount of people in a row. For instance if you kill 5 people without dying, you unlock the Predator Missile and you can Missile a person or people one time, if you care on killing, you eventually unlock things like an Attack Helicopter, which gives you a helicopter to attack everyone else with and eventually, if you somehow get 25 kills, you unlock the Nuke, which ends the game giving you a lot of kills and points.
These little bonuses make the game interesting and encourages you to stay alive and be vigilant.

Ranks

The game employs a rank system as I’ve mentioned above, it awards the player a higher rank with which comes weapon unlocks and additional bonuses as well as allowing you to distinguish who has played the game longest and it almost give you something to play for and a goal of getting to the highest rank, which combined with the rest of the game (Campaign and Spec Ops), contributes to the 100% completion of it.

Overall on Multiplayer

Like I’ve mentioned a few time, it is one of the best and my most favourite online experience on Xbox Live, it is not only realistic and requires a bit of skills, but it is easy to get into and is one of the most popular games on Xbox Live (to date), so there is always a good number of people to play among the great variety of game types ranging from Free-For-All to Capture the Flag, it is hard to get bored of the online experience on Xbox Live, however I found continual play gets slightly boring and eventually you will begin to get bored.

Achievements and Trophies

The Xbox360 version of the game gives you the sum off 1000 achievement points and 50 achievements all together. About have the achievements consist of completing the campaign in both Regular, Hardened and Veteran. There are also achievements that involve you getting a specific among off stars in a Spec Ops mission and finally doing mediocre tasks like collecting ‘Intel’ in campaign missions.

Trivia and Controversy

As a good few people may have heard on the news when the game was released, there was a massive deal about one particular bit of the game. Basically it involves you going into an Airport and massacring civilians (Keep in mind this is an 18 certificate game), this lead to hype about when games are going too far and if this was going past that. The question was if this particular scene could have just been a cut scene rather than you having to play it out. My 2 cents being is that you don’t have to play the scene at all, as the game gives you a choice right when you begin if you want to participate in this mission and you can choose not to.
The game has also the fastest selling game of all time beating Grand Theft Auto IV which held the title previously. The game sold 4.7 million copies in the UK and the USA in the first 24 hours of its release making it histories best game launch.
Speaking of copies, this is also 2009’s most pirated game for both the PC and Xbox360 with estimates of over 4.1 million downloads via unauthorised sources like Bittorrent.

Overall Thoughts on Game

As you may have gathered from the humongous review above, I really like Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 2, the game is probably the most action filled, on the edge games I’ve ever played and the Veteran difficulty really challenges your skills in video gaming. But although the gameplay is fantastic, I found that the story was confusing and didn’t make any sense until I looked it up on the Internet, also some people found the campaign to be short, but personally I found it to be just the right length and the additional content really files in the gaps.

The multiplier is one of the best I’ve played, it is action filled and fun as online gets, although the somewhat lack of features and modes can make the game slightly boring and eventually you’ll give up.

So I strongly recommend this game and I bet so would the 8 million buyers and downloader’s of the game, although be warned of the confusing story and ‘eventual’ boredom.
 

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