Ryan Franco aka iKarma

Modern Warfare 2 Review

"If war is ever lawful, then peace is sometimes sinful"

-C.S. Lewis

Modern Warfare 2 had big shoes to fill. It's predecessor was one of the most praised FPSs of this generation. Fans lined up at the store doors, waiting for their chance to play what is the next game in the Modern Warfare series. But was all this waiting worth it? Is Modern Warfare really that much of an improvement over the first? I suppose so, but it really depends on how you look at it.

Modern Warfare delivered with a mediocre singleplayer, but a multiplayer that got players hooked. It left people wanting... NEEDING more. Simply put, Modern Warfare 2 does indeed deliver on a new and improved online experience. While it still has it's flaws, it is an overall improvement over the first.

The perks have been completely improved. They now encourage you to try new perks by leveling them up with challenges. Each perk is unique and helpful in it's own right. When upgraded fully, you can try many different effective perk combos. And best of yet—they got rid of the hated juggernaut perk!

As I mentioned above, perks can be upgraded with challenges. Challenges as a whole have also been upgraded. Each weapon challenge now goes more in depth with challenges and unlockable attachments. Challenges will now last you longer then ever before!

In multiplayer, you also have some new game modes. These are capture the flag, Demolition, and third person. Capture the Flag and Demolition are more like game types, while third person is like a whole new mode. At first, I didn't see how CTF could work in the quick kill CoD system. However, it works well. The respawn times save the game type. Then Demolition is like a Search and Destroy gametype, but improved. You don't need to pick up a bomb and you have infinite respawns. It's like an Attack and Defend gametype.

Third person is an over-the-shoulder type camera angle. At first glance you may not believe this could work with a CoD game. However, you will be surprised. It is very well executed and it goes with the gameplay just as well as the normal FPS view does. A huge addition for the multiplayer.

Above I mentioned the unlockable attachments. Infinity Ward did add a few attachments, but the majority of the new ones are unbalanced and unfair. The attachment system in the first Modern Warfare was much better. The two biggest disappointments for the new attachments have to be thermal and heartbeat sensor. Sure. They could be fun when you are using them, I'll give Infinity Ward that. But when an enemy is using them it becomes insanely cheap. The thermal can make someone stick out at insane ranges. Very cheap. Heartbeat sensors can spot close by enemies for you, which can also be frustrating. While it can be fun when they are working well for you, in the long run they just lead to frustration.

The basics to the multiplayer have also been slightly improved—the weapons, the maps, and the ranking system. The weapons have vastly improved. The amount of ridiculously cheap/unbalanced weapons has gone down and is limited to a few, the maps are each different and have a real cool environment, and there is more levels to rank up to. Solid improvement.

As I said above, the improvement was solid. Not perfect. I mentioned that a few weapons were still very cheap. The damage on these weapons, if toned downed, could help complete the game. A few of the maps though, while really awesome, are super unbalanced in a few gametypes. For overall TDM, though, they are great.

A new addition to the game is killstreak rewards. You can now customize what you want when you get to a certain killstreak. And no, you can't pick the strongest reward for a three killstreak. This is a cool improvement. It adds variety to the matches. Now it's not always UAV to Airstrike to Helicopter. There are now tons of rewards to choose from, and they are all relatively fair. I don't like how you have to unlock the killstreaks by leveling up then being able to select only one to be able to use, though. Overall, this is a well implemented balanced system.

Now onto the story mode. Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 doesn't really have the most amazing story mode. There are some cool scenes here and there, but no OMG moment. They get the job done, but if you are buying this game for the single player, your making a mistake. It's not long enough to satisfy.

However, where Infinity Ward did get it right this year was the newly added Spec Ops mode. Spec Ops can be done in single player for the majority of the levels, but where it really shines is co-op. There are plenty amounts of missions that you can go through with a friend on three different difficulties trying to complete all objectives. This game type is really fun, as you can splitscreen it or play on Xbox Live with a friend, and really outdoes the single player mode.

The overall difficulty this year is pretty good. Not as much grenade spamming AIs like the past few years. The difficulty names didn't change, but your teammate AIs still don't help you at all, but if you are a fan to the series you are used to that. Overall, a decent well rounded and very acceptable difficulty for a FPS as there seems to be a difficulty for everyone.

This year graphically is really amazing as well. When the first Modern Warfare came out, everyone was like "Woah!" Now when this game came out people were like "WOAH," you catch my drift? It is absolutely amazing and Infinity Ward really outdid themselves.

In the end, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 turned out to be a solid game. It could be frustrating at times, and not always the most fun, but when you break it down it really keeps up with the competition. It controls great, it looks great, it sounds great, and the most important part, the multiplayer is diverse. The game is definitely a solid rental, and maybe a purchase if you get hooked on the multiplayer. This will be a game a lot of people talk about for a long time, that's for sure.

8/10