There are few games that are remembered like Modern Warfare 2. Mostly remembered for the controversy that surrounded its campaign and becoming an icon for trashing talking over mics. Modern Warfare 2 isn’t the most important game in the Call of Duty franchise and is far from being a important game in gaming but is still loved by many people everywhere. So as I had heard so much and never been able to play it I thought I would give it a try.
Campaign
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 is set, unsurprisingly, in modern times in the year 2016 to be exact and set five years after the events of the first game. The Russian ultranationalists have made Imran Zakhaev a martyr and have seized control. Zakhaev’s right hand man Vladimir Makarov has been committing terrorist acts against the west for killing Zakhaev. I won’t give the whole story away because I firmly believe you should play a game and not have the story spoiled for you. But I would say the story is pretty good, though one large plot hole does stop it pretty easily but I’ll get to that later.
The game isn’t to terrible long at only around six hours but I did have fun for all of those six hours including on veteran. Every single level is more or less insane whether stealthy or not this is both good and bad for the game. On one side it is really fun to be doing ridiculous stuff like jumping snowmobiles over a giant chasm. On the other hand though it kind off ruins stealth missions and every now and then it is a good idea to have a stealth mission to break up the pacing. It is ok to have a stealth mission that ends with you having to make a explosive escape but this happens every single stealth mission not a single one ends with you sneaking away. All Ghillied Up from Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare you could mostly play without getting spotted. This does also sometimes make levels blend into each other but the locations are different enough to mostly eliminate this problem. Besides the problem of stealth missions and a few that don’t do enough or nothing to differentiate themselves I would say the levels are pretty good and fun to play.
Remember that plot hole I mentioned earlier? Well its time to talk about that and really the mission No Russian as a whole. First let me state I don’t have a problem with this level because of its violence I think the way the civilians and cops act during the whole thing is unrealistic and even if they did it wouldn’t really matter. My problem with this level comes down to really only one thing. Unfortunately, it is a large one. I am of course talking about the plot hole. (I think this is a large enough issue with the story to talk about but if you haven’t played the game and plan to please skip this paragraph.) The plot hole is pretty obvious from the start. The way Makarov and his team get into the airport isn’t really said at least within the game itself and no one decides to look at the security cameras and see that Makarov was behind the attack and not the USA. How did they not think of this when they made the game? Just put hoods on Makarov and his guys are something. The entire plot is looking for evidence to show Makarov did it and not the Americans. If you can get over this detail the campaign is great but it still is really annoying that this either got through Infinity Ward or they thought we were dumb enough to not notice it.
Multiplayer
I won’t speak to much on multiplayer as the servers are mostly dead and I was only able to play split screen with my friends. Gameplay is pretty standard for Call of Duty and good as always but something that really stood out to me from newer COD’s is the class customization and the maps. Class customization has been standard for every Call of Duty since COD 4 but the importance of classes has varied. Sometimes you wouldn’t even really need perks for example. But the class customization in Modern Warfare 2 is really good it feels satisfying to unlock new weapons, perks, or attachments. Every decision feels like it matters and a good example of this is scavenger. Some guns, like the Scar-H or the Vector, will run out of ammo really quickly and is almost necessary for those guns. It is definitely the best custom class system in Call of Duty that I have seen and maybe in any game. The maps are also the best in my opinion in the franchise. Highrise and Terminal stand out as prime examples. The maps have so many good spots and are sometimes bigger than nearly every Call of Duty map afterwards. Highrise in particular has so many spots that you wouldn’t think you could get to and yet you can and it was even meant for you to get there.
Spec Ops
Only a year before Modern Warfare 2 came out Treyarch had made Nazi Zombies and had implemented it as a reward for completing the Call of Duty World at War campaign. Not surprisingly Infinity Ward also had to add a third mode and they decided to add instead of a horde mode decided to add missions. These missions range from escorting another person to assaulting a suburb controlled by Russians and usually take place where campaign missions took place including missions from Call of Duty 4. So it is cool to play through a part of All Ghillied Up with a friend. Unfortunately, it isn’t as good as Nazi Zombies though it does offer some replayability and challenge. Nothing too special but a great edition that I do enjoy playing when my friends can’t play multiplayer.
Durinsbane 