Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Review

In 2007 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare was released and quickly became a raving success across the world. It seemed that the gaming world had become sick and tired with the legions of WWII shooters that had been flooding the gaming market for the last decade or so. The original had made its mark and it quickly became well known for its fast and action packed battles in the campaign to its insane online multiplayer scene and its sequel: Modern Warfare 2, did not disappoint in any of these departments.

The Modern Warfare 2 campaign puts you in the boots of several soldiers at multiple locations across the world. You will mainly be playing in the shoes of soldiers from the USMC (United States Marine Corps) and the British SAS (Special Air Service) as you take part in some intense fire fights and heart stopping driving sections. The campaign will literally keep you on the edge of your seats throughout as it features everything from massive scale invasions to stealthy sniper missions. The shooter mechanics are near perfect and remarkably slick, the regenerative health system means you won’t spend 50% of your time rooting around the level to replenish your health and the AI isn’t half bad! All of this combines to make a stunning campaign that constantly keeps the ball rolling and the action comming.

Ok so the game is not the most accurate and realistic FPS out there, I mean the regenerative health system alone means that by the end of the campaign you will have enough lead in you to sink a ship! However, I do not think that the game is trying to be super realistic. All it’s doing is combining some of the best features of the FPS genre to make an unrealistic yet brilliant game.

Another thing that I really like about the game is the fact that they do not focus their entire story around the United States military and that the player gets to play as a soldier from another country. The Call of Duty franchise is well known for putting players in the boots of multiple soldiers from multiple countries. This particularity went down well in the World War II games  as it gave the players a sense of the enormity of the war and showed the gamers that it was a united effort that finally brought down Nazi Germany and ended, in my opinion, one of the darkest periods in humanities history. It’s not a necessary feature for these games but it goes down well.

Now whilst the game mechanics of this game are solid, the storyline is somewhat odd. I will not give much away but why would anybody believe that the world’s most powerful and technologically sophisticated army would resort to gunning down innocent civilians in an airport?

The online multiplayer scene for this game is brilliant. You will never struggle to find an active game and you would do well to make sure that you stock up on snacks!

The games are intense and fast paced. The score limits ensure that the games are never too long or too short. The kill streak rewards can at times seem a bit overpowered when the enemy have an attack helicopter, harrier jet and AC130 hovering over your head, blowing you to dust every time you respawn. However, this rarely will happen to you and it shouldn’t serve as a deterrent stopping you enjoying this game online.

My most major gripe about the online play though is the fact that most weapons only become available to you when you reach a certain level. Meaning when you initially enter the online scene there will only be a limited amount of weapons available for you to use, whereas most other players on your team and more importantly on the other team will be able to outgun you with ease.

Modern Warfare 2 also introduces something into the mix called Black Ops, which are essentially a set of challenges, based on the campaign, for you to and a friend to battle through. They feature everything from holding off multiple waves of enemies to high speed snow mobile races! These challenges seem to focus on all of the parts in the campaign that were the most fun and thus one would wish to repeat but not necessarily play through an entire mission to get to. They are really fun and I recommend that you give them a good play through.

In conclusion, Modern Warfare 2 is a brilliant FPS game, sure it’s not the most realistic shooter out there but I do not think it was trying to be. I really do think that the developers set out to make a challenging yet fun FPS game that had a strong online element which would ensure its continued play. Until they release a sequel that is…The story line is a little unbelievable so the game’s final score will suffer, however, its new additions such as Black Ops more than makes up for this and defiantly adds something new to the mix. If you like FPS games then you will love this game.

Game play 4.5/5:  The game play is slick and breathe taking, everything works exceptionally well and I found no bugs when playing through the game.

Story 2/5: The story line is a bit unbelievable and somewhat odd. However, it does give you a reason for why you are fighting all over the world.

Graphics 4.5/5:  The graphics are brilliant. This massively helps immerse the player in the battles and keeps you on the edge of your seat!

Sound 4/5:  There was very little music in this game during gameplay, well I didn’t notice much, I did however, notice  the exceptional weapon fire sounds and the screams of jet engines as they roar over your head. Its yet another brilliant way to immerse the player into the game and make the overall expierance fantastic.

OVERALL 3.75/5: Modern Warfare is a brilliant FPS game that I strongly recommend for all gamers out there!

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