Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Developer Infinity Ward have consistently delivered an adrenaline pumping war experience with their Call of Duty games. They’ve always taken the Michael Bay route portraying war with much flare and style and it’s worked really well for them so far. With Modern Warfare (MW) in 2007 they exceeded expectations after a drastic change of setting that now took the fight from the World War II theatre to the modern age. Modern Warfare was an instant classic with a tight single player campaign and a highly addictive multiplayer component that people still play till date.__STARTQUOTE__All controversies and PC complications aside, Modern Warfare 2 is a must buy.__ENDQUOTE__And now after around two years we have a sequel to Modern Warfare that has elicited a bit of a mixed reaction from me. The single player experience, while pretty stellar in its own way feels more like an expansion rather than a full-fledged sequel bringing nothing significantly new to the table. Missions while pretty solid and intense in their way fail to assault the senses the same way MW did. Still by no means is Modern Warfare (MW2) a bad game. In fact I’d say it’s one of the best shooters I’ve played all year and all controversies and PC complications aside, is a must buy.

The game takes place nearly five years after Soap McTavish successfully thwarted the nefarious plans of ultranationalist Imran Zakhaev. A lot has happened since then and due to certain events that transpire during the first half of the game, you find out that Russia has basically mounted a full scale war on the United States. You’ll play through the campaign as three distinct soldiers who not only have to defend America (directly or indirectly) but find out who’s behind this massive conspiracy as well. Now I really don’t follow the CoD series for their riveting plot because frankly speaking there isn’t one. Even then I was still a bit upset at the way the game ended as it not only felt incomplete but kind of anti-climatic as well. Luckily for us, gameplay’s still as tight as ever.

If you’ve played any Call of Duty game in the past, the gameplay in MW2 will feel right at home. You take multiple waves of enemies until you perform a certain objective or you hit the invisible trigger that stops spawning enemies. Like MW, MW2 is littered with quite a few stealth missions that do provide a certain amount of respite from all the hectic action. The thing that set Modern Warfare apart from the pack at the time were its nail biting, intense missions that culminated in insanely choreographed scripted events. While not completely missing from MW2, these monumental events are few and the ones present didn’t feel nearly as mind blowing as the opening ship level or the flashback in Pripyat. Also I think we’ve really been spoilt by Uncharted 2’s cinematic set pieces that do make MW2 feel a tad archaic.
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The few issues that were present in the predecessor have gone unchecked once again for the sequel. The game’s length is still a problem and on the Normal difficulty I completed the game (without rushing through it) under five hours. While I am totally gung ho about choosing quality over quantity, the game’s length could seem like a deal breaker to those who’re picking up the game solely for its single player campaign.

Friendly AI in the game is as dumb as ever and your troops will idly stand by or try and knife an opponent while you get riddled by nearby bullets. Also like in most CoD games, enemy grenades have the insane ability to drop right at your feet making me wonder which training camp the bad guys go to.

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On the plus side the game ships with a brand new mode called Spec ops which is basically a bunch of stand-alone missions that can be played alone or cooperatively with a friend. Some of them may resemble a Horde Mode of sorts where you take on multiple waves of enemies while some are more stealth-based. Then you have a snowmobile race in there to mix things up and a few epic missions that could give the single player campaign a run for its money. Spec ops is an excellent addition to the series and is an addictive mode as you try and improve your time or beat your friend’s record only to rub it in his face. There are a total of five missions, each with five sub missions and on Hardened or Veteran difficulty you’re looking at squeezing a good amount of time from this mode. The only thing about Spec Ops that bummed me out a bit was the fact that they limited it to just two players.

Once you’re done with the single player campaign and Spec Ops you can dive into the world of online multiplayer and I don’t mean to sound like a fanboy or anything but no one does multiplayer like Infinity Ward. When people heard that they had axed dedicated server support from the PC version there was a huge outcry. People called in for a ban and the internet imploded. Now I’m not going to deny the fact that this did cause a certain amount of problems but it is nothing like the tragedy people made it out to be. Sure I do miss 32 player support for the PC but I guess that’s something we’re just going to have to deal with.

The inability to browse servers is annoying at first but to be honest IW’s matchmaking service worked pretty well most of the time. I found servers relatively quickly and it was only when I partied up with a friend did it take us a little longer. Also it’s way easier to find servers for the popular modes like TM and TDM as opposed to their Hardcore variants.

New to the CoD MP experience is the addition of a third person mode. It may be a bit disorienting at first but playing CoD in third person actually granted me a better view of my surroundings enabling me to avoid sneaky back stabbers. Yes it’s quite gimmicky and not something you’ll play forever but it was a pleasant change of pace from the usual stuff. Besides the third person mode you have the ever popular ones like Deathmatch, Team Deatchmatch, Capture the Flag, Domination etc. to keep you hooked for hours on end.
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Progression in multiplayer has stayed the same but the LvL cap has now been increased to 70 after which you unlock the game’s Prestige Mode. A lot of the game’s older perks have been retained but few like Martyrdom have been axed. You now even have the option to customize your Killstreaks so basically you’re not just limited to calling in UAVs, Attack Choppers or Air Strikes. You can now launch Counter UAV’s, call in Attack helicopters where you actually control the chopper’s machine guns and if you’re really good, 25 kills in a row will grant you a Nuclear Strike with which you can decimate everyone on the map. Till date I have never seen anyone use that perk because I’m pretty sure it’s near impossible to get 25 kills in a row.

I did experience some terrible lag when some of the hosts had a weak connection but these instances were pretty rare. However, when they do rear their ugly head the game pretty much becomes unplayable and if you quit the game halfway through, your stats for that match are lost for good. Also if the host happens to leave the game mid-way (for whatever reason), the game pauses and quickly searches for the next best host resuming the action in a matter of seconds.

On the technical front, Modern Warfare 2, simply put is sublime. I haven’t played the console version yet and I hear people saying it doesn’t look all that hot but if you have a high end machine, the game looks phenomenal. Even though it’s running on a heavily modified version of the same engine as MW, it can hold its ground in front of today’s graphical powerhouses. MW2 also boasts of some of the best lighting I’ve seen in recent times. Environmental destruction has been ramped up a notch significantly giving firefights an insanely chaotic feel, especially the more claustrophobic ones that take place in tightly enclosed spaces.

There’s a huge amount of level variety to be found in missions as well with the action continuously moving from the snowy peaks of Russia to the deserts of Afghanistan to the shanties of Brazil. Special mention goes out to Hans Zimmer’s epic instrumental score that suits the game perfectly. There were times when I actually did feel like shedding a tear; it’s that awesome.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is an awesome game but it’s not perfect. The single player campaign is short and a tad under-whelming but Spec Ops and the game’s multiplayer will keep you busy for months on end. I’m not too thrilled with IW’s decision of messing around with the PC version but at the end of the day, the end product isn’t something that’s unplayable. The lack of dedicated servers definitely hurts the game a bit but how long can you stay mad at a game that offers the best multilayer experience on the block?

I also understand that the game’s pretty steep on all three platforms but the bottom line is that if you do invest in this game on either of them it’s a decision you won’t regret. Unless you’re not interested in multiplayer at all. In which case I would recommend renting/borrowing the game first.