Another great FPS
Assuming you're a veteran of the first game I'll fill you in on what's changed with this installment. There are only a handful of new weapons some of which include dual wielding pistols, F2000 assault rifle, Vector sub-machine gun, & the all to useful Riot Shield. Something that caught my eye strait off the bat in the solo campaigns is how modified weapons drop off dead solders. AK-47's can come with scopes or red dot sights. The FAL can come equip with a grenade launcher, shotgun, red dot sight, or a scope. I found myself constantly changing weapons throughout the campaign as I found different setups of guns more useful for my current situation. One completely new installation is the addition of a thermal scope/heartbeat sensor. Mounted on the left side of the gun is a small screen that shows signatures of friendlies and targets. This is used for certain parts of the campaign where you're visual ranged is greatly reduced do to weather conditions. The cherry on-top of everything is the short driving segments that they've put into the game. There's a short snowmobile segment where you're trying to escape the enemy base, a very short part where you take control of a jeep, and the ending moments consist of a hair on your neck boat chase towards your final victor.
While the Solo campaign has its very good points it's only flaw seems to be the length. For experienced FPS and especially for the COD4 veteran you'll find yourself completing the entire solo campaign in just over 4 hours (on Veteran difficulty). The game does however offer a few more hours of single player gameplay by offering a variety of single player achievements. Most of these take place within the very levels you already played through in the campaign but with different objectives. There are even a few levels that offer co-op play. Unfortunately these extra missions however fun and challenging do not offer very much more to the solo mode of MW2.
Multiplayer in MW2 is basically the same as the original with a few major drawbacks. There is a bunch of achievements to acquire while fighting your way through a dozen or so multiplayer maps. New weapons introduced into the solo campaign are also avaliable in the multiplayer as well. The flaw resides in the game mechanics. There is no dedicated server support. Much has been sad as to why Infinity Ward decided to leave this out from the original MW multiplayer. IMO it was to fight back against the piracy of the game. Players who had a pirated copy of the game had the ability to join countless private dedicated servers, and enjoy the multiplayer aspect of the game without the need to purchase a cd key (which is required in retail MW servers). Among other multiplayer game mechanics void from the original MW is the ability to vote in game if a certain player can be kicked or allowed to continue playing. This allowed players to boot suspected cheaters, without relying on IW updates to rid the system of hackers. Currently there is no option to boot players from servers if suspected of cheating, which have caused avid MW2 hackers to flood the servers and disrupt the equality of gameplay among honest gamers.
Final Thought
The single player campaign is excellent. It felt as if I was watching an awesome movie, and got to take part in the protagonist's every movement. Although short, the single player campaign left me fulfilled. I remember why I loved the first MW so much. Replay value may be somewhat short lived. Multiplayer mode is plagued with glitches and major flaws, but still avaliable if you can look past the shortcomings. I have no proof, but I can see some major DLC in the near future to fix the shortcomings of the multiplayer mode. Overall the game was fun, and definitely something that every FPS should experience, if your willing to foot the bill.