Infinity Ward, you've done it again!
The single player Campaign picks up 5 years after the ending of Modern Warfare one. The story is decent. Not the best I've seen in a game but definitely not the worst. The campaign has more thrills and more plot twists than you can handle, making it just as good, if not better than that of the original's story.
The graphics are nice. Not anything amazing, but nice.
Sound effects are nicer this time around. Again, nothing amazing, but I found them better than the original's.
One thing that kind of bugged me about this game was the voice acting in the multiplayer. Something about it didn't seem to have the same feel of "war" to it as CoD4 had... Like when the match starts and the announcer says "Team Deathmatch!" or "Domination!" or something to that effect, it didn't seem as lively and pumped as usual... It doesn't really deteriorate from the gameplay, but it was enough to kind of bug me. I just thought I might mention it in my review.
Speaking of multiplayer, it's easier to die in MWII's Multiplayer than it was in CoD4's. There's no Juggernaut perk, which evens things out a bit, but also makes dying easier for anyone who used it a lot in CoD4. On the other hand, it makes killing people easier, so it kind of evens it out. I guess it's better off without it. Not having it forces you to be slightly more tactical and makes you unable to just go out guns blazin'.
The maps are (for the most part) great and well-thought out.
The new Riot Shields can be used for a nice defense. I personally don't use them often, but they are a nice little quirk to the gameplay.
Creating your class for online multiplayer is much better. You have more selections to choose from, some new perks, and some old ones, and you can just make it more suitable to your needs.
You now have a title and things almost like a banner for Red Faction: Guerrilla (only game I could think of to relate it to). It doesn't really add/take away from gameplay but isn't hurting anything.
Instead of getting 10 points per kill, you now get 100 points per kill. This was kind of necessary, since it's all evened out now. But I think that seeing a big 100 pop up on your screen just adds more of the big battle type thing than the 10 did. So, again, doesn't add/take away..
You get extra points for certain things like avenging a teammate, saving a teammate, etc.
You can now customize your kill streak. It's kind of hard to explain, but you can pick from three streaks to have. Like I said it's hard to explain. Look it up on Youtube. It's pretty nice. Major plus.
You can also customize death streaks. If you're dying several times with no kills, you can now get extra helpers. Martyrdom is now a death streak to choose from instead of a perk...
So that's really about it.
Modern Warfare 2 basically improved upon the original in nearly every way.
It is a must buy for anyone who enjoyed the original.
I highly recommend it.