Difficulty:

Hard

Time Spent:

20 to 40 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Worth playing"

On the 10th of November, the sixth instalment in the esteemed first person shooter franchise experienced the biggest opening for a video game in history. The single player campaign is a direct continuation of the events of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and gives players the role of a number of different faceless characters throughout the game, including a British SAS officer and a US Marine. Following the coup in Russia, Zakaev's death at the end of Modern Warfare has allowed him to be made a martyr by the Ultranationalists. His work is carried on by another madman named Vladimir Makarov. After serving in Afghanistan, a US Marine is instructed to infiltrate Makarov's terrorist cell. Makarov's assault on an airport in Moscow is blamed on the US, leading to an all out invasion of the Western nation. Meanwhile, a number of SAS troopers, including Captain 'Soap' MacTavish from the first Modern Warfare, are out to eliminate Makarov themselves.

With a near-impossible task of living up to the hype of the immensely popular Modern Warfare, this sequel is certainly not without its disappointments. The single player campaign can be completed in merely five hours and it follows the typical Call of Duty formula almost exactly. Even visually, though areas are larger and more detailed, it does not drastically improve on the aesthetics, retaining many of the same impressive pyrotechnics and upholding the same exquisite sound design. For those who are looking for something fresh and reinvigorating they are unlikely to find it here. Regardless, this is still a thoroughly entertaining and refined gaming experience. Even on the regular difficulty setting, Modern Warfare 2 is a much harder game than its predecessor. Though the constant respawning of enemies has been erased, the slightly slower recharge of your health means that you are far more vulnerable to bullets. Enemies, though still heavily scripted, are smart enough to use cover and both grenade types, including flashbangs, making them in large numbers, extremely deadly. The sheer size of the games maps have been drastically increased as well to ensure that enemies can and will attack from a number of directions, whether it is in front of you or from above on the rooftops. It is the scripted nature of almost all of the games missions that sustains the intensity and sheer excitement throughout the brief five hours. Regular misadventures and divergences for your missions, followed by contrast of playing styles, creates a level of uncertainly and provides the most thrilling moments. One of the games most spectacular set pieces shameless borrows from the film True Lies. Yet it is the slow-burning infiltration of a snowbound base, juxtaposed with a rapid fire escape on a snowmobile that showcases Modern Warfare 2's diversity of action and proves to be one of the best levels of the year.

Yet beyond the spectacle, there is something surprisingly more emotional to be found in this game than any of its predecessors. The attack on a Moscow airport has become one of the most controversial aspects of the game. Although it comes with a warning message, asking players whether they would like to skip this level, it remains integral to the games narrative and is a truly devastating scene to become a part of. The sound of a bag being unzipped and the clocking of an assault rifle against the darkness of an elevator is something players are unlikely to forget. The scenes in Virginia too, though they have not accumulated as much discussion, are equally as painful in the awake of political events of the last decade, as you storm across the driveways of American suburbia. An unexpected betrayal towards the end of the game is a further example of the emotion that really elevates the campaign. It is questionable as to whether the game actually surpasses the first Modern Warfare. It never quite reaches the heights of levels like All Ghillied Up and there are perhaps far too many moments of being shell-shocked or having a mission go awry to the point of predictability. The games plot, which is again told through a number of satellite briefings, has more twists and turns than the previous game, which works both for and against its intent. It does keep you playing to see where it is going, rewarding the players with a number of revelations. Yet by the end there a number of threads that do not stand well to scrutiny. It is quite apt that one of the games chapters is titled 'Loose Ends'. The abruption of the American campaign is particularly strange, leaving the SAS missions (which are largely more exciting) with more narrative details. It will be of little surprise that the game also ends with a cliffhanging finale. In spite of the shortcomings to its narrative and a sense of familiarity to the game play, this is still a very solid shooter that maintains and refines what was already a winning formula.

Although the single player campaign is quite short, the games lifespan is thoroughly extended by its multiplayer mode. As with the single player, Modern Warfare 2 does not drastically change or reinvent what already existed. Instead, the online play has been tweaked for smaller and more intense skirmishes, adding a largely revamped upgrading system. As with the last game you will gain experience points to unlock new weapons, perks and game modes. Yet players will level up much faster in this sequel as they are more regularly rewarded. Players will earn experience points for extracting revenge, achieving double kills, helping to defend critical points, firing long ranged shots and head shots and many more. There feels as though there is so much more to do and to aim for, making multiplayer a lot more fun and satisfying. There are a number of new perks that you can achieve such as Bling, allowing for multiple attachments to your weapons, but one of the most interesting changes has been the inclusion of death streaks. To cater for more casual players death streaks are aids for those that die regularly. If a player dies three times in a row they have the option of taking a painkiller, which grants them more health for ten seconds the next time they spawn, or the Copycat perk, which allows a player to steal the class and weapons of those that killed them. Never again can one complain about their enemies' weapons being too powerful. The removal of the martyrdom perk, which is now only available as a death streak and at a very high level, is certain to please many. The availability of tactical flares, which can be placed anywhere on a map so that the player will respawn there once upon death, are also exciting inclusions, especially when playing two of the multiplayer's best modes, Sabotage and Domination.

Much attention has been drawn to the games lack of dedicated servers in favour of a player matchmaking system. Surprisingly, the matchmaking system provides a very streamlined mechanism of entering into games painlessly and through over ten hours of play, there were almost no visible lag or latency issues, improving over Call of Duty 4. The system is not without its limitations however. When in a lobby you may have to wait a while for players to join – though it is no worse than Left 4 Dead – but you will not be able to directly select or vote on a map of your choice. The games integration with Steam is a competent one, but hopefully there will be some tweaks in the future to allow for more player input. Some will also disapprove of the games much smaller player count, which has been reduced from thirty-two to eighteen players. Some maps indeed can only account for six versus six players. However, this is not necessarily a deduction as these smaller missions ensure that lesser players have more chance of not only surviving but winning matches they would have had no chance at with a much higher count. The reduction of players ensures that there is also far less grenade spamming too, allowing for much tighter skirmishes. Even with a smaller player count there is no shortage of action, though the same irritations of camping snipers will come back to haunt many. Further lengthening the online play is the Special Ops cooperative mode. This allows two players to join up together and play against only the computer through a number of brief, but often extremely tough missions. The difficulty and the randomisation of some enemies in this modem, makes the missions particularly satisfying to complete. Stars can be earned here and although it is not a fully fledged cooperative system for the entire campaign, it is still another nice addition in extending the life of the game. Oddly, despite being a peer-to-peer match, when being hosted by a player in another state there was definitely more lag here than in the regular multiplayer mode. Overall, the Special Ops mode is terrific fun and the unlockable rewards and more balanced playing style of the multiplayer seems extremely successful so far in catering towards less experienced players, providing a fresh take on the foundations of Call of Duty 4's online component.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is more of the same but in the very best sense of the genre. While the story is loose at times, the same winning formula and highly varied cinematic set pieces are given a rare emotional charge, providing a memorable and sometimes harrowing single player experience. The multiplayer too is a thoroughly well-thought out and designed refinement of the already successful online experience of the previous game. Each of these components amounts to a single complete package that will provide enjoyment both on and offline.