What was supposed to be the greatest game ever made is actually far from it.
Campaign: MW2's campaign takes place 5 years after the events in COD4. The best word to describe MW2's campaign is "short". The campaign can be completed in about 2 hours. 2 hours! And, on top of that, it doesn't really have much depth to it either. The campaign is mostly just non-stop explosions and action sequences. I want to play a decent single-player experience, not an interactive Michael Bay movie. The campaign was nothing special.
Special Ops: The new game-mode in MW2, Special Ops presents a different challenge with each mission, some being to eliminate all the enemies, and others involve planting bombs, just to name a few. You have the option to play Special Ops alone, split-screen with a friend, or with a friend on Xbox Live. With 23 total missions and 69 stars to earn, Special Ops will have you going for a while.
Multiplayer: Unfortunately, this is where Modern Warfare 2 really disappointed. This game is overrun with noobs and it has been ever since week 1. The things that I define as being "noob" are using weapons and/or tactics that make it extremely easy to kill people. Things like shotguns, grenade launchers, camping, the Commando perk, etc. I will now go into detail of each of these things.
Shotguns now available as a secondary weapon, which means that anyone can have a primary weapon like an assault rifle or a sniper with a shotgun in reserve. Some of the shotguns, like the Spas, Rangers, and Model 1887s, are very overpowered, especially the Rangers and Models because they can be dual-wielded. These shotguns can kill from mid-range with ease and it it very frustrating to have people running around with the shotguns and mowing everyone down.
You thought the noob tube was bad in Call of Duty 4, well it just got worse in MW2. With the new Danger Close perk, which allows more damage from explosives, and the addition of the Thumper, a gun-sized grenade launcher, noob tubes are used even more in Modern Warfare 2. Almost every game can consist of grenades flying around the map and explosions at your left and right.
Camping. It has been said to be a legitimate strategy. Yeah right. Sitting in a corner aiming your gun at a door, that takes a lot of skill all right. MW2 is absolutely INFESTED with campers, and when I say infested, I mean entire teams camping in one area trying to lure you in and easily pick you off. It is at its worse in objective-based games like Demolition, Domination, and Capture the Flag. Now, the reason everyone camps in this game is to get the famous Care Package, which Infinity Ward made a mistake in putting in the game because it basically rewards the players for camping with something like an AC130 or a Pavelow. The maps also have a lot to do with it because there are so many nooks and crannys for players to hide in that it is so easy to just pitch a tent wherever you want.
This is what gets me absolutely infuriated, the Commandos. These are the people that have Marathon, Lightweight, and Commando as their perks and the run around the map at like 20 mph and knife everyone they see. But to make matters worse, bullets seem to have no effect on them. Seriously, I see a guy charging at me so I unload a full clip into him, and he somehow knifes me. What is that?!?! How is that possible? In real life, if that happened, that guy would be dead at my feet, but not in MW2. Infinity Ward needs to do something about this because I thought this was supposed to be a realistic shooter, not a game where knives are more powerful than guns.
A quick note on Riot Shields, Infinity Ward obviously put them in the game for the kids who have no skill so they have to resort to using the Riot Shield to get their kills.
Modern Warfare 2 was released on my birthday, so I was expecting it to be a very good present, and, for about a month, it was. At first, I was very impressed with this game. However, after a month or so, I saw all the flaws in the game, and just plain got bored with it. Now, I can see that MW2 really didn't change much from CoD 4. I feel like Call of Duty is becoming more of a yearly update, much like Madden NFL, which is sad because I think that Call of Duty can be a really good franchise. But, with Activision wanting to milk the CoD cash cow for all it's worth, we will continue to get these mediocre Call of Duty games until it is run into the ground.