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| The Entertainment Review |
| Genre: FPS Developer: Infinity Ward Publisher: Activision Reviewed By: Dale Kulas |
Developer Infinity Ward took its Call of Duty franchise in a bold new direction two years ago with Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, which
removed it from the WWII setting it defined and redefined how a FPS in a modern war setting should be executed. It was an adrenaline
rush with many breathtaking moments featured throughout its campaign, and had an addicting online component that pioneered a
Perks system that granted you advantages to game play as you leveled up. Infinity Ward went with the “bigger and better” approach for
the follow up in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and that formula helps make it one of the best games this holiday season.
Modern Warfare 2 plays almost exactly like the original so do not come in expecting any revolutionary changes to the controls. Players
will feel right at home from the get go because MW2 starts off nearly identical to its predecessor with a timed training course. It is still
one of the best controlling FPS games on the market, and taking time to line up the sights for a kill is incredibly gratifying. Some new
tweaks implemented are a number of breach segments in the campaign, where a door is blown off with a charge and the gameplay
temporarily goes into slow motion to pull off a few quick kills while the enemy is taken by surprise. A new game mechanic that is used
across all game modes is using a laptop to call in an air strike, and controlling the missile up until it makes impact.
Infinity Ward takes many strides to outdo itself with the story in MW2. Remember the film Crank, where Jason Stetham’s character has
to do something wild and crazy to keep his adrenaline going to remain alive? It is similar here, because about once or twice in every
hour of gameplay, there is an OMG WTF moment to keep the player hooked. It gets well into the ridiculous area with how screwed up
the world gets in MW2, but throughout it all Infinity Ward keeps the gameplay well balanced with on rail chases, the now obligatory
sniper mission, stealth missions and a mission that seems like it was stripped right out of Michael Bay’s The Rock. While the
campaign will definitely push one’s ability to suspend disbelief, it is hard to deny that its many exhilarating moments and variety of
polished and exciting gameplay combine to make one of the top single player games this year.
That is correct, I said single player, and unfortunately there is no online co-op for the campaign, but it is present for a new mode Infinity
Ward brings to the table called Spec Ops(which thankfully has nothing to do with the horrible PSone military games of the same name).
Spec Ops places the team in a standalone setting, or a variation of a setting taken from the campaign. Points are awarded for accuracy
and time taken to beat the missions, and the players are awarded with a gold/silver/bronze star. This mode is fun for a quick breather
from online multiplayer, but I would have still preferred online co-op, or even a variant of the awesome Nazi Zombies mode Treyarch
debuted in Call of Duty: World at War last year.
For a lot of people that play Call of Duty, the sole reason is for the online multiplayer, and rest assured that Infinity Ward has taken all the
feedback to deliver yet another strong competitive multiplayer component. Players can now go up to level 65 Prestige, customize their
Kill Streak bonuses and now two attachments can be assigned per weapon. For players like me who royally get schooled by the insane
caliber of online competition, Infinity Ward has given us Death Streaks to embrace. Kill Streak bonuses are still far more rewarding, but
some of the Death Streak bonuses like radar sweeps and the ability to steal the class of the adversary who just took you down for a
spawn helps ease my misery for my lack of skill online. Perks can still be customized, and unlocking more perks, weapons, tags and
character classes with each rank leveled up, only fuels the addiction to the already awesome multiplayer experience. Only gripe for the
multiplayer here is, at least on the 360 side of things, is that for most online play lists Party Chat is disabled, which forces the player to
put up with the many Xbox Live users who love to partake in blasting each other with expletives and racial slurs.
MW2 looks as stunning as before. The character models, the many environments MW2 takes place in and the oh-so-sweet explosions
do not disappoint. The only notable addition to the graphics is a third person perspective for multiplayer that is only available for split
screen play and a select few online playlists at the moment. Infinity Ward delivered on the audio side again too, which features another
fitting score, superb voice acting from most comrades and a crazy amount of sound effects that makes one seem they are right in a war
film, especially when rocking the surround sound.
If only there was a true online cooperative mode, then it would have been easy to say that Modern Warfare 2 has the complete package.
That gripe aside, do not let that scare you away from taking in one of the best single player experiences of the year, and one of, if not the
best online multiplayer game this year.
removed it from the WWII setting it defined and redefined how a FPS in a modern war setting should be executed. It was an adrenaline
rush with many breathtaking moments featured throughout its campaign, and had an addicting online component that pioneered a
Perks system that granted you advantages to game play as you leveled up. Infinity Ward went with the “bigger and better” approach for
the follow up in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and that formula helps make it one of the best games this holiday season.
Modern Warfare 2 plays almost exactly like the original so do not come in expecting any revolutionary changes to the controls. Players
will feel right at home from the get go because MW2 starts off nearly identical to its predecessor with a timed training course. It is still
one of the best controlling FPS games on the market, and taking time to line up the sights for a kill is incredibly gratifying. Some new
tweaks implemented are a number of breach segments in the campaign, where a door is blown off with a charge and the gameplay
temporarily goes into slow motion to pull off a few quick kills while the enemy is taken by surprise. A new game mechanic that is used
across all game modes is using a laptop to call in an air strike, and controlling the missile up until it makes impact.
Infinity Ward takes many strides to outdo itself with the story in MW2. Remember the film Crank, where Jason Stetham’s character has
to do something wild and crazy to keep his adrenaline going to remain alive? It is similar here, because about once or twice in every
hour of gameplay, there is an OMG WTF moment to keep the player hooked. It gets well into the ridiculous area with how screwed up
the world gets in MW2, but throughout it all Infinity Ward keeps the gameplay well balanced with on rail chases, the now obligatory
sniper mission, stealth missions and a mission that seems like it was stripped right out of Michael Bay’s The Rock. While the
campaign will definitely push one’s ability to suspend disbelief, it is hard to deny that its many exhilarating moments and variety of
polished and exciting gameplay combine to make one of the top single player games this year.
That is correct, I said single player, and unfortunately there is no online co-op for the campaign, but it is present for a new mode Infinity
Ward brings to the table called Spec Ops(which thankfully has nothing to do with the horrible PSone military games of the same name).
Spec Ops places the team in a standalone setting, or a variation of a setting taken from the campaign. Points are awarded for accuracy
and time taken to beat the missions, and the players are awarded with a gold/silver/bronze star. This mode is fun for a quick breather
from online multiplayer, but I would have still preferred online co-op, or even a variant of the awesome Nazi Zombies mode Treyarch
debuted in Call of Duty: World at War last year.
For a lot of people that play Call of Duty, the sole reason is for the online multiplayer, and rest assured that Infinity Ward has taken all the
feedback to deliver yet another strong competitive multiplayer component. Players can now go up to level 65 Prestige, customize their
Kill Streak bonuses and now two attachments can be assigned per weapon. For players like me who royally get schooled by the insane
caliber of online competition, Infinity Ward has given us Death Streaks to embrace. Kill Streak bonuses are still far more rewarding, but
some of the Death Streak bonuses like radar sweeps and the ability to steal the class of the adversary who just took you down for a
spawn helps ease my misery for my lack of skill online. Perks can still be customized, and unlocking more perks, weapons, tags and
character classes with each rank leveled up, only fuels the addiction to the already awesome multiplayer experience. Only gripe for the
multiplayer here is, at least on the 360 side of things, is that for most online play lists Party Chat is disabled, which forces the player to
put up with the many Xbox Live users who love to partake in blasting each other with expletives and racial slurs.
MW2 looks as stunning as before. The character models, the many environments MW2 takes place in and the oh-so-sweet explosions
do not disappoint. The only notable addition to the graphics is a third person perspective for multiplayer that is only available for split
screen play and a select few online playlists at the moment. Infinity Ward delivered on the audio side again too, which features another
fitting score, superb voice acting from most comrades and a crazy amount of sound effects that makes one seem they are right in a war
film, especially when rocking the surround sound.
If only there was a true online cooperative mode, then it would have been easy to say that Modern Warfare 2 has the complete package.
That gripe aside, do not let that scare you away from taking in one of the best single player experiences of the year, and one of, if not the
best online multiplayer game this year.
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