Thoughts on the the Call of Duty. Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 User Critic Review on Multiplayer and Campaign

Ahhh. The long awaited Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. This game was made once again by the same company that made the previous and was supposed to be a sequel to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.

I woke up at 6:00 in the morning November 11 just to get this long await game. I didn't have Xbox Live at the time, so I immediately started the campaign. I suppose ill begin with the good points of the single play mission to begin with, and go into my longer rant section ;P.

Modern Warfare 2 I was happy and expecting (just like the rest of us) to have a nice, destructible, covert, optional path gameplay. It lived up to most of the expectation but not much farther than them. I think they used a nice range of vehicle, interactive cutseen, and stealth moments that we were expecting this great to game to have. I really liked the interactive cutseens in particular. It was cool to be able to bust down a door and enter a room in slow motion, and being able to get headshot after headshot on unsuspecting enemies. Whether you were chasing Maracov down via boat, plane, or land, they did a nice job of incorporating a nice variety of vehicular gameplay. None of the weapons seemed to be too much the same, neither did the destructible environment. The levels THEMSELVES flowed pretty well (not the whole campaign [I will later touch up on]) It was a relief to all gamers that were waiting for the snow mobile level that it actually worked well and didn't fail like most high publicized levels. None of the levels seemed too much alike but nor were they too different. It had well rounded enemies that actually did not act like idiots and jump out behind the same wall over and over until I finally killed them. Now that you are happy and about to Google search a site where you can purchase the site, do stop reading if you still want to feel that way. Next.... it's time to RANT!

As I was playing through the long, repetitive levels I realized I wasn't very convinced or blown away by any of the levels. Not only did it have NOTHING to do with the first game, but it really didn't have anything to do with itself. By that I mean the story line really made no sense. It was the same ole' run through big battle of men shooting aimlessly somehow knowing your hiding behind that crate gameplay. It was not outstanding by any means, and I can't even really say it was that good. They for some reason had to add a level where you run through an airport mowing down unarmed civilians (obviously have the option to skip the level); maybe even they felt the game needed a little umph. At the end you don't really feel attached to any of the other AI players, and unless you are way smarter than the rest of us, your scratching your head asking, "What in the world kind of sad ending is that?!" Some of the levels I saw on commercials weren't even a part of the game, and many of the other levels were just dumb, like holding a roof of a Burger Town (Burger King). Over all I give the sing player campaign a so-so score of... 6.8/10

Single Player Campaign: 6.8/10

Now it's time for the multiplayer talk-about.

I will once again start with the good stuff and continue on to my rants.

I thought you didn't have Xbox Live Will! Actually, I just got it like a week after Modern Warfare 2, just so I could play it. I was actually very surprised with how good it was, and how much it was like the company made multiplayer scenarios I'm sure you all already saw on either Google Videos or Youtube. There are a VERY wide variety of guns, gun attachments, perks, death streaks, and kill streaks. The guns to begin with are very different, and offer a arsenal of weapons to any time of player, whether you snipe or go close range. I would also like to say martyrdom is now a death streak and you must die 4 times in a row before you can use it. Thank you so much!!! You rarely ever encounter someone with it and really never have to deal with it at all. Every gun has between 6 and 14 attachments that can be placed on it. Perks are all pretty good and many of the times you have to sit and think about what perk you want. None of them are overpowered nor useless. Kill streaks are now customizable an you have kill streaks that range from 3 kills to the infamous 25 kill tactical nuke which ends the game and automatically makes you win (will refer back to it in rants...). Say you aren't a camper and like to run in and get the fast kills, maybe yo will set your kill streak to 3 4 and 5 kills, instead of a godly sniper which may chose 8 11 and 15. You can now join parties wit your friends too and be in every game and almost on the same team every time. While in free for all you can chat with others not in game and switch back and forth between. You have a customizable tag and unlock new titles and emblems almost every game, making everyone's unique. Now we are moving on to rants, but before we do there is one more think that is between a rant and positive feedback. It is that it runs and the same engine... for the 3rd time which means it will look and react all the same ways as the old games. It has no better graphics than CoD: 4 and CoD: 5, but never the less, its always had good graphics for its' time.

Now officially to Online Rants.

I really don't have much bad to say but to say the the maps are not very interesting or new. None are fantastic and in almost every level a single godly sniper can rule the map. If you played CoD: 5 (World at War) you know the level "Cliffside". Now, take away the grass and replace it with sand. Now, take away trees, bushes, and other crap and replace them with rocks. You got yourself a totally new level right? Wrong. The level "Afghan" is exactly that. Almost the same exact level, on the edge of a cliff and everything. Oh yes, back to the tactical nuke. Today I had the first tactical nuke called on my team. As the countdown continued to reach zero, everyone was freaking out and super excited. BOOM!, right? Wrong. The server crashed. The FPS was at like 3 per second, and the server couldn't take it any longer. The freaking server crashed. Yeh, on a console game a server crashed due to a tactical nuke someone worked his butt off to get. Too bad for him, 25 kills for nothing I guess. How could a server possibly crash due to a kill streak reward? That's ridiculous.

Although it has it's weak spots online is awesome and deserves a good score to go along with it. I give Online Multiplayer a 9.3/10

Online Multiplayer: 9.3/10

I'm not going to review Special Ops, simply because it sucks and would get like a 3/10. It's really hard and has NO creativity at all. One of the missions is to simple rack up a high kill count, another to kill everyone, another to plant a bomb, another to get the the extraction point. Been there done that, right? Right.

So after all Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is a great game, and should be at the top of your Christmas List (that's if you have Xbox Live of course). Everyone should at least try it out, because its a must have for any Online First Person Shooter freak like me. Come back for more reviews and gameplay videos soon! Most likely I will also be raffling off either a website account with a free wii on it, or a level 100 Runescape account (if you know what that is). I should get a bunch of new games to review for Christmas this year, as well. So long and Happy Holiday!

Single Player Campaign: 6.8/10
Online Multiplayer: 9.3/10

Overall Score: 8.9/10

Later Guys and Gals! See you next time on Will's Blog.