With dozens of “Game of the Year” awards and nearly universal acclaim, “Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare” is an extremely tough act to follow. Released in 2007, the game redefined the first person shooter genre. Two years have passed, and after a tidal wave of hype and its fair share of controversy, “Modern Warfare 2” has finally arrived on the X-Box 360, PS3 and PC, and it improves upon its predecessor in every way.
“Modern Warfare 1” was a game that featured a single player campaign that was partially ignored by gamers, with the multiplayer aspect of the game outliving it in both length and variety. It’s not that the single player game was bad, but rather that there is a large group of gamers that focus their attention entirely on the multiplayer. The multiplayer in “Modern Warfare 1” was extremely well done, and “Modern Warfare 2” takes every part of it up a notch. The modes and the setup are largely the same, with the majority of the improvement given to the design of large, sprawling maps that give the player large freedom of movement. Furthermore, the famed ranking mechanism featured in the original is back and has been balanced to perfection.
In addition to the multiplayer mode there is the special ops mode, in which two players co-operate to accomplish various preset scenarios. The concepts are simple, ranging from crashing through enemy barricades to sneaking across battlegrounds. It can be played alone, but there’s more appeal in finding a partner, especially considering the odds against you, as well as the particular missions in which one player fights their way across town with the second player as their air support. You are ranked by gold stars; the more difficult you make the missions the more stars you receive. The missions are short and sweet and provide an addictive diversion that encourages teamwork and cooperation.
The single player storyline has unfortunately been left on the backburner this time around, providing a narrative equivalent to a Michael Bay movie. It only serves to show off the different locales and varied action the developers wanted to place in the game and provides enough twists to keep you interested all the way to the end. Thankfully, the “clown closet” technique used in the first game (which had enemies continually reappear until you moved forward enough to set off an invisible trip wire, triggering the next wave) has been completely removed. The levels are now much more open ended, often providing huge battlefields with multiple paths to the objective and smart enemies that will flank and relocate accordingly. Visually the game has improved, presenting rich and detailed battlegrounds, making the firefights beautiful to look at in their frenetic pace.
Despite the weak story Infinity Ward has taken a bold step in interactive storytelling with one of the most controversial levels ever featured in a video game. Without spoiling too many details, the level places you in disguise as a terrorist and has you committing rather immoral acts against innocent civilians. Within the context of the game, the scenario makes perfect sense, and it is so tastefully created that it stands as a powerful message against terrorism. It has to be said though that the scene is extremely graphic and is actually preceded with a warning, allowing the player to skip it if necessary. It took some guts to place this in a game and Infinity Ward definitely deserves recognition for taking a valiant step forward in interactive storytelling.
“Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2” is one of the most polished games of the year. It provides an amazing deal with deep, entrenching multiplayer, addictive and ingenious cooperative play and an entertaining story to wrap it all together. This is definitely a must buy.