Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Review

Written 01/01/2010

Note: This review is for the PC version of the game. Screenshot and video were taken from my machine.

I believe it would be safe to say that Infinity Ward's original Modern Warfare title was a huge success. It brought us out of the very used and abused World War II battles that we all probably know by heart at this point, into the present with all of the technological marvels that came after WWII. It told a compelling fictional story that eerily resembled the current state of the real world today. It also gave us some of the best multiplayer experiences with a very active community that still stands today, regardless of what platform you choose to log in to. With all this awesomeness seeping out of the original Modern Warfare, I don't think it's a surprise to anyone that Modern Warfare 2 discs are spinning in almost everyone's consoles and PC disc drives. The question is though, what makes Modern Warfare 2 so much better than its predecessor, if anything?

Visuals and Presentation

To put it bluntly, this game is absolutely gorgeous! In every map and campaign mission I've been in so far, the attention to detail in the environments, character and weapon models, textures and ambiance are all top notch. The set pieces alone can give you a great since of calm one moment, apprehension the next, then get your blood pumping right after as everything starts blowing up around you. A good bit of the ambiance was sacrificed in the multiplayer maps for the sake of performance and flow, but it's not very noticeable in the utter chaos of matches and the trade-off is very worth it.

Visuals and Presentation Rating:

Sound

I always hate it when I get a game that looks and plays awesomely, but the voice acting or general sounds are simply terrible. It's really quite sad that those developers don't understand the importance and impact of good sound. Luckily for us, it seems Infinity Ward understands just how important it really is, because Modern Warfare 2's audio is just as much of a treat as its visuals! I can't remember any of the voice actors' names in particular, but I could have sworn I heard a few iconic voices from other games and a fair number of returning voices from the first Modern Warfare. Every line of dialog was well portrayed and believable, with little to no cheesiness in sight. I can only imagine how much it cost to hire that many quality voice actors for the game. The weapon sounds were also what you would expect. There's never really an instance where a certain weapon that was quite powerful when fired sounding weak or vice verse. When you combine the excellent visuals with the equally excellent sound, you get an experience few games can provide. In short, you don't get sound quite like this in an FPS very often. So crank up those speakers, it's well worth it!

Sound Rating:

Gameplay

If you've played any of the previous Call of Duty titles, then you already know what the gameplay in Modern Warfare 2 will be like for the most part. This is a high-octane, over the top action shooter that is meant to keep you constantly on the edge of your seat, and it does that to stellar effect. One difference you'll find in the campaign missions from the first Modern Warfare is that you won't get nearly as lost trying to get from point A to point B in a level, as paths are much clearer to pick out. Another change you'll find is that enemies will no longer infinitely respawn, which allows you to plan out your strikes against defended buildings a bit better.

A new game-mode has also been introduced in Modern Warfare 2 called Spec-Ops missions. These missions are designed to take anywhere between 10 to 30 minutes each to complete, and can be tackled either alone or cooperatively with one friend. They typically have one objective and, at times, one sub-objective. For example, one mission requires you to clear a small slum town of 30 hostiles while killing as few civilians as possible. If you die or kill 6 civilians, you fail the mission and must restart from the beginning. The difficulty of missions can range from rather simple to quite insane, and I would imagine some are nearly impossible to complete without someone there to help. You are also awarded star medals depending on your performance in each mission and if you complete certain criteria set forth by the game for particular missions. Once you earn enough stars in the missions available to you, you will unlock another set of more difficult missions to try your hand at. In all, you can unlock four sets of missions.

Although the single-player gameplay is still as fun and intense as ever, Modern Warfare 2 truly shines in its multiplayer. I didn't count, but there are well over 10 gametypes to choose from ranging from your standard Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch to more objective oriented modes where one team must control certain points of the map for a certain amount of time to win, or another where one team must capture the only bomb in the map and plant it within the opposing team's base without dying. There are also a crazy amount of weapons and perks to choose from, and it would take me forever to describe them all. Suffice to say though, if you want to unlock them all, you're going to be playing a while. Each weapon also has it's own progression path to unlock new equipment for that weapon, which in itself will take quite a while to unlock everything for one weapon; much less all of them! There is also a personal level-up system to facilitate the unlocking of everything, in which you gain XP for killing opposing players, completing objectives in appropriate gametypes, and so on. Once you hit a certain level, you unlock a new weapon or perk. Speaking of perks, you can now customize your own killstreak rewards. Don't like having to use a UAV at 3 kills? Change it to something else you've unlocked!

If I have any real complaints about Modern Warfare 2's mechanics, it's how Infinity Ward has chosen to handle server selection and mod support. There are no dedicated servers in the game. Instead, you choose the gametype you want to play, and the game searches for the best host to give you the best ping possible. This may sound like a good thing, and it is when all you do is play the game casually, but the problem shows itself when players want to form guilds and stick together. Sure, you can create a private group and move on from there, but it would have been nice to have a place to call “home” in the community. As for mod support, because there isn't any dedicated server support, there isn't any mod support either. Not only was this choice a huge let down for me personally, it could end up hurting the game in the long run. Unless Infinity Ward can provide us with worthwhile and cheap (if not free at times) DLC on a regular basis, the lack of community created content will make the game grow stale much quicker for many people. After that, those people will either move back to the original Modern Warfare or to another game entirely. If you just play the game casually though, none of that will really matter to you.

Gameplay Rating:

Story

Let me get this out of the way here and now, Modern Warfare 2's story, if you can even call it that, is by far the weakest part of an otherwise stellar game. If you were considering picking up Modern Warfare 2 just to see what the story was like and never playing online, don't. Go back and play the original Modern Warfare's campaign again. Trust me, the original's story is that much better. The events of Modern Warfare 2's campaign are so seemingly random and vague that it's hard to follow what's really going on beyond the third mission. Quite honestly, I can't really tell you what happened in the story if I wanted to because it went in so many directions. There's not much reason to care about the new characters that weren't in the original Modern Warfare because it's hard to tell who's side certain characters are on.

To Infinity Ward's credit though, there were some very awesome moments in the campaign that are well worth experiencing. Even with the poor story, I still greatly enjoyed the campaign simply for the trademarked Call of Duty action sequences. Just don't make this the only reason to get the game.

Story Rating:

Replay Value

Considering that Modern Warfare 2 was mainly designed around its multiplayer offerings, it has amazing replay value spanning literally hundreds of hours of leveling up, unlocking equipment for new weapons, and experimenting with perk configurations. On the single-player side of things, there are some truly awesome moments in the campaign that deserve being replayed multiple times. Then there's Spec-Ops missions, which can be tackled solo or with a friend, and trying to master each mission. If you wanted to accomplish absolutely everything that's offered in the game, you could easily put 200 hours into the game if you're moderately skilled. Not only is that a lot of gameplay time, it's a lot of bang for your buck. If you were to buy the game now for $60.00, and play it for 200 hours, you're spending $0.30 for every hour of gameplay; you can't really go wrong with that at all! In these rough economic times, I'd say that was a worthwhile investment of your limited cash.

Replay Value Rating:

Final Thoughts and Overall Score

All in all, this game just plain rocks. Even with the lack of dedicated servers and mod support, Modern Warfare 2's multiplayer is just as awesome as the first game and manages to top it. Although the story in the single-player campaign is basically non-existent, it's still a wild ride that must be experienced. Spec-Ops missions are a great way to test your mettle against the AI alone or with a friend. Everything offered in the multiplayer portion of the game alone is worth the price of admission. Whether you pick up the game for PC (system requirements below), PS3, or 360, it's pretty hard to go wrong with Modern Warfare 2.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Overall Score:

PC minimum system requirements:

OS: Microsoft Windows XP or Windows Vista (Windows 95/98/ME/2000 are unsupported)

Processor: Intel Pentium 4 3.2 GHz or AMD Athlon 64 3200+ processor or better supported

Memory: 1 GB RAM

Graphics: 256 MB NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT or better or ATI Radeon 1600XT or better

DirectX®: Microsoft DirectX(R) 9.0c

Hard Drive: 12GB of free hard drive space

Sound: 100% DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card

Internet: Broadband connection and service required for Multiplayer Connectivity. Internet Connection required for activation.

Co-op/Multiplayer Hosting: To host Co-op or MP matches, a 2Ghz dual-core or better processor is recommended.