Infinity Ward’s Call Of Duty is back in full force with Modern Warfare 2.  The first Modern Warfare was an instant classic with its awesome story line and deep multiplayer.  The sequel tries to follow suit and tries to make everything bigger .  In the single player campaign, you play 5 different characters as US and Russia is about to go to war.  Playing so many characters on a short game was a big problem for me.  You get involved into the story and suddenly on the next level, it’s another new character.  The narration of the game is disjointed, especially the last 3 levels where it goes in the Metal Gear Solid route.  The production value is great. Some levels are influenced by movies such as the chase scene in Brazil from the Incredible Hulk, shower room scene from the Rock and a shootout similar to Heat and Collateral.  The best levels are the covert missions because you feel like you’re really in control of the situations.  When it becomes a head to head battle with the AI, I felt like you need a bit of luck to pass the levels since bad guys shoot you from everywhere.  You have nowhere to go but forward and hope there’s a save point before you die.

The graphics are better with higher resolution textures.  There are a couple framerate hiccups, especially in the levels where there’s snow or rain, but overall,I had no major gripe.  The facial expressions are upgraded and looks more realistic as you see your buddies grimace in pain.   The graphics really help the game’s presentation and made me want to finish the campaign even though the story falters.  There’s a new feature that’s pretty cool when breaching rooms ala Matrix bullet time.  As you plant a breaching charge and attack a room, it goes into slo mo as you shoot the bad guys (The tv show, Unit, did this and I’m sure Infinity War was influenced by it).   Overall, the story was okay but the shock value they added felt like a gimmick.

Online play is where the majority of the players will spend their time and I’m no exception.  The reward system is back where it’ll make you become a crack head since you always want to level up and the perks are never enough.  This time around though, there are more choices than just perks. You can choose the rewards for your kill streaks instead of the default so when you have a 5 kill streak it’s up to you whether you want a sentry gun or a Predator missile.  I thought this feature was too tedious at first but it does make the playing field more balanced.  The multiplayer maps are also more evened out and camping is pretty much void because of the multiple entryways for the buildings.  Infinity Ward also added new game plays  and weapons such as Capture The Flag and the riot shield.  If you’re team is good enough with several riot shields, you’ll win majority of your games in CTF and domination.  I like using the shield because it distracts your enemies and you feel like God blocking all the bullets.

Another mode they’ve added is Special Ops, which consists of you and a friend defending a certain area before being overrun by the bots or reaching a certain point.  It’s a great addition to the game and a nice complement when deathmatches become too intense or chaotic.

Even though Modern Warfare 2’s  single player was a let down, it’s still highly recommended because of the deep multiplayer modes.  I’ve probably spent at least 20 hours online and I’m still not bored with it. We can thank the balance gameplay for that.

Grade: A-

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