Review: Modern Warfare 2 (Call of Duty 6)

Posted by Stefan Crowe On November - 19 - 2009

Modern Warfare 2 (Call of Duty 6)

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare was a complete behemoth in the gaming world and in many ways continues to dominate the industry. So, it was with great excitement, and yet a similar amount of apprehension, that I jumped right into the game as soon as I got hold of a copy. Do Infinity Ward meet expectations or fail to live up to the hype? Let’s see…

Choose your game

First of all, before we go anywhere, let’s take a look at the game modes put up for us in Modern Warfare 2. You are given three options on the opening menu, which can be broken down into the following:

Special Ops: Challenges that feature co-operative gameplay.
Campaign: Story-based single player campaign.
Multiplayer: Features online and offline multiplayer game modes.

Special Ops

This is the newest mode in the Modern Warfare universe. Building on the basis of the huge popularity of co-operative gameplay, Infinity Ward decided to implement it into Modern Warfare 2. But rather than just simply taking on a two-player co-op version of the single player campaign, IW built a whole new game mode for it.

Special Ops consists of a series of challenges that get increasingly difficult as you progress through them. Each challenge has a 1-3 star reward system, depending on how well you beat the challenge and meet certain targets you will be awarded with more stars. Players must obtain certain numbers of stars to unlock later challenges.

As mentioned above, this game mode supports co-op play, nay was built for co-op play. Most challenges are quite generic, with the usual holding off waves of enemies. But there also some good little twists in there too, like a night time mission where one player covers another player from the air using the AC-130.

Special Ops mode supports one player, as well as two player local (split-screen) and online gameplay.

Campaign

I can’t really go into too much detail story-wise without revealing spoilers, so ‘ll make do with a quick introduction. Modern Warfare 2’s single player campaign will take you through a range of surroundings, from the desert landscape of Afghanistan to snow-capped mountain ranges. Each one feels perfectly suited, the snow crunches and leaves foot prints, while wasteland maps will have a constant sandstorm blowing around you.

As per the other Call of Duty games, Modern Warfare 2 will see you taking on the role of several different people throughout the missions. Sometimes you are working for the SAS-style Task Force 141, othertimes you are fighting for the American Army Rangers.

The missions tend to make use of new weaponry, like the remotely controlled predator missile, which gives you a black and white aerial view of the battlefield briefly before you take out a whole squadron of enemies with it.

Expect the story to twist and turn a fair bit, but always in a good way. There are some pretty amazing set pieces backed up by some brilliant level design and artwork.

Multiplayer

Considered by many as the ‘core’ to the first Modern Warfare (and probably Call of Duty: World at War too), this game mode features both online and offline multiplayer game modes. The offline is pretty similar to the online except you can only have up to 4 players locally via split-screen, unless you opt for a LAN setup, in which case there isn’t much difference at all. The offline mode now even supports local profiles, so you can save you and your friends progress each time you play, meaning you get to enjoy the feeling of unlocking all the rewards individually and setting up your personal custom classes.

The online mode is a much polished and enhanced version of the Modern Warfare and World at War versions from the call of Duty series. There are challenges, levels, prestige modes, custom classes, perks, leaderboards, party support, game invites and all the usual features you expect. However, there are a couple of new, gladly-accepted features too.

Modern Warfare 2 introduces a new item that could probably best be described as a gamercard specific to MW2 itself. This MW2 ‘gamercard’ displays an emblem (small logo picture), the players name and a title with graphic. Modern Warfare 2 lets you select your own emblem and title from a huge list (hundreds), which you progressively unlock as you complete challenges and levels throughout the multiplayer mode.

A slew of new weapons and equipment is brought forth to the scene with Modern Warfare 2, with fancy treats like a heartbeat sensor (similar to a personal, yet less-useful, UAV) attachment for your gun. I don’t want to spoil any more of the goodies so I’ll leave it at that, just rest assured knowing there is a lot more customisation available in MW2.

Perks. This is always a big talking point. There are some perks people hate (you may be glad to know martyrdom is no longer a perk) and some people love. Not only do Infinity Ward introduce a couple of new perks, but they have changed their usage slightly. Not only have they tweaked them to even them up a bit, but you can now also complete perk challenges to ‘level up’ your perks to “pro” versions, which tend to offer a much better equivalent of the original perk.