Modern Warfare 2

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 will inevitably become one of the biggest selling games ever – it’s already done so, in fact. According to some figures, it’s the biggest entertainment release ever.

Of course, none of this really means anything, other than the fact a lot of people wanted to play it.
I played the first COD:MW game, and I did enjoy it. However, the main failing I had with it was it’s single-player mode was far, far too short.

Unfortunately, the same problem exists here too. That has to be got out of the way first, as it’s the main failing with the game – especially as I’m not really a big online gamer.
That doesn’t mean that it’s a bad game, however.

The campaign is fantastic fun to play, and is also really, really good.
I mean, really good.

The story is standard fare for any plot based around the military, especially since the Cold War has ended. But nonethless, it’s still better fare than many other games, certainly, of a similar style, and much better than a lot of movies that would attempt to do similar things.
The characters also remain interesting and are quite varied, so much so that they have some personality throughout the proceedings too, and get some individuality.

It’s also not without moments of humour, or bleakness, or sadness.
And there are a number of incredibly well-staged, and visually delicious set-pieces to savour – all of which make you a part of them, which is the

This guy's name is Ghost. He is Awesome.

perfect thing for a game to do – make the player feel a part of what’s going on.
All of them also dovetail neatly together, and each setup gives you (if you have any feeling about anything you play), the drive to perform your goals in the next mission, wanting to get the enemy back for what they’ve done.

It is of course impossible to write a review for this game without mentioning one aspect of it though – the infamous ‘No Russian’ mission.
For those of you not in the know – the mission involves one of the player characters (as you play several throughout the games’ storyline) in deep cover as an Ultranatonalist Russian terrorist involved in a massacre at an airport.

The beginning of the controversial mission

When information about the missions’ content was leaked, there was of course masses of controversy, and most of it ill-informed, knee-jerk reactions.

The mission itself, as you play it, doesn’t require you to shoot at the civilians you encounter. You can walk through the first half of the mission without firing a single round, as no-one shoots back, save a few security guards – whom your computer-controlled compatriots will gun down.

You also receive no ’score’ for gunning down anyone in the mission, and no achievements or bonuses for completing it – it serves simply to bridge the story, and to expose the player and the character to the horror and terror of the act.
That could open arguments itself – but perhaps that’s a better discussion for The Forums, than a review.
The level does have the effect, however, it is supposed to – assuming you have any normal level of human faculty and decency. It makes you feel repulsed, disgusted, and sickened, by the callousness of the people you are undercover with, and the ends they go to. Which is the point. The game also allows you to skip the level before you start playing the game, and at any point during the level itself, should you not want to play it.
From the point of the plot, it is also essential in establishing several key things that happen, and without it, much would be missing.
All the same, it is certain to raise many arguments long after the game has come and gone.

But on the lighter side – the game is full of callbacks to movies and other sources. There are obvious references to movies such as The Rock, Red Dawn (in spades), Behind Enemy Lines, Blackhawk Down, and more, as well as references to other games, such as Splinter Cell, and the earlier Call of Duty

You have to fight in Washington DC... as it's invaded by Russians

games as well.

The game does do a very good job of providing the chaos and confusion of battle, as well as showing the dirty, grim, and uncompromising nature of warfare, but blending it with cinematic spectacle and tense, smart, plotting that makes you feel at the heart of the action.

It’s all too much of a shame, then, that the campaign is such a short affair, and can be finished in only a few hours of pushing yourself.
It seems such a sad shame that so much attention is paid to the far more dull and repetitive strokes of Multiplayer gaming, when the single-player campaign is such a joy to play through, and that Infinity Wards’ people obviously have such a great talent for developing gameplay, story, and set-pieces, that they do so little with the single-player aspect of the game.

That said, when the only complaint you have about a game is ‘there’s not enough of it, and I want more’ then that’s not that much of a complaint.
If anything, the real complaints would be that there are moments when the maps are confusing, or the games AI (allied AI, that is) gets confused – at one point, it was telling me to laser-designate a target for supporting fire, which wasn’t available, because the script had moved on from that part of the game. But that’s only a minor bug, and easily moved around.

And besides – any game that lets you participate in a snowmobile chase can’t be that bad, right?

Tags: modern warfare, video games, Xbox 360

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