Gamer Blast

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2

Posted by Xero On February - 13 - 2010

As one of the greatest shooting games ever made, Call of Duty Modern Warfare seemed to have it all; great graphics, an exciting story line, awesome gameplay, and cool multiplayer features. Now after high anticipation and much excitement Activision has finally brought us Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 which has completely blown away the original Modern Warfare game. Modern Warfare was full of dramatic moments, action packed scenes, and intense game play, Modern Warfare 2 has brought this back and made it 10x better. The graphics are amazing, the story is awesome, and the multiplayer gameplay is to die for. Also newly added in Modern Warfare 2 is a new campaign mode called “Spec-ops”, which has received a lot of attention since the games release, and is a great new mode for the game.

Storyline

The storyline of Call of Duty Modern Warfare pretty much starts off where the events of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare left off.

Even though Zakhaev, the ultra-nationalist Russian leader, has been permanently dealt with, his lieutenant, Vladimir Makarov has managed to get control of Russia’s military forces and is now an even bigger threat to the world then his predecessor ever was. International intelligence agencies have received credible, actionable intelligence that Makarov is aggressively extending the reach of his influence well beyond the borders of Russia.

This has caused a huge dilemma in the international community, resulting in the deployment of an elite multinational task-force codenamed “Task Force 141″, consisting of Navy Seals, Delta Force teams, CIA and British SAS units. If playing the single player campaign mode, you play as Sergeant Gary “Roach” Sanderson, whose mission is to eliminate Makarov and his henchmen at any cost, regardless of where the battle takes place.

Cooperative “Special Ops” Mode

Special ops features independent missions similar in design to the “Mile High Club” epilogue mission from Call of Duty 4. These are “campaign inspired” missions which are not directly related to the story of the campaign itself.

This great new mode allows you to pay in solo mode, split screen with a friend, or go online for the full experience in two player co-op warfare, giving you and your friend a chance to go on many challenges together. Special ops mode encourages you to learn tactics and maneuvers to successfully complete your challenge.

There are five special ops mission groups with a total of 23 missions, each of which can be played at different difficulty levels of regular, hardened, or veteran. One to three stars are assigned after successful mission completion, with the number of stars awarded based on the difficulty level chosen. More missions are unlocked as the player earns more stars.

Some of the Special Ops scenarios include capturing an enemy compound, one player providing air support from an AC-130 gunship while the other player conducts ground operations, seek and destroy operations and even a snowmobile race between the two players.

Multiplayer Mode

The multiplayer mode in the 2nd version of Modern Warfare is outstanding, with the only downside being on the PC version of the game since dedicated server support was removed, thereby eliminating the ability for mods or user-created maps to be used, which has angered many PC gamers.

What I love the most when playing in multiplayer mode are the Kill Streaks. Everything is pretty much the same as in COD4 when it comes to kill streaks with the exception of several hot new features. There are new Killstreak rewards which unlock weapons drops and air strikes. To be exact, there are 15 different kill streak rewards which can be unlocked by the player. Some of these new rewards is the ability to receive a supply drop after achieving four kills in a row, calling in a missile strike after five kills, you can even call in an AC-130 gunship to strike death from the skies after achieving 11 kills.

Players also are given substantially more options when it comes to customising their multiplayer experience with new character classes such as Ranger and Overwatch, as well as some bonus unlockable classes like Riot Control. In addition, you are now able to unlock the option to create your own classes, which opens up endless possibilities of new ways to enjoy this great mode.

Since COD4 some of you may have noticed that you are walking around like you have a huge bag of rice on your back, well, this is because the great developers at Infinity Ward have added more realism to the game; this way you would walk and run at a more realistic pace, but after about 5 minutes you will probably get used to this and won’t even notice it. Another thing which has added quite a bit more realism is Frag Grenades, which are my personal favorites. The explosions have been toned down a bit compared to COD4 but this really does make it much better, it also means no more spawning then dying.

But what have I not mentioned about Modern Warfare 2 yet? Guns… Now no need to get overly excited, but I love the guns in this game, for primaries there are: 9 assault rifles, 5 sub machine guns, 5 light machine guns, 4 sniper rifles, and the Riot Shield. All of the primaries (except for the sniper rifles) have 10 different weapon customizations (scopes, gear, etc..) to choose from. There are even more, secondary weapons, we have: 4 machine pistols, 6 shotguns, 4 handguns, and 5 launchers!

Now that is a hell of a lot of fire power for one game, and all you bad ass gamers love it! This gives you so many ways to customize your profile (weapon and perk preset) and then gets straight into the game and start killing that one guy who complains all the time.

We all know that COD4 had some networking issues, these have all been resolved by now, and something much better has been added. Remember in COD4 when a guy couldn’t take being killed over and over again and left the game, only to find that he was the host and the entire game ended for everyone?
Well no more, the new in-game host migration feature gives you a small pause while it looks for a new host, you than get a 5 second countdown so you can get ready to start exactly where you left off!

Now as maps are concerned in Multiplayer get ready to be lost, many of the maps are very big, but great fun to explore and find all your new sniper spots, but do not worry as with the large number of players that can fit into a match (up to 18) you will never find yourself on a corner with no enemy’s.

Campaign Mode

We have covered the cooperative and multiplayer modes, and now it’s time for the long awaited campaign mode! The campaign mode takes you through several exotic area’s including Rio de Janeiro’s favela’s and through the cold terrain of Russia. Campaign mode still had me dazzled with the falling ceilings, exploding walls, and other scripted events. Not only where they well timed, but the graphics where absolutely impeccable. Infinity Ward and Activision decided to keep co-op out of campaign mode this time, and honestly, after playing through I couldn’t agree more. The dialogue is best suited towards 1 person and not 2, for example, on one of the first levels Makarov betrays you and ends up shooting you after you have helped him through the entire level. That one moment would only suit one person, if you deployed another player into that scene it would have ruined the atmosphere it had created.

Campaign mode only takes around 6 hours on average to complete, but since the very first Call of Duty game, the campaigns seem to be getting shorter and shorter. With multiplayer mode, however, I think we can forget that one downside about the game, because the rest of it is so well done, even if I did complete it in a day or two Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 still stays within my top 3 games for my console.

Bottom Line

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 easily gets into the must have category of video games as it is the finest game in its genre. It offers an unmatched first person shooter experience, an excellent story mode, slick mini missions and an unparalleled multiplayer experience. Anyone who considers themselves a fan of first person shooter has definitely got to pick up a copy of Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2.