Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Developer: Infinity Ward

Publisher: Activision

Game Type: Shooter

Game Rating: M for Mature

When you buy COD:MW2, you are really buying three games in one. This game has a solo game which is the story. A coop game that is made for two in which you tackle some hard missions and do your best to hold out and finally the multiplayer mayhem that everyone loves in which two teams are pitched against one another in various scenarios and maps. The solo game once again hits home. Perhaps not as strong as the first Modern Warfare game, but still it shows us just how a few misplaced understandings can lead to an international incident. The missions are fun to play and the story is one that keeps you on the edge of your seat. The coop missions are also fun to play as long as you have a friend that is willing to slow down and use tactics. If you only have friends that like to charge in to the fray, you may want to consider going into a public game and making a new one. When you raise the bar to the highest difficulty be ready for a truly hard time. Two missions stand out as different in this mode as well. In Big Brother one of you is a helicopter gunner and the other is trapped on foot. The footman must advance and the only way for that to really happen is for the gunner to keep him safe and to clear the way. The other mission is Overwatch and is similar but this time you are the gunner for an AC130 and again you must clear the path. The trouble this time is that you really need to be careful not to blow your partner away when shooting the big guns. Both are enjoyable in both positions and when you pull it off these are missions that you will simply not forget. Finally there is the massive online versus modes. While enjoyable as a single player, I can tell you from experience that the most fun you can have on this is with a full team of either 6 or 9 of players that know what they are doing and that are patient. Nothing beats a team that can communicate well and that has a good spread of weapons at the ready. No need to fear that enemy helicopter when you know that automatically one of your partners is already preparing his missile to take it out. There are several game types. All of the classics are there such as capture the flag and domination. There are also several types with the theme of either attacking or defending a bomb spot or spots. That being said Team Deathmatch still seems to be the popular choice. (Ground War is the only real choice if your party is larger than 6.) There are 16 maps (another 5 if you have the Stimulus package) to play on that rotate. While there are a few “rarely circulated” maps such as Rust, most of them circulate on a regular basis. Recently they also dropped the first of multiple downloadable map packs. The Stimulus Package (interesting name choice, I guess the stimulus was for them at 1200 points $15) added a few new maps and two old maps from the first Modern Warfare game. This seemed to work as more than a million gamers on Xbox live have downloaded this package. They are due to do this again as well as another downloadable map pack at 1200 pts is due out soon. Again it looks as though it will contain a few new maps and a couple of the old ones. The maps are nice to have, but I must say that $15 a map pack is kind of steep. Still, I guess Activision knows that we are going to buy them and play them to continue having fun with this game. The only advice I can give is this, if you play with a team, make sure the whole team is going to get the map packs before you buy. This keeps the playing fun and insures that you are not leaving anyone out. Now on to the various parts of the review.

GRADING CHART CHEAT SHEET

Music: 3/5

The music for this game in my opinion is just average. It doesn’t really add to the game nor does it take away from it. I find that many times when I am playing multiplayer that I tend to switch over to some of my own personal collection of music using the Xbox’s music feature. That being said, I can appreciate the fact that the music is so low that it does not distract. In many games the music can sometimes be such a distraction that it gets you killed because you didn’t hear that guy running up behind you.

Graphics: 9/10

This game is the benchmark for how good a shooter can look. I really can’t add anything to this, the graphics are simply that good.

Game Play: (Fun Vs. Frustrating) 8/10

Okay, so before you take my head off, let me say that I would give this game a 9 in this category if it wasn’t for two things, bugs and hackers. The bugs have mostly been fixed and Activision/Infinity Ward has been pretty good with the speed of patches once a bug is fixed. Still, it can be annoying as a player to spawn and instantly get shot or to find maps where the AC130’s big gun is firing like an automatic rifle. There has been more than enough different bugs to warrant the rating of an 8 (which is still a damn good rating I might point out). Patches would bring this back up to a 9 if it wasn’t for hackers. Again, it is annoying when you come across a person that all of sudden can do amazing things. There are many ways including even special controllers that you can purchase, to give yourself an edge that is basically unfair. That being said, Xbox live is wise and they have come up with a way that you never have to play that person again. If you find one of these people, simply go to his/her gamer card, review them and avoid them. I will also add one pet peeve to this section. I am an average player. I have my good games and I have my bad ones where I start out zero and nine for kills. That being said, I will most likely never get the 25 kills in a row required to pull off a nuke. Now I realize that this was done so that everyone wouldn’t be pulling a nuke in every game. Fine, but this also means that I will never get a chance to get the titles or emblems to complete the collection. Since I paid full price for this game, I do find it irritating that this is one part of the game that I will simply never be able to access. (How about a title/emblem unlock at Prestige 10/Level 70 Activision?)

Story: 5/5

The solo player story line is terrific. It is action packed and keeps you on the edge of your seat. This is definitely a game that once you start playing you are not going to want to put down and that is mostly due to the story. There is also hidden intel in the main story line that you must find for an achievement or two. Let me suggest that the first time you play through the story you do not worry about this. Throw it on Veteran and worry about living through the storyline the first time. Then go back and get the intel items.

Bonus: 0/?

Sorry, this game might have earned a bonus for having three modes and racing scenes and all sorts of fun for us, but I feel that Activision would need to send me 1500 microsoft points for this bonus point. (1200 pts for a handful of maps is much more reasonable, stop being greedy, you know we are going to buy them.)

Total: 25/30

Is this game worth buying? If you like shooters the answer is yes. If you are curious about shooters, yes, this is one of the finest specimens of the genre. If you like cool story lines, albeit a slightly short one, yes. The bottom line is this is a game worth having on your shelf and worth playing often. And seriously, get yourself a team of six players that know what they are doing. It really does make the whole multiplayer experience that much better.