mw22

Modern Warfare 2. Likely one of the most high profile releases this year, if not one of the most high profile launches in the history of gaming. People lined up in the streets to play this game the night it came out. Despite all the controversy over it, as well as some critical decisions on the part of Infinity Ward, the developers, is Modern Warfare 2 still a good game?

The answer is a resounding yes. It is.

Let’s start off with the story, shall we?

Story:
Modern Warfare’s story is an interesting one. Assuming you have played Call of Duty 4′s story all the way through, it gives a brief video overview of events in the past game, but this can be confusing for new players. It then leaps right into the story, placing you in Afghanistan for the normal training mission at the start of the game. Following this, you will jump around to a lot of different locales, ranging from snowy mountains to crowded city streets in the heart of America. Each mission has its own set of objectives to accomplish, which usually involve many different actions, weapons, and people to kill. The overarching plot is a bit confusing in several ways, but this does not detract much from the enjoyability of the game. Each mission, however, is extremely well written. Taken as self-contained narratives, they are extremely well done and are very fun to play.

Gameplay:
Gameplay is not much changed from the first Modern Warfare. Essentially, you just run from cover to cover, shooting at enemies and popping up wherever you can to shoot down the enemies. As promised, Infinity Ward has alleviated some of the problems with constantly respawning AI. Now, they are much less obvious and you can actually progress in the level by staying behind cover and not being Rambo, charging wildly into the enemies. There are a wide variety of things to do- you will be asked to pilot missiles, breach doorways and rescue hostages, and even pilot a snowmobile down a mountain. All of these are welcome additions, as in the first game you didn’t get to do very many things beyond shoot people. In essence, gameplay is not that different.

Graphics:
An area where Modern Warfare 2 truly shines is in its graphics. Everything looks great. The animations are smooth and flowing, and look realistic. All the guns look very good, and are very varied. Call of Duty 4 looks great, but it looks positively dull compared to this. Each level is bright and shines with colors, and when you aren’t shooting things, looks quite realistic. Explosion effects are very good. Facial expressions have been greatly improved from the previous game, and when you get a chance to look at a face, you should. The problem with having such excellent visual details is that the gameplay is usually too frantic for you to notice anything at all beyond what unfortunate soul is in your target sights.

Overall, Modern Warfare 2 improves in a lot of ways over its predecessor. While the story is not as solid as the previous game’s, it is still very fun to play, if a little on the short side. It looks fantastic, even on my aging rig, and I would heartily recommend the singleplayer portions of the game.

Score:

Story: 8

Gameplay: 9

Graphics: 9

Overall: 8.75 (Recommended)

Please note that this is a review for the SINGLEPLAYER portions of the game. A multiplayer review will be made at a later date. Thanks!