Look, we knew this talk was unavoidable. I mean, we've all seen the commercials, the discussions about it on various forums and water-cooler conversations, and have been begging for it since we (hopefully) finished the first one. Well, it's been 2 years since the last one and 2 1/2 weeks since it came out and I finally bought "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" for my PC for 50 bucks. I played it and at the end of my single player experience along with about five hours of multi-player under my belt, I've come up with a synopsis.
Yes, it's a bloody brilliant game
Yes, it's most likely going to win a lot of Game of the Year awards in a year that has personally been dry of excellent games.
No, it's not the second coming of Jesus Christ like most people were hyping it up to be.
To describe how I felt about MW2, I'll explain my backround.
I've been a fan of the Call of Duty series (CoD) when it first came out in 2003 and the CoD2 had me hooked on the series when it came out in 2005. When CoD3 came out in 06' I was a little disappointed, but I blame treyarch for that mistake. But I was ready for Infinity Wards true installment. "Call of Duty4: Modern Warfare". Wow, I didn't see that coming from a mile away. MW is by far the second best FPS I've ever played (but first belongs to Half-Life). I played through the single player missions and was blown away by the scripted events taking place and left eight hours later with one of the best experiences I've ever had out of a gaming experience. Then Multi-player, well, lets just say I still play it, that should tell you how addicting it is.
Now that Modern Warfare 2 is here, I played through it, and eight hours later came out of it feeling... well... empty. Don't get me wrong, it was still a great experience, but it seemed to not WOW me like the first MW did. I'll explain by doing a comparison between the first MW and MW2. A "Head-to-Head" competition, if you will.
Single Player Gameplay:Not much has changed, but the new gadgets in the second one like A.I turrets and Predator missiles keep the game a little different, but more exciting than the first one. Point goes to Modern Warfare 2. MW:0 MW2:1
Single Player Storyline: MW had a unique story with one of the best climatic endings I've ever played. I mean camon, a nuclear bomb goes off ONLY HALF WAY THROUGH THE STORY! The plot twist that happens when you find out that the man you were going after isn't actually the head honcho was very surprising, since he killed a god damn president of a country! BadAss. Plus you got attached to not only captain price, which, if your a Call of Duty fanatic like me, has been in all of IW Call of duty games (yes he was in WW2 and is that old) which made me feel more attached to him after this one since you seem him at the end in critical condition. Plus your character, "Soap" Mctavish is quite the badass himself.
Cut to MW2: set five years after the events of the first MW. Sure the game throws a few twists and playing as the U.S rangers is a gut wrenching experience. But my personal opinion is that it felt like it was Dejavu for me in the way that they were one to many parts of the game that were in MW. Point goes to MW, but I give 1/2 a point to MW2 for the mission "no Russian" I won't spoil it, but that truly made me shed a tear for a game, hard for me to do for a game. MW:1 MW2:1 1/2
Characters: MW wins hands down for only one reason, Sargent Griggs is made of awesome. Why? Because he raps during the credits. It ironically was probably copying the COLE TRAIN from Gears of War credits when he rapped, but that's why its awesome! Your rapping about a game, and it was awesome! g-g-g-griggs!
point to MW MW:2 MW2:1 1/2
Controls: The scheme on the PC has actually changed quite considerably since MW. Knifing, instead of "V" is now "E". Special grenades, like flashbangs and smokes are now "Q" instead of "4". The variety of special weapons have all been assigned to "3,4, and 5" instead of them being "5,6,7" like in the first one. Maybe I'm nit-picking here but I never had a problem with MW control scheme. So, if it ain't broke, why fix it? Point to MW MW:3 MW2:1 1/2
Multi-player: It's changed, as in NO DEDICATED SERVES, I'm sorry, but WHAT THE HELL WERE THEY THINKING!? and don't give me that piracy bullcrap! They still would've made enough to wipe 100 bills with their butts! What multi-player game on the PC doesn't have dedicated servers!? Now there's only a max of 18 players and I'm lagging MORE compared to when I was playing WITH 50 PLAYERS IN MW!!! Even with more variety and the fact you can customize your kill streaks and it's still chaotic like in MW...WTF! NO DEDICATED SERVERS=
Point to MW and -1/2 for MW2! MW:4 MW2:1
However, I give 2 points to MW2 for a new mode called spec ops. Where 2 people act co-operatively to do a series of tasks. Like "Defend" or "take positions A,B,C" But even if it's been done before, this gamemode is actually original since it does it in a variety of ways. My favorite one is when one guy is flying an aircraft firing at enemies while the other tries to move to the extraction point w/o dying. It takes precision, and ironically, "cooperation" to complete the missions. It's fun if you have a good buddy playing with you and you both have mics, but its fun as hell still.
two points to MW2
So, whats the final score at the end?
Call of Duty4: Modern Warfare: 4 points
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2: 3 points
Close, but all-in-all, Modern Warfare was an overall better game. But don't get me wrong. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is still a magnificent game. It has a pretty strong Single Player campaign and even with no dedicated servers in Multi-player and only a max of 18 players. It's still chaotic and fun to play, even if some of the maps are a little too big for 18 players. If the multi-player isn't your bag, Spec-Ops will have you hooked with your friend for quite awhile, trying to go for high scores.
Overall, it's still a great game and does deserve the Game of the year awards it's going to get. Just remember fan boys, don't over-hype Modern Warfare 4 to where it sounds like Godzilla is attacking New York City. Because we all like a good game. Just not one that's made to sound like It's better than Chuck Norris and Bruce Lee having an epic showdown in Mordor... though that would be awesome.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 9/10
Bjorn, signing out.
P.S have any ideas on what game I should review next or a suggestion on how I can improve my reviews? Go ahead and put them in your comments. It'd help me out alot.
Sun Nov 29, 2009 7:49 am
