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Just like its most recent predecessors, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: World at War, the campaign portion of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is a really fun game with extremely intense battle sequences. The downfall is that it's very very short. So let me start by saying that if you're not set up to, or you just don't intend to, play the online co-op or multiplayer modes, you really want to think twice before paying full price for this game. Single players either need to rent this or wait for an inexpensive used copy to go on sale.
So you get three game options: Special Ops (online isn't necessary, but at least two players are required for some of the missions), Multiplayer (designed to be played online; this is no fun split-screen with a max of 4 players), and the single player Campaign that took me less than 6 hours to finish.
In single player Campaign mode, you're a first person shooter (soldier) on the frontlines, and this time the frontlines aren't limited to overseas territories. Primarily you're playing separate, interlacing missions all over the world as two different characters. The story takes place several years after CoD 4 ended. And just as in CoD 4 you're with a team of characters that are truly your band of Artificial Intelligence brothers. On easier settings the AI soldiers can do practically all of the work for you on some missions; the help you might get from your team is based on the difficulty setting you've chosen. So unless you want to just glide through the game, definitely don't pick the Recruit difficulty (the other difficulty options are Regular, Hardened and Vet).
I could take away a star from the overall score of this game for how short the single player mode is, but I won't....All of a sudden it's not so short when you go back and try to play on the Vet setting and spend the time looking for all of the Intel items.
You arrive in single player boot camp just like in all of the previous CoDs, and you get a brief tutorial on how to maneuver around, shoot your weapons & throw grenades. After boot camp you get to choose the difficulty setting, then you're immediately strewn into various battles. (Once you've completed the game on any setting you can go back to various chapters to clean up any items or trophies missed, and at the start of each chapter you can choose to attempt on the higher difficulties.)
You fight your way through some intense chapters....really intense. In fact, when you first start off, there's even a warning that you'll be in for some VERY disturbing sequences, and you have the option to tell the game to skip "offensive material". Ummm...no thanks. I think that this is the first game that I've played that offers the option to censor itself if you choose the option. The story is a bit choppy at times, but the battles are wild. The graphics are out of this world, and some of the "familiar territory" scenes will just blow you away with how much it really looks like your own back yard.
The weapons are plentiful and sophisticated. You're shooting whichever modern-day weapon you happen to have picked up along your objective route. Objectives that guide you along are updated regularly as you complete each task throughout each chapter. And some of those tasks are brutal. There are frequent checkpoints (I think I remember even reaching new checkpoints without firing a single shot) in the campaign, so no need to worry about respawning back before what seemed to take an eternity to complete. On the other hand....
....There is the Special Ops portion of the game. I think that there are 23 different missions for you here, and you can play each one by trying to earn 1, 2 or 3 stars in each mission. Some of these are darn hard, especially the final 3-star unlocks. You will be frustrated by playing some of these a few times before you beat the levels to earn your stars. And there are no checkpoints in these missions, so if you fail in the final moments of a mission, you start over from the beginning of that mission.
Special Ops is most fun with a partner. It's best online so that you get to play full screen, but if you have a guest over you can play split screen offline. For all you World at War players looking for Zombies, you're out of luck here. You get Special Ops instead. There was a silly rumor that MW2 would have an "Alien Invaders" mode that would rival the Zombie mode of WaW, but that indeed was just a silly rumor.
Online Multiplayer is where you'll get addicted. No AI brothers here...just your fellow gamers. You'd better have your FPS skills honed if you think that you'll score better than some of the MW2 online players. A very high percentage of the online players have been honing their skills online for years now with CoD4 and World at War.
The concept with Multiplayer is certainly not new. The more you play, the higher you rank allowing you to unlock more (fine tuned) weapons. The game sets you up in matches with people at your level and rank, but that ain't gonna help you if you're new (you will be fondly referred to as a noob by your swell fellow online players) and you're up against the CoD4 or WaW vets.
What makes MW2 Multiplayer more than just a new map pack for CoD4 is that the Multiplayer weapons and perk system are vastly improved. And so is connectivity (so it seems in the initial week of play after a few day one and two glitches). You get 10 times the amount of points for the kills and captures that you're used to getting only 5 or 10 points for in CoD4 and WaW. You also now get points for not just killing and capturing, but for taking out enemy air support, coming back from deathstreaks, killing your nemesis, breaking an enemy's streak and other stuff. Yeah, Multiplayer is good fun, habitual and bad for a marriage.
So all in all Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is major fun. The only drawbacks to this awesome game are that the campaign is really short and the multiplayer action is a bit familiar. But the MW2 Multiplayer improvements over its predecessors far out weigh the familiarity.
Modern Warfare 2 is a must for FPS fans. Add it to your cart, soldier!
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My Experience:Being I am an OG, from the 70's my reaction times are slowing down and I know it. I actually enjoy the campaign modes in these games. Which is why I am giving it a 2 star. I am sure people will blast me because the MULTIPLAYER IS WHERE ITS AT MAN!!! OMGWTROXXORZ.!11. I agree that the multiplayer can be fun, but this is a review of the game as it stands.
Campaign Mode: ***** 5 star
First off the campaign mode. The graphics and scenes are so absolutely beautiful I would give this a 5 star hands down, it is what brought this title up from a 1 star. From the basic places like the airport in the mountains. The snow, the weather, it all seems to be so very real and inviting. When you have to take back the White House it is breathtaking from the color of the sky to the helicopters crashing all around you. Wonderful, epic and left me wanting more. Which, leads us to the reason I want to give this a 1 star.
Campaign Story: 0000* 1 star
The campaign mode is ridiculously short. I wanted to take my time taking it all in and several missions push you the whole time to GO GO GO!!! which is expected due to the insane pace of the enemies. It really sucks you in and makes you feel part of it, however, it falls horribly short due to the anemic plot and, well...shortness... The major issue with the campaign is the incredibly weak story. They never explain why anything has happened, the dialogue between the characters is full of hyperbole and patriotic fluff. I realize the world thinks Americans are a bunch of yahoo cowboys, but come on with the brainless pointless dialogue.
Sub campaign:
The Spec Ops are so-so fun, but its just a rehash of the campaign you just finished.
Now lets discuss the 10,000 pound gorilla in the room.
Multiplayer 0000* 1 star
I understand its my lack of skillzorz that makes the multiplayer frustrating. That does not mean that I have to give a game I do not enjoy anything more than I have. The new titles and other 1337 embellishments they have thrown into the multiplayer has done nothing but polish what I perceive as a pile of excrement. Playing with a friend can make multiplayer a bit more fun. Going into a game where only 2 out of 18 have a mic, where most are young kids, and some have voice modifiers so we dont know they are kids,(yea right Darth), is nothing short of pure hell. Its not fun, nor is it the reason I got this game.
After playing such epics as Uncharted: Drake's Fortune & Uncharted 2: Among Thieves this game pales in comparison for the depth of characters, re-playability, and overall scope. I am not a glutton for punishment so games like Demon's Souls have little appeal to me. I have a family, job and other things taking up my time, (like Amazon reviews), so a 2-3 hour frag fest where I am repeatedly killed over and over holds no appeal to me either.
For the -Not Helpfulvoters:
I am sure this review will garner a fair share of negative votes. Just remember you too are entitled to your opinion and you too can write a review on any product and YOUR experience with that product. My experience with this product, while amazing, was brief and ultimately very frustrating. If this was a review of a new electric toothbrush and that toothbrush shocked you every time you used it, you too could come here and write about it was a pain to use. Reviews are not meant as an -I am a fan or I hate it-, instead it is meant as a way to let customers hear a varied and alternative view of a product. I think overall Activision did a pretty good job with this game. The soundtrack was spot on and sounded great. But making the game as a single player and a multiplayer means its not excellent at either one. Sure your Honda Civic can go off-road but eh, do you think it will hold up well?
Pros:
>> Beautiful animations
>> Epic scenes
>> Motion capture is fantastic
>> Fantastic soundtrack
Cons:
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