Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 Review PS3

The Call of Duty series has been around for a long time, focusing mostly on World War II, and just recently in the last iteration moving into modern era warfare. Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 continues the story from the last game 5 years after the fact. The villain in Modern Warfare 2 is Vladimir Makarov, a key figure in the terrorist cell of the previous Modern Warfare game. Makarov vows revenge for what happened to his predecessor and sets up a unique set of events that culminate with a Russian invasion of the United States. The environments range from  an urban area in Afghanistan to a crowded Moscow Airport to the slums of Rio de Janeiro with a “Red Dawn” style invasion of Washington D.C. by the Russians. The multiplayer remains largely the same in terms of game modes, but adds quite a bit in weapons, equipment, perks, and more. Visually, the game fails to impress when compared to the scripted cutscenes in the trailers.

Graphic and sound:

Graphically, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 looks great from a distance. Up close and personal, texture are horrible low quality and pixelated. Even shadow maps show jagged edges that are not even anti-aliased. Perhaps the designers thought that the intense action would distract most players from the textures enough that they did not need to put the effort into high resolution textures. Wheels on vehicles are noticeably polygonal instead of round. The textures and models look like something taken straight out of Half-life 2 in 2004. Water effects are laughable at best, with basically a flat terrain with an animated texture for wave movement. I would expect this kind of visual quality from a $20 game such as Battlefield 1943, but not from Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, a next-gen game. Naughty Dog’s Uncharted 2 was able to utilize the complete 25GB Blu-Ray disc and provide a visually amazing game, yet Infinity Ward dropped the ball in terms of visual quality.

On the other hand, the motion capture used for the character animation is truly one of the best I have ever seen. Characters move and react believably to their surroundings and other NPCs.

Voiceovers in Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 are well done and provided by professional actors such as Keith David, Kevin McKidd, Billy Murray, Craig Fairbrass, and Lance Henrikson. Sound effects are accurate and true to their real world counterparts. Infinity Ward has always excelled in providing realistic sound effects for weaponry.

Gameplay and controls:

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 has a single player campaign and various multiplayer modes much like its predecessors. The single player campaign consists of 18 short levels that can be completed in less than 8 hours even on hardened difficulty. There are 4 difficulty levels ranging from recruit (easy) all the way to veteran (brutal). The game also introduces a supposedly controversial mission in which the player is involved in an airport shootout with civilians. The mission can be skipped and will not affect trophy achievements. The story in Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 steals a page from the movie “Red Dawn” with a paratrooper invasion of Russians into the United States, but fits in quite well to the overall plot established in the first Modern Warfare game. The player will enjoy traversing the various environments and fighting the enemy within the Capitol Building and the White House. Various twists in the plot will keep the player enthralled with the storyline, which is honestly the best part of the game.

Multiplayer retains most of the same modes from the previous iteration such as Domination, Capture the Flag, Headquarters, Demolition, Sabotage, Free for All, and Team Deathmatch. Multiplayer allows for 18 players and has 16 different maps to choose from. A winning kill camera has been introduced that shows which player made the final winning kill and who the victim was. Also, when a host disconnects, the game will now migrate to a new host rather than end as was such in the last game. In addition fans of the previous Modern Warfare will notice additional weapons, equipment, and an additional perk slot have been added. Perks have received a revision, with new perks added and a pro version of certain perks available to those who complete certain challenges. Challenges still exist for unlocking weapons and such. 15 Kill Streak awards can now be unlocked and chosen by the player such as a Predator missile strike. Multiplayer also introduces the Spec Ops mode, which is basically a series of objective based missions that can be played solo or with one other player through split screen, LAN, or online. A few missions require two players though. The Spec Ops missions can be played in three different difficulty levels that allow the player to obtain stars to unlock other Spec Op missions that are divided into five tiers.

Overall thoughts:

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 single player campaign has a great and in depth story that will immerse the player in one of the most feared paranoia that Americans had of the Russians during the Cold War. The low quality visuals unfortunately take away from the immersion at times and the game is very short compared to the last Modern Warfare game. Multiplayer is definitely fun, although the Spec Ops mode is just a gimmick to get players to replay certain sections of the single player campaign such as the snowmobile chase. The expectations for this game were very high and unfortunately, the game just didn’t live up to the hype. It offered much of the same with no improvement in visuals or innovation in gameplay. For those that have not played the first Modern Warfare game, this is a must have. For those who have tread these waters before, this is more of a rental than anything else.