Call of Duty is one of the biggest gaming franchises in the world and with their newest release Modern Warfare II which shouldn’t be mistaken for the 2009 Call of Duty Modern Warfare II, they pushed the envelope in the some aspects but failed in a few others.
Graphically Modern Warfare looks amazing and even though it isn’t without bugs and glitches, let’s take a look at way they did well by looking at the campaign and multiplayer to see if it is worth spending your money on Modern Warfare II.
Campaign
The Campaign for modern warfare II for me felt thrilling from the start to the end. Amazing visuals in cut scenes, with a story that takes you for a tour of Amsterdam, Mexico, Spain and beyond. The story takes you on a journey where you will chase the cartel with a handful of soldiers by your side, with a few twists and turns here and there. The visuals however don’t just look near realistic in cut scenes, but some of the world also looks like you could be walking there yourself especially in one particular mission in Amsterdam.
Infinity ward also went for a quicker time to kill mechanic for this Call of Duty title where every shot counts as enemies tend to kill you quicker. If you miss time your reload, shots or even your peak you could end up in the loading screen having to do it all over again, which can be frustrating at times. This new quicker time to kill has left me redoing certain parts of missions twice or even three times as you can unexpectedly be attacked by enemy units and before you can act you are already dead.
This new time to kill combined with enemy units that don’t fear death and have better aim will often times leave you looking for a place to catch your breath shortly before being charged again by a bunch of angry AI soldiers.
The story missions like most Call of Duty titles however felt very short and often times left me wanting for more. The missions are however diverse with you playing in planes to provide cover for ground units, sneaking around in ghillie suites to snipe the enemy and even jumping from cars to chase down units in a convoy.
Some missions felt better than others but the story for me was good enough to keep me coming back. Even though some mission didn’t scratch my itch and felt like a repetition of missions of years past, some other did and those really felt rewarding.
In terms of visual fidelity as mentioned before Infinity ward did an amazing job. Cut scenes look near photo realistic which will leave you feeling like you are watching the Modern Warfare II film instead of playing it. The models continue to look amazing in game as well where the use of lighting, reflections, materials and the contrast between night and day makes the environments feel true to life and helps better immerse yourself in the story.
Multiplayer
If you are used to Call of Duty multiplayer then this year it is just as fast paced as you would expect it to be. Even though the game play is still fast paced Infinity Ward did however scale down on some of its movement mechanics making you feel more grounded compared to some previous titles.
The developer decided to nerf the sliding mechanic as well as bunny hopping and even though you can still do all of these there isn’t as much speed behind them as they used to have. This might be something a few players dislike, but for me it made the game feel more solid.
The maps this year however are scaled down a little to give you a better 6v6 experience where instead of running around tirelessly you will find yourself in the thick of the action more often and I loved it. They still incorporated larger maps in “Ground War” if you use the battle maps, but for the most part, maps are more appropriately sized for the 6v6 setting.
Ground War gives you the ultimate large-scale warfare with a large map and a 32v32 setting. There are two modes to choose from, either Standard or Invasion. Standard is the same as you would expect from 2019’s Modern Warfare where you have 5 points to capture and hold for points. You can have tank battles, provide air support, boat fights and many more for some great multiplayer action where there is something for everyone.
Invasion however feels more like a Deathmatch style mode where you will not only get points for kills, but also for shooting down Kill streaks and destroying vehicles. Even though this sounds more appealing, I found myself having more fun in the standard mode compared to Invasion.
In standard multiplayer you can choose between 9 different game modes. These include Free-For-All, Search and destroy, Domination, Team Deathmatch and Hardpoint as the staple modes in multiplayer with a few others included in the lineup as well.
Modern Warfare 2 also features two new modes namely Prisoner Rescue and Knockout where both modes are no-respawn modes and the way to get back into the action is by being revived by your teammates. These modes however did feel underwhelming and I found myself having more fun in standard multiplayer modes then with these.
The weapons also feel amazing with the sound, recoil and hits feeling on point with the weapon you are wielding. Like most other Call of Duty’s in the last few years you have the weapon smith where you can choose different weapons for your loadouts, change their attachments and their skins and even change your killstreak abilities and perks.
The gunsmith however did get a bit of a revamp and is a little more sleek and also less grindy which makes it easier for the casual gamer to also get good weapons in their loadout. They have also reigned in the maximum amount of attachments to 5 and some players might be annoyed with the new system but after a few hours you should get used to it and completely forget about the old gunsmith.
Verdict
If you liked the 2019 installment of Call of Duty Modern Warfare then you will probably like Modern Warfare 2. The visuals are better, the game feels heavier and with the easier weapon upgrades it makes it more fun for the average gamer as well and not just people with loads of hours to grind the game.
Multiplayer has a lot of diversity with many different game modes for everyone although some modes weren’t as fun as others and there were a few bugs and things here and there. The story for me felt really good but still a bit short. It featured amazing visuals alongside a great story and I couldn’t stop myself from picking up the remote until I finished it.
And for all those reasons I will give Call of Duty modern Warfare 2 a 7 out of 10.
