Call of Duty : Modern Warfare 2 – Game Review

This is my favorite game of the year and I have a good feeling it’ll last me through quite a few other holidays.

The Story

The most-anticipated game of the year and the sequel to the best-selling first-person action game of all time, Modern Warfare 2 continues the gripping and heart-racing action as players face off against a new threat dedicated to bringing the world to the brink of collapse.

source

Ok I’ll add my part – basically the turn of events lead to warfare and you play as various individuals that hold critical roles through the storyline.

Gameplay

I don’t know how go begin. Put it simple, the game is AWESOME x 99999 to the power of 99999 – ok I’m exaggerating but if you’ve noticed, I gave this game full marks! That’s how much I love the game. We’ll talk about that later.

The campaign mode itself was gripping in storyline, giving what I thought to be an interactive cinematic experience. Each mission starts off with a very well done briefing, followed by having you placed right smack there at the scene.

You do not have a choice of what to bring for the mission but certainly your equipments will be sufficient for the job.

I love how the game attempts to be realistic without making the game difficult like the previous game reviewed, a game that I immediately uninstalled and refuse to mention even the name! 😛

Some scenes are really brutal, like the ones in the screenshot above and below. Nevertheless it is part and parcel of the entire story.

The game certainly isn’t a walk in the park, you have 4 modes to choose from and I played the REGULAR mode. I thought it was just nice, had quite a few reloads on certain scenes but overall it was challenging enough to be fun yet not hindering.

I have no qualms with the checkpoint system in COD:MW2 since it saves pretty often, it’s just a little annoying that I can’t RE-LIVE certain scenes that I like without having to start the particular mission all over again.

The game also comes with a Special Ops mode, a bunch of missions for you to put your skills to the test. I think there’s not much to elaborate on that, other than it’s fun and it has varying level of difficulty. 🙂 Now, back to the campaign mode……..

I believe the beauty of the game lies in the storyline. Having the heal-while-resting thing takes realism out of the picture but I think it’s a small matter. Come to think of it, it’s not any much different from games where you can pick up health packs and spam med-kits.

Another interesting point of the game is the availability of weaponry, from sentry guns to calling the predator missile, to even picking up the weapons left by dead soldiers from either side.

The game is also friendly for newbies, if there’s any thing NEW for you to do, an instruction will appear telling you WHAT you’re supposed to press. It’s cool, I didn’t have to browse the keyboard configuration or manual. 😀

The game doesn’t require map reference either, there’s a compass and an indicator of what you’re suppose to do – eg follow a character, or a location on the map which you’re suppose to reach, or a door in a room that you need to breach, so on so forth.

Probably the only other thing I found lacking in the game is the ability to bend outwards to have a peep. Some games have that, I can’t remember what titles were they but there certainly are. Just press Q or E to peep out the left or right side.

I think that’s about it, some how I’m suddenly at a loss of what else to say about the game. 😀

Graphics & Sound

Graphically the game is beautiful but it’s rather demanding as well. I’m using a GTX260+ and playing with 0xAA and I do face slight slowdown here and there. Generally the game works fine, even with 2GB RAM.

I love how the lights, smoke and other effects take place and how the foreground and background blurs when we raise the scope.

The game excels in the audio department – all things are crisp and clear, except for the moments when there’s chatter during the heat of combat. No time to read the text during such moments but fortunately mission objective list and on screen indicators are all there to help.

I love that the game has soundtrack throughout the game as it does bring the game to a cinematic experience rather than just a boring walk around.

Anyway, here are the videos.

Network Gaming

Since COD:MW2 is based on Steam, finding the game was easy since it requires a Steam log in to be done before you get to play. Unlike many other games where finding a game server alone was a daunting task, the COD:MW2’s in game multi-player engine was impressive when it comes to finding matches. I got into a games with my 1st try and got fragged silly before I got used to going against humans.

I was not only surprised how fast did the engine help me find games to join but also how fast the online gaming experience was. I had bad pings with other games and I don’t know, perhaps the ISP has improved but the general experience for COD:MW2 was excellent. I do face lag but it was rare, and it only happened when I game in the afternoon. Night gaming? Waaaaah so good!

Besides the fragging and all, I love how the game allows you to customize your own class with your choice of available weaponry, equipments, camo and even abilities called perks – perks such as fast reloading, fast movement, steady shot and so on so forth. With your progress through the ranks, unlocks happen and you’ll have more choices to customize your character, including emblems and titles.

Conclusion

Good games don’t come often, this one’s a classic. I know there are no such thing as a perfect game or perfect software, nevertheless I wouldn’t hesitate to give this game full marks not just for what is is but the overall effort to make it awesome!

5 days since the last article before this? I tell you, part of the delay was to be blamed on this game for being so darn addictive (and for me to have not resisting it!)

Great game, go buy! And perhaps find me on Steam for a few games. 😀

Game Rating