Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 - Gamefreaks Review

Taking out our very broadest paintbrushes we can put most gamers into one of two camps - those that are most interested in a game's single-player story and those that are primarily multiplayer gamers. Modern Warfare 2's status as an instant hit is largely due to the later group, who eagerly awaited the improvements a sequel might offer over the original's highly acclaimed competitive modes. Perhaps the game's most impressive virtue, then, is the manner in which it strives to satisfactorily serve the single-player gamer as well.

First-Person Shooters are not generally the first port of call for epic storytelling and narrative ingenuity, and it may not be an exception to that rule Modern Warfare 2 does go out of its way to try and incorporate new concepts into a stolid FPS foundation. The results aren't often roaring successes but on boldness alone the title deserves credit.

The game's story follows directly from the previous title's conclusion, a group of Russian Ultranationalist terrorists are once again wreaking global havoc and a crack assemblage of macho, patriotic Americans are needed to put them in the ground. The game hops from region to region, positioning the player in multiple roles as the lumbering story unfolds.

Many of the requisite FPS tropes are present in their most generic forms, from an army base training level to street-level run-and-gun shootouts. While the scenarios of many levels are practically interchangeable with any given title of the genre, when it comes to fundamental competency Modern Warfare 2 outstrips its contemporaries with ease. The game plays like a dream; movement, aiming, firing, reloading, and sundry minor tasks throughout are executed with a grace approaching flawlessness.

With the garden-variety FPS elements so thoroughly attended to, the game goes a step further than convention demands by attempting a range of risky experiments. From first-person mountain climbing to a breakneck snowmobile escape that would make James Bond a bit queasy; Modern Warfare 2 is unafraid to stray from the gameplay it has so solidly refined in order to change the pace, the atmosphere, or even the overall character of the game from time to time.

The most obvious example of this playfully experimental streak is the already-infamous ‘No Russian' level, in which players are made to go undercover as part of a terrorist group responsible for a horrendous civilian massacre. As shocking as it is misguided, the level is also symptomatic of Modern Warfare 2's propensity to get things wrong as often as right.

There's no denying the powerful chaos that the developers have managed to harness in the game's mood, the baffling sensory assault of more frenetic segments might not make for the most streamlined of military campaigns but it certainly suggests an authentic adrenaline-fuelled terror that most games of this ilk happily gloss over.

The sleek mechanics and fully articulated grit transfer seamlessly into multiplayer regions, while the uneven experimental flashes are jettisoned to make sure the highly competitive environment is a thing of technical beauty. Even to one so embarrassingly untested in online shooters as myself, the robust design, involving customisation, and streamlined routine are immediacy obvious. This one will likely by lodged in the collective gamer consciousness for some time to come.

Synopsis: Modern Warfare 2 lives up contentedly to the lofty expectations set by its predecessor. For those not particularly fussed with a more eccentric single-player campaign, the irreproachably conventional multiplayer will certainly appeal.