Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II Review

I haven't dived into a Call of Duty game properly since 2016's Call of Duty Infinite Warfare which while some people hated the futuristic aspects I loved it, especially the openness of the mission structure, the ability to complete the secondary missions in any order which unlocked upgrades, I loved being given the choice over what mission I did next rather than being steam rolled through a short lived campaign. So after the disappointing release of Battlefield 2042 last year due to the lack of Single player and other design choices, I thought I would see what the new Call of Duty had to offer.

The story revolves around task force 141 and their attempts to take down a drug cartel called Las Almas and sees the player visiting a whole range of locations across the world ranging from Mexico to the Middle East across 17 missions. Captain price and co remain the most memorable of Call of Duty's various campaign characters and it was nice to see them returning again.

As always the graphics are very impressive and I couldn't fault them, the gun play is slick and the Audio is top notch, but the story is a bit of a let down as it is not distinctive enough and to me feels like it is just a reskin of various missions throughout the series timeline. There was a lack of character depth from the new characters introduced into the game this time around but with only a 6-8 hour campaign length there isn't much time to develop the characters. The weapons feel distinctive and even weapons in the same class feel different enough that its worth experimenting with them all to find your Favourites. The Assault Rifles and Sniper Rifles seem to have had the most time spent on tuning them and both classes feel better than ever. The game seems to throw Armoured enemies at you too frequently, they are just annoying bullet sponges and they have the effect of ruining the flow of the fast paced combat that call of duty is known for and slowing it down.

I personally love the Call of Duty series stealth missions with the sublime Call of Duty 4's All Ghillied up being my favourite, sneaking through Pripyat avoiding the patrols as you get to a sniper position in order to disrupt a meeting. Modern Warfare 2 has a similar mission but it feels too similar to previous games missions for me to call it noteworthy. My favourite mission is Called Alone and its another stealth based mission but you are stuck behind enemy lines, injured so your movement is hampered and you have to avoid patrols scavenging equipment until you escape the area.

As you progress through the campaign there are things that can be unlocked for use in the Multiplayer side of Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 2, these include new weapons, XP boosts and other useful things. I sometimes wondered whether these items were put in just to try to lure people away from the multiplayer and give them a reason to play the single player mode.

Overall I felt that the Campaign was a missed opportunity to try to do something new and instead re-treads old ground and plays it safe, but after seeing how certain subsections of the call of duty fan base react to new things maybe this isn't such a bad idea.

Now we come to what Call of Duty is known for and this is where both Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 and Infinity Ward themselves excel and after spending 20 years improving and perfecting their craft it shows. The multiplayer is a finely tuned masterpiece which improves on all of the previous iterations, yes there were a few teething issues with matchmaking but nothing that really spoilt my experience.

As with the campaign each weapon feels unique in terms of both the classes and the weapons within the classes, Additional weapons are unlocked by the progression tree or by levelling up other weapons forcing you to try other weapons you may have overlooked previously but this doesn't feel like a chore. The progression and attachment systems will feel familiar to anyone who has played recent titles in the series. Each weapon can have up to 5 attachments which means you have to be selective in your choices but also gives you the opportunity to completely tailor the weapon to your play style and by changing the weapons receiver you can change the way the weapon fires. Gun challenges return which unlock new skins keeping your weapons looking fresh.

The game has a weapon tuning mode but it is disabled currently as it was causing issues so I wasn't able to try it but the premise of being able to completely customise all aspects of your weapons is a great idea I just hope that it is implemented correctly and doesn't lead to any unfair advantages online as this would ruin the delicate balancing that Infinity Ward have implemented and ruin the multiplayer experience.

The usual Multiplayer modes return including Free for all, Knockout and Search and Destroy with a completely new mode called Prisoner Rescue, This involves rescuing prisoners and carrying them to the exit whilst defending them from the enemy team who have to kill them, whilst this is being called a new mode I feel that its just a reskin of the old VIP escort.

There are a few other modes that need mentioning, Ground War is a Capture the flag mode, and Invasion is a Large Scale Team Death Match with A.I. involvement and both together seem to be Call of Duty's take on the Battlefield Formula and if you have played that series in the past you know what to expect here. The 3rd Person Moshpit is a take on Fortnite and plays very well although I still cant get used to the idea of a 3rd person call of duty.

The Final mode and my personal Favourite is the Spec Ops Cooperative mode and is a set of 3 scenarios designed to be played cooperatively, these scenarios are Low Profile, Denied Area and Defend Mt Zaya, Low Profile is as the name suggests, stealth based and in my opinion the best of the three. Denied Area is an objective based mode more akin to something from Battlefield Bad company or Metal Gear Solid where your tasked with destroying Targets but have to procure the means to do so on site, usually stealing weaponised vehicles from point A and taking them to Point B where you use them to destroy the target so you have to drive carefully and Defend Mt Zaya is your typical wave based survival mode.

All in all, Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 2 is a fantastic addition to the series and is a must buy for anyone's collection, even if your not a die hard fan there is something in here for everyone.