First of all, a warning. Do not watch the latest trailer, as it pretty much spoils a number of things you will want to know nothing about. Speaking of which, stay away from reviews and random blogs about MW until you have it in your hands. I know that’s a bit ironic to say before a review, but just be warned. This game will spark a ton of those “what this scene in MW2 did to me” blogs that you will agree or disagree with, but ultimately waste time on that you could’ve spent on gaming instead.



I went into MW2 not really knowing what to expect. I knew it was going to be one of the biggest games of the year. I knew that I liked the COD4 campaign a lot, especially because of the cinematic style and the way they tried to tell a story in a COD game. Because let’s be honest: IW are not master storytellers. They showed they are able to create memorable characters in COD4 and that they mastered the FPS pacing well enough to do some new and interesting things with it, such as when your soldier dies in the nuke shockwave. But who of you remember the exact storyline of COD4? Because in my memory, it consists of: training mission, some Russian guy is behind things that happen in the Middle East, and then at the end you kill him. Oh, and there was an 80’s mission that was awesome, but don’t ask me what part it played in the storyline.

So, I didn’t really expect a masterfully written tale. Definitely not after playing some Dragon Age: Origins before MW2. And this is probably a good thing, because the story in MW2 is basically just as flimsy as it was in COD4. As a true sequel, it follows up on events in COD4. But in the first 3 hours or so, you will be fighting all over the world while you don’t really know what the hell the common theme is. You shoot some evil Arabs. You shoot some evil South Americans. You shoot some Russians. But what ties it together? I had no clue for most of the game. Thankfully, the last couple of levels tie it all together, and the writing becomes more of a part of the scripted levels. In the end, you won’t really care what you did in the first half of the game, but mostly because the second half blew you away.



There is something weird about MW2’s campaign. COD4 usually started you out with entering a level, slowly escalating combat to keep the pacing going and then ending with a bang in most levels. But it always felt manageable, as if you felt in control for most of the time. In MW2, it is like IW wanted you to feel the chaos of combat. This is a nice idea, for a movie or something. But in a game, it is pretty annoying if the enemy uniforms look a lot like your fellow soldiers’ uniforms. It doesn’t help that you switch between a couple of characters with different uniforms.

I shot a LOT of friendly soldiers in the first couple of missions. Not because I hate them so much, but because I just couldn’t really distinguish them all that well from enemies, and better safe than sorry. The game doesn’t really penalize you for friendly fire too much though, so IW probably found out that the combat was sometimes a little too chaotic. Does it feel like war is chaos? Yes. Does it feel like it makes the game more fun? Not really.

In fact, after playing the game on Normal for 3 hours, I felt like I was only still playing it because it was a Call of Duty title and that I was supposed to play it and enjoy it. Truth be told, I got bored a couple of times. Looking back though, it was probably because I was a bit tired, and didn’t really know what I expected. I just didn’t expect what I got: a chaotic mess of combat in what felt like totally separate missions.

However! The game picks up around the halfway point. And it doesn’t just pick up, but it starts rolling and keeps on rolling to the point where you feel like “Hey, this is more like how COD4 felt, the first time I played it”. Some great set pieces keep the action flowing and you will even care about what happens in the next mission! So you keep playing… and playing… right up to the end. And when you reach it, you will definitely feel like you have just had a 3 hour rollercoaster ride. MW2 is not long, it’s about 5-6 hours on Normal, just like COD4 was. But other than the kinda awkward feeling start, it is an amazing 3 hours of FPS gameplay. Once you get to the point where all hell breaks loose, that is.



This is about as vague and nondescript as I can talk about it without spoiling anything. And I really don’t want to spoil a thing for those of you that loved COD4. Some questions that all of you will have are: “is there a level like Ghillies in the Mist?” or “is there something like when you died of the nuke?”. Well, yes and no. It feels like IW wanted to continue on the path they started walking with COD4’s now-classic missions, but wanted to one-up them. And let’s just say they did. Big time. Some of this gets spoiled in the latest trailer, or at least it would give you some cues that you will make you go “ohh I saw this in the trailer!” So don’t watch it!

I am really not easily surprised with games anymore, but there is one section in particular that made me go “Hey I did this already (in a game), this isn’t very interesti…. OHHHH! Oh.. my.. god. Oh wat, seriously? Wow I did not expect that.” Another section was also very nicely done, but it’s best to not even talk about it. Just expect some people to go wild about it and spoil the shit out of it because they are all excited and need to share it. IW basically took first person cinematic gameplay and cutscenes and took it to the next level.

To be honest, if you strip the COD name from the game, strip the IW tag from it and remove all the typical IW-style first person immersion sections, it would make a good/decent but not “omg great” game. However, the way these things are done and how they impact you as the player, will probably surprise you in a way that you didn’t expect. Or is that the definition of “surprise”? Hmm!



So is it good? Yes. Is it the best game of 2009 or ever? That depends on how long you will play the multiplayer, if you like the multiplayer, if you like to coop the unlockable SpecOps missions, etc etc. For me, it was a surprise that the campaign ended up making me go wow. Because when I started the game, it didn’t really do much for me. Look at it like watching all the Treebeard/Hobbit scenes from the Two Towers before Fellowship of the Ring starts. You would just go “meh” and then go “hey this is pretty good”. But then just forget about the “if they are standing next to Gandalf for 5 minutes, why don’t they just pull him up?” part in the movie.

If you like shooters, you will have to at least play through it. If you don’t care about the multiplayer or COD, just gamefly it or torrent it to your gaming pc or something. Whatever, just at least play it, and see what the next two years of cinematic-FPS clones will look like. You may feel like some missions are familiar, but they are not just copies of the COD4 missions. They are more like natural evolutions for a true sequel that doesn’t do a Matrix Reloaded/Revolutions. And as such, the whole game feels like a true and natural sequel. Some parts may feel a bit uneven at first but any criticism ,or feelings caused by not really knowing what to expect from a sequel to COD4, will be gone after the credits stop rolling. At least, for 90% of you guys.



Still, it’s not the best singleplayer campaign ever and you will probably rage on Veteran mode. There is criticism to be had, but you will probably just not care. For instance, the game asks you to set brightness before starting up. But on LCD TVs, you'll end up with too-bright display settings when you use night-vision. Small things like that, which are easily overlooked or remedied in a game that is all about rapid and increasingly fast pacing. It’s a great campaign, it is required playing for 2009 and by early 2010 you will be sick of all the MW2 blogs. In a way it is like COD4: not flawless, but surprisingly better than you would think.

There is a lot more to say about the game, like how the vehicle sections are pretty fun and not too hard. But I'll leave that for the other reviews. This is just me saying: enjoy playing this game guys, but try to go in with an open mind, not expecting the world and as unspoiled as possible.

If MW2 was a prison, and you have homosexual tendencies, then the campaign would be worth:
9.2 “Soaps” on the floor


Edit: for some brainfreeze reason I had "Modern War 2" in the title and didn't even notice it. At least it started with a W!