Infinity Ward's Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare 2 for the PS3 just came out yesterday (Nov 6 09) in my country. I planned on sharing detailed facts about the game to you, the destructoid community, to help you if you are planning to buy this game or if you are still indecisive in getting this particular sequel to one of the best selling games of 2007.

Now this article will try to go through all the game's new features, both singleplayer and multiplayer, (almost all is offline though), splitscreen coop and 4 player multiplayer. Also, the article will share some light spoilers regarding the single player campaign. It will also tackle the single most heated controversy regarding the game: the "Airport Massacre".

So, to start, let's get to the basics.

Modern Warfare 2 is Region 1, trophy enabled, dual shock 3 enabled and up to 4 players offline.The cover art is good, although a bit like its predecessor, just with refined fonts and a new artwork. You can see that Infinity Ward almost tried to drop the Call of Duty logo, and replaced it with the Modern Warfare one. It's as if Modern Warfare 2 is now a new IP in Infinity Ward's games. The back cover is basically just pictures with quotations from reviews (I guess) from other gaming sites regarding the game itself. That bothers me, because I haven't seen a single review out for the game, and yet, these quotations from Gamespot for example, are used in Modern Warfare 2's back cover. Did they have an advanced review copy of the game? If yes, why?


Early Reviews?



Now, when you start the game, a Main Menu will greet you with 3 branching features. One is the single player campaign named "For the Record", with the subtitle "Pick up the story where Modern Warfare ended and continue the single player experience". The next branching option to the left is the Special Ops, which is basically a coop experience meant for 2 players offline or online. The last one to the right is the Multiplayer option, with te subtitle of: [i]"Rank up, Unlock New Weapons, perks, killstreaks and much more online and locally."
[/i]

These are the new features of Modern Warfare 2. This article will try to go through the 3 features in a detailed fashion so that potential gamers who are planing of procuring the game can know what to expect of it when they have it. Also, the article will emphasize the coop and 4 player offline experience of the game, mainly because I am a true believer that a game in our generation that does not leave out offline game play for those who love playing with a friend or loved one is a good game in my book.

Anyway, let's go through the single player experience first.

The single player campaign is composed of 3 acts, with an undefined number of missions per act (As of this writing, I am at the 4th mission of the first act). Unlike what we previously believed, the controversial level of Modern Warfare 2 will not take place at the start, it is at the 4th level of the first act, named "No Russian" (more on that later).



The single player campaign starts with a new introduction video. Its basically a modified version of the loading graphics of the game, but much better looking. The introduction video focuses on the key plot instances that happened from the first game, basically a flashback video. I especially liked the score, although it's a bit like a Michael Bay movie, it still pumps you up in playing the game although Im still not certain if this sequel's score is still composed by Harry Gregson-Willams, famed for composing the Metal Gear Solid 2,3 and 4's score and Modern Warfare 1 itself.



After that, the game sets itself 5 years after the first one, and it throws the player on a new tutorial level, which is much faster than the last Modern Warfare. It will just refresh your memory on the controls (it's still the same), and will instantaneously throw you to a new course made up of made up cartons of enemy soldiers and civilians. This challenge course, like its predecessor, will gauge your skills by how much time it takes for you to finish the course itself, and based on the time it took you to reach the end line, the game will automatically adjust the difficulty for your benefit.


Same old, same old...


One major thing that I have a big gripe is the Graphics itself.
Simply put, the graphics engine did not age well. Although some new graphical enhancements were integrated (like motion blur, HDR lighting etc), it still looks dated compared to the new game releases for this year. It feels like Infinity Ward did not put that much focus on the graphics, they just reused the old one and have not improved it that much, ALTHOUGH the new levels really look awesome compared to the last one, they're much bigger, better looking and better developed than the last, it still bothers me that the graphics pretty much looks the same. It felt like I was playing an expansion pack, although a Good one.


Do I look good guys?

Now on to much anticipated level of Modern Warfare 2, the "No Russian" level.
Before playing the level, the game asks you if you want to skip this one due to its sensitive nature. Now, if you ask me, the level itself is not critical to the story of the game. Infinity Ward can just show it as an introductory level, without any interactions to the player, but only as a witness, because frankly, the level itself is bland gameplay-wise. after the "shooting the innocents" (it needs to be noted that the innocents in question are not done well graphically. Its funny because after the antagonists gunned them down, you can see that there were so many civilians who have the SAME shirt and pants. that was really funny, losing the immersion of the act itself) you will fight on the swat teams in the airport, and the waypoint that you have to go through, crisscrossing parked planes and baggages are a pain to play. Its weird though, because when I was on that level, I died alot, simply because I did not know where to go next.

Its worth noting that the end of that level is the only saving grace of that specific act. Its a twist that is well done story-wise, but still, in regards to the act of killing innocent civilians, its not an integral part of the story. Basically, its not that important enough,story-wise, to be disturbing in my opinion.


The Multiplayer component is where the game really shines. Modern Warfare 2 offers a coop campaign that 2 players online or offline can play with. Its objective based, wherein doing the objectives as best as possible earns you stars. Its similar to Arkham Asylum's challenge modes, the only difference is that you can play it with 2 players.


Coop Rules!

Having the option on playing it splitscreen is really a great move by Infinity Ward. The developers built a new feature that 2 players can play side by side;even if the coop is not in the main campaign, the mission-based offerings are really good and really adds to the replayability factor of the game.




One big thing that the developers included in the new features specifically 4 player deathmatch (or other multiplayer types), is that thank God, you can now have an offline profile to be used to upgrade and level up your offline avatar for fighting with your buddies! To simplify, you can now do the online multiplayer upgrading, changing and earning new perks, obtaining new killstreaks (and the new deathstreaks) and personalizing your soldier Locally. Before jumping to the 4 player deathmatch, the game asks you to create an offline profile, where you will save all your level up perks weapon unlocks etc. To level up, scores obtained from your wins after the matches are your experience points.


Level up offline!

It needs to be noted that the offline profile and online profile you use in playing at PSN is different. You cannot level up locally then play it online. It just only demolishes the older option of just having to choose presets of classes when playing with buddies locally. Now, its much more in depth and good to level up when winning on your matches.


Whoa, snow...

Modern Warfare 2 is a great game. Its much refined, has better features, has much new weapons,
better maps and has one of the best multiplayer gameplay. Although I haven't finished yet the single player campaign, I can safely say that it's much more intense compared to the first one. Other gamers might look at it as the same as before, but still, its a refined, much more explosive, highly replayable, gut-wrenching experience of a game.

In spite of its so-so graphics.


Huh?