Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2

Just over two years ago, Infinity Ward unleashed the critically acclaimed fourth entry into their highly acclaimed first person shooter franchise - Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. He game combined a memorable campaign with immersive action, a good story, fantastic graphics and polished game play to create an experience that is still considered to be one of the finest shooters ever made. Step forward two years and Infinity Ward are back again with a sequel to their first person epic - Modern Warfare 2.

Modern Warfare 2 kicks off 5 years after the original ended, and the story continues the story of "Soap" McTavish and co. as they attempt to locate and eliminate Makharov, a terrorist mastermind with close affiliations with Call of Duty 4's antagonist Zakhaev. Whilst the first game's story kept players on the edge of their seats, unfortunately the same cannot be said for its sequel. With a few random plot twists and a fairly un-necessary airport level, the story is far from Modern Warfare 2's strongest point.

For those who played Call of Duty 4, Modern Warfare 2's campaign is fairly similar, with the same general pacing, variety of locales, objectives and an immersive narrative told throughout. The controls are as players would expect from a premier first person franchise - tight, user friendly and responsive. The levels are quite linear, funnelling players through a set route to force encounters with swarms of hostile forces at blistering pace and rapidly building heart-pounding climatic set pieces. Whilst the set pieces are grand, the campaign feels a couple of levels short and certainly could have used a couple of additional levels to bolster its relatively short running time.

As with the original, Modern Warfare 2 strives to give players a taste of authenticity and each of the weapons available to our heroes look, sound and handle (to a degree) like the real article. To other upcoming first person shooters on the horizon, the arsenal of firearms at the players disposal throughout the campaign and multiplayer settings of Modern Warfare 2 must look incredibly daunting, as the impressive array of boomsticks from Call of Duty 4 have made a return and have been expanded upon to include some fancy new thermal weapons, dual wielding and gadgets ranging from a portable UAV to the traditional claymores all of which leave their own unique stamp on the game.

The major addition to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is the special ops mode. Comprised of a series of increasingly difficult challenges taken from snippets of the campaigns of both Call of Duty 4 and Modern Warfare 2, special ops allows two players to co-operate either split screen or online to meet the requisite objectives. There is a good variety to the challenges and levels that cater for both beginners and the hardcore Call of Duty veterans out there. This mode is intense, easily more addictive than the campaign and is designed in such a way that it might not be too difficult to insert some additional challenges and maps via downloadable content.

Call of Duty 4 had one of the most entertaining and rewarding multiplayer experiences of the current generation and improving on it was never going to be an easy feat. Even so, Infinity Ward has done an admirable job of taking the strong foundation laid by its predecessor and done their best to build upon it. The mode is very engaging and rewards you for playing for long periods of time with challenges, ranks, tons of unlockable weapons, perks and game types.

As with CoD 4, in order to rank up, upgrade your weapons and gain new perks and abilities to give you the edge in multiplayer, the game sets players up to attempt to complete series of challenges, these tasks are various and entertaining - whether it be killing 25 people with one type of gun or falling 30 feet, the challenges are a fresh and engaging way to keep players coming back for more.

Graphically, the game is superior to its predecessor, but still suffers from a few of its flaws. The environments are well detailed, sport a tonne of variety and succeed in being highly immersive ranging from the slum-like favalas of Brazil, to a top-secret Russian prison, the game is a proverbial trip around the world and each setting looks and feels the part.  Unfortunately, whilst players surroundings look good from afar, getting up close and personal with them reveals the same utilisation of low-resolution textures as seen flaunted throughout Call of Duty 4 which is a little disappointing. Likewise the shadows are fairly poorly rendered and could have been done much better. These are small flaws however and can be easily overlooked as players will enjoy silky smooth frame rates cruising constantly at 60 fps.

The audio portion of Modern Warfare 2 is fantastic with great voice acting, a quite convincing ambient atmosphere and some truly authentic sound effects. The audio helps to further engross players into the experience and does a fantastic job of building those epic set pieces the Call of Duty franchise is known for.

With its entertaining campaign, addictive multiplayer and the new co-operative special operations mode Modern Warfare 2 is a good game with a lot of replayability. Unfortunately whilst it strives to improve upon the greatness of its predecessor it relies too much on recycling its better aspects and as such it just doesn't have the impact that the original game had. In saying this it is still a great game, with a superb presentation, plenty of content and a burgeoning online community. Modern Warfare 2 gives you a lot of bang for your buck and is well worth the price of admission.

Story: 6/10 - A overly convoluted and underwhelming story.

Gameplay: 8.5/10 - The game sports a fairly short campaign which is bolstered by the addition of some addictive multiplayer and co-operative special ops mode. The lack of a co-operative campaign is quite disappointing.

Graphics: 8.5/10 - The graphics are an improvement over Call of Duty 4, but no longer the best on the system. The game features realistic character models, excellent animations and environments that are as detailed as they are varied.

Audio: 9/10 - The voice acting, is great and the explosions, sound effects and ambiance helps set the scene for the epic set pieces.

Overall: 8.5/10

Reviewed by Paul.