Developer: Infinity Ward
Publisher: Activision
Platform: Xbox 360, Playstation 3, PC
Genre: First Person Shooter
Metacritic Rating: 94/100 Xbox 360; 94/100 PS3, 86/100 PC
Copies Sold: 22 million (as of August 3, 2011)
Release Date: November 2009
Created by Infinity Ward and released by Activision, the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is a video game that appeals to the first-person shooter crowd. It can be played using the Microsoft Windows OS, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. It was released all over the world on November 10, 2009, but news of its release was first announced on February 11 of the same year. At the moment, this is the 6th installment of the Call of Duty collection and the immediate follow-up to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. It continues where the previous game stops and is meant to put a close to the story. It was released along with two other games namely Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Mobilized and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Reflex, which are meant for the Nintendo DS and the Wii console respectively. On top of that, Modern Warfare 2: Ghost, a comic book series focusing on the characters of the game was also released.
Modern Warfare 2 has gotten favorable critiques from many different video gaming websites. Its Metacritic 94% aggregate score speaks for itself with many players enjoying the game’s in-depth multiplayer aspect. After its launch, 4.7 million games were bought all over the world in just one day. Activision confirmed on August 3, 2011 that the video game had sold over and above 22 million copies all over the world, making it the 2nd best-selling video game in history for both the US and UK market.
In the single-player campaign, the gamer takes on the role of different characters within the game, which gives him a rich and varied perspective of the game universe. Throughout the game story, he or she will keep changing points-of-view and see through the eyes of different characters.
Every stage has a mission assignment that includes a number of objectives that are shown on the heads up display that represents the distance and direction to and from the objectives. When the character is hit, the player will know by blood visually shown on his screen. As time goes on, however, the health of the player will regenerate. There are different requirements for every task. Some will ask the player to go to a specific checkpoint, destroy enemies, defend a location or person, or even place bombs on the enemy location. Throughout the game, the player will be escorted by friendly troops that cannot be controlled. They will also find laptops that they need to collect, which have intelligence reports on the enemy during the course of the game.
Modern Warfare 2 also has a cooperative mode named Special Ops, which has missions that are independent with a similar design to the epilogue mission entitled the “Mile High Club” from Call of Duty 4. All these missions occur in many different places from the campaign setting and are not associated with the campaign story. Almost all of these can be enjoyed by itself. The player can also complete the mission using 2-player cooperative play, which can be done online or through a local area network (LAN). Among the many scenarios are an enemy compound capture, a snowmobile race, and destroying more than 40 enemies in a single blow.
Special Ops is split into 5 independent mission categories: Echo, Delta, Charlie, Bravo, and Alpha. Each of these can be played out at 3 levels: veteran, hardened, or regular. A successful mission completion gives stars to the player. Right now, there are 3 stars for every mission. The player receives 3 stars for veteran difficulty, 2 stars for hardened difficulty and 1 star for regular difficulty. The more stars that a player earns, the more missions are unlocked and are made available for playing. Twenty-three missions with a total of sixty-nine stare are available for unlocking. At the end of each completed mission, the player will find a statistics screen that shows the time it took to complete the level and the kill score, among other information.
The Modern Warfare 2 online multiplayer option keeps a similar rewards system and experience points much like Call of Duty 4. It also has game modes that consist of Capture The Flag, Team Deathmatch, Domination, Sabotage, Demolition, Search & Destroy, and Free-For-All. More than this, Modern Warfare 2 also presents a number of additional features. Besides completely new weapons, gear, and perks that give the player “pro versions” after meeting certain requirements, the player may also pick 3 of 15 kill streaks. These are earned once the player achieves a particular amount of sequential kills. Of these is the power to get a supply drop right after accomplishing 4 consecutive kills, choose the location of a Predator missile strike following 5 kills, as well as command a Chopper Gunner or an AC-130 gunship after 11 kills. A number of “kill streak rewards” also generate kills that go towards the player’s kill streak. For instance, 7 kill streaks will give the player the chance to stay and blast down opponents immediately after it has bombed a broad region. Players may also acquire a tactical nuke when they accomplish 25 kill streaks. Calling in the nuke will win the game regardless of whoever was winning at that moment in time. Another completely new feature is the in-game host migration. Should the host of the match leave the game, the game can still continue by selecting a new host. Another highlight is adding an optional 3rd-person mode that may be used in particular types of games.
In the game version found in the Xbox 360, the party chat system is turned off when player is online in a few playlist types. This specific decision by the game producer is controversial in the Xbox Live community. Another first is the fact that the offline multiplayer mode keeps the rewards system and experience garnered online. Having said that, the rewards are outside of the ones that are gained while playing on the web.
The PC version, on the other hand, has a matchmaking program called IWNET that operates through Steam. This system is nearly the same as the IWNET console version. It eliminates the user-created maps and mods because there is no dedicated server support. This has made a lot of PC gamers angry. Because the multiplayer feature operates inside of Steamworks, the anti-cheat system (PunkBuster) found in prior game titles has been substituted by Valve Anti-Cheat. Furthermore, the PC release gives the player exactly the same 18-player limit as the gaming console versions.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Trailer