So, I’m sitting at home playing a little NCAA Football when my door flys open and Richard runs in wearing only a bathrobe that is showing me way way to much of his ‘joystick’…..
“dudedudedudedudedudedude… check out what….”
Reaching over, I grab my Transformers pillow and throw it at him. “Mr. Potato Head, Mr. Potato Head! What did I tell you about running in here like that? Now I’m trying to save you from yourself, but you have gotta stop letting your momma dress you man…”
Interrupting, Richard holds up a pair of night vision goggles and the 360 version of Modern Warfare 2. “I need you to play this man; I’m going to be busy masturbating in the dark.”
Shaking my head in disgust, I mutter “You’re hopeless, man, utterly hopeless.” and pop the game in to my 360.
Now, I’m not a big fan of playing first person shooters on a console. Anybody in their right mind knows that an FPS is meant to be played on a PC. You can download mods, skins, you don’t have to pay to play online and you can do so much more with a keyboard & mouse combo than you can with a controller.
I have never played any of the Call of Duty games; I am a Doom and Quake junkie from way back. So when I saw all the hype coming out of Activision for Modern Warfare I wasn’t that excited or impressed.
The story behind Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 starts five years after the original game and puts you in the boots of a Task Force 141 team member with only one end-goal in mind: capture Vladimir Markov, the leader of a terrorist group from Russia.
Graphically, the game is sweet and it looks crispy in the dark. Visor blood splatter indicating you’ve taken a hit and impressive swirling smoke, mist and snow effects requiring you to switch to the new thermal imaging scope or night vision goggles make the game both appealing and immersive. The graphics are realistic enough that I had to play the same mission multiple times in order to really appreciate what Infinity Ward has given us.
All of the characters in the game look great and are extremely well animated. The game’s lighting also helps bring the action to life with accurate shadows being cast on the environment as well as on your character’s gun and arms. MW2’s environments are very well done, with a lot of variety, detail and destructible items which add a sense of realism to your surroundings.
I’m all about being immersed in a game. I want to feel as if I’m actually a part of the action, not just some gamer sitting in his living room playing the next “it” title. Everybody in my house is constantly getting on me for waking them up at 4 in the morning with the sounds of rocket launchers, chainsaws and even Erin Andrews raving about my road to Glory exploits. So when I game, I plant my happy ass in my Gamepod by Loftgoods (yeah, it’s a few years old, but I don’t have the money to get the new Ultimate Game Chair).
With a 200 watt sub-woofer under my ass, and a 5.1 surround sound system hooked into my 360, I like to play my games loud enough to get the neighbors calling. I was totally unprepared to literally duck when a RPG exploded near me. The surround sound is perfectly implemented while every little sound effect sounds just like they should. So the sound is another strong point in the game. The Hans Zimmer score is incredible. It matches every aspect of the game, and I swear there were points in the game where I felt like I was actually in the middle of the action.
As an old school FPS gamer, I love to run-and-gun. When playing a PC game, my mouse twitches. I never got to the point where Half-life was fun for me, because I’m not big on puzzles, Splinter Cell was boring for me with the stealth gameplay. In MW2 however, and maybe it’s because I was playing on the 360, I enjoyed that sometimes I just had to be clever to finish missions.
I also like the fact that the A.I. is smart, or at least dynamic. Bullets that hit anywhere in the upper part of the torso are almost always an instant death. Shooting in the legs will render an enemy badly injured, but not completely out of action, and they will continue to shoot from the ground. Furthermore, the A.I. acts like this no matter what difficulty setting you have chosen, so be prepared. The AI doesn’t seem to be effected much by the difficulty you are playing. It retains running gunning and covering patterns, and these patterns are quite intricate, actually. Firing and missing an enemy in one location, means he’ll make his way closer to you, finding cover as he continues taking shots at you.
Blood & guts, death & dismemberment, I love a game with excessive carnage. MW2 does not lack in this area, as it fueled my bloodlust perfectly. Infinity Ward decided to take a gamble in the level called, “No Russian.” A level, which while causing a lot of controversy, I thoroughly enjoyed. This is a video game you dumb fucks.
In the “No Russian” level you assume the role of a deep-cover CIA agent. You infiltrate a Russian terrorist group and participate in the brutal slaughter of civilians in a Moscow airport. Let me say it again, it’s a FUCKIN VIDEO GAME!!!
There is an option to skip this level, presented at the beginning of the game. If you don’t skip the level, you walk through the airport watching your terrorist comrades spray bullets into frantic civilians and inept security guards. While you don’t have to participate in the massacre, you can’t prevent it.
It’s intense and definitely not for the faint of heart. The game does manage to keep sensitivities in mind and does give you a warning and an option to skip this level should you wish to. To this I say, “Stop your whining you little bitches, it’s a fuckin video game!”
Controversial level included, the single player campaign is action-packed and a blast to play through. There’s a large amount of shooting goodness to be had. During the course of the campaign you’ll find yourself manning turrets on the back of Hummers, painting targets with a laser sight, breaching doors and shooting surrounding enemies in slow motion in order to save hostages. For those of you that enjoy killing VIRTUAL ENEMIES as much as I do, the firefights in the game are entertaining all by themselves.
Spec Ops – a series of 23 specially designed modes that allows for one or two players (online or split-screen) to work together to take on a series of challenges, some taken from portions of the single-player game and some all-new.
From stealthy missions, to my favorite, destroying every vehicle on a collapsing bridge while being attacked by repelling enemies, taking these challenges on by yourself is pretty daunting, as this mode is clearly meant to be played with a friend.
MW2 is in my opinion a superb game. I had as much fun playing it as I do playing granddaddy FPS classics. For non-stop action, superior AI and perfectly balanced weapons, it’s a worthy chart-topper that hammers a nail into a Game of the Year award.
Originally published November 22, 2009 on GamersRevenge.com
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