Value by numbers
I distinctly remember the very first time I played Call of Duty. I was sneaking through Normandy after an airdrop, I lit some beacon, an alarm went off and complete chaos erupted - first person shooter campaigns were never the same after that.
Modern Warfare 2 attempts to take that very moment and stretch it over the entirety of its 5 to 7 hour campaign. It's as if the developers had a mandate to ensure that at any given moment there should be as much going on visually an audibly as possible. I accept that warfare can be chaotic, and granted there are changes in pace during Modern Warfare's campaign, but for the most part the sensory din is maintained to the point where the very brief campaign actually starts to drag.
The campaign is not helped by a patchwork and contrived story-line that mostly consists of:
- the player being stunned by a explosion (cave-in, whatever) and subsequently being helped up;
- a frantic chase after some sort of device, person in a track-suit, random macguffin;
- a not so unexpected betrayal by a bad man leading to a bullet in the face.
In all, the experience can be summed up as being similar to that of a rat in a box, which is being wildly shaken under a disco lights while death metal is playing at 11. And if that was all Modern Warfare 2 had to offer, I'd dish out a very low score. Luckily, however, there is the multi-player.
Spec-ops consists of canned sections or variations of campaign missions, that are tweaked for co-operative play. There is a decent amount of variety, and the integration with Modern Warfare's core mechanics is done well enough to keep the game-play interesting. My experience with Spec-Ops has so far been limited, but what I have experienced suggests good value in spite of a rather grind-inducing star system for map unlocks.
The multi-player is where Modern Warfare 2 truly shines. Every aspect of Call of Duty 4's multi-player has been balanced, tweaked, or improved on in some manner. Initially there was always something to do or unlock, and since not all unlocks are purely based on kills, the system also inspires creative game-play. Nothing revolutionary has been added to the perk-based formula established by Modern Warfare, but the changes and additions are intelligent, and fuel the multi-player addiction nicely.
Towards the higher levels, that I only now have achieved due to limit play times, the perks and leveling system has started to drag somewhat. Experience gain is slower than the previous Modern Warfare, and the maps are actually quite limited. One cannot help but wonder whether this was done to encourage the purchase of the overpriced map-packs.
Modern Warfare 2 is a multi-faceted title that pushes the Modern Warfare formula to its limits. It does nothing to change this formula however and subsequent titles will need to truly innovate or risk instantly appearing stale and redundant. To an extent however redundancy is also the feeling I got from MW2, especially its campaign, and both its merits and demerits are obtained by numbers. The number of modes, the number of unlocks, and the number of times you can repackage the same essential experience with improved presentation.
