Rediscovering a Great Franchise
I have to admit, when I put Modern Warfare 2 in for the first time, I rather expected to be underwhelmed. I play a lot of shooters, but I don't consider them to be my favorite kind of game, and yeah, I was probably being a little conceited and therefore resistant to play such a mainstream title so popular with "the bros". Then I saw a dude crash through a second story window to tackle another dude running across a balcony, and both of them fell 20 feet onto a car, caving in the roof. Then I told myself to stop being such a snob, and to sit back and enjoy the mountain of awesome that this game lobs at you.
Even without all of the bells and whistles that this game is packed to the brim with, it would still be a very, very good first person shooter. Why? Control. Infinity Ward knows how to make some of the tightest controls I've ever experienced in any game. I'm not sure it can be put into words exactly what that means, but I'll try. Modern Warfare 2 made me feel lethal with any weapon I was carrying, because I knew that in any given second I could raise it to my enemy's vital areas, pop off a few rounds, run a few paces forward, duck behind cover, toss a frag or flash grenade into a group of enemies, raise up and shoot as they're distracted, rinse and repeat. It's all so fluid that it takes no time at all to completely immerse the player within the atmosphere.
The controls don't have to stand on their own, though. The graphics are some of the best I've seen so far this generation, and when everything first loaded up and I was dropped into training, the amount of life in the visuals was immediately apparent. There were guys playing basketball, fixing humvees, playing cards, and some just sitting around looking rather exhausted. While the environments look great, it was the character models that truly blew me away, especially the facial animation. It took me 5 minutes to move about 100 feet to the training pit from my starting location, just marveling at how much stuff was packed into the camp around me. It only got better from there. Lush jungles, snowy mountains, dirty Brazilian slums, a war torn Virginia and Washington DC, and various other locales look great, and ensure that you always have an interesting place to fight. Calling it eye candy doesn't really do it justice. This is an eye buffet.
The sound complements the graphics nicely. Guns have a satisfying crack to them, and silenced weapons have a great "thp thp thp" sound that never gets old. The real standout here is the voice acting. The different voices are all done really well, and they do a lot to give each character his own unique identity. It all makes for a truly cinematic experience.
Then of course there's the multiplayer. Speaking as a person who was never really drawn into COD4's online component, I'm amazed at how addicted I've become this time around. I won't pretend to be a great player, but as I practiced on the different maps, I was surprised to see that I was, in fact, getting better all the time. Kill streaks are a thrill (though it's rare that I get more than 8 or so), and the different bonuses and perks are really fun to combine to taylor to your personal play style. I'm not sure if I'll be playing this a month or two down the road, but there's a pretty good chance I'll still be dropping in for a few matches every once in a while. Most everything good about the single player campaign can also be said about the online counterpart.
All in all, this is a shining example of why I play games. They're fun. And while the story is a bit over the top, everything is done so well that I can't help but be giddy just thinking about all of it. There's a reason this game is as popular as it is, and it deserves all of the praise it gets.
