Didn't really want my first post to end up being flame bait but whatever. @dreamkin: Rather than just yell at you I figured i would take some points from your review where I personally believe you are wrong;
"The fact that a huge war may start because of a simple misunderstanding" Misunderstanding? I don't know about you, but a terrorist attack doesn't seem like a "misunderstanding" to me, granted, maybe not enough to grant the full scale war but damn sure more than just a small problem.
"James Ramirez, a featureless, uninteresting rank and file soldier whose story arc despite being epic ends up as entirely pointless." For a game with one of main points being on war brought onto present day american soil I would say that the point of view of the solider in that war is quite important.
"What's his issue? Does he have a family? A kid? A wife?......The question is, why should the audience care?" We shouldn't, even if you are reviewing the story of a game, you can not expect a game that is not story driven, but rather focuses on the adrenaline and "oh shit moments" (I hate this term but there is not much else to describe this game with), to sit and show you his life, his family etc etc...
If the game can create feeling for characters it will be just from the tense moments such as the favela running scene and the ski jump, the same for action movies where characters are mostly not developed but we still gasp when they dodge a rocket and cheese death for one more day. I may just be easily manipulated but various moments in this game made me feel for the characters.
"Where is the preliminary air assault? Exactly how is this occupation a surprise to the US government?" Firstly I must say that i have not played through the single player since the month of release and the first part of the game is a little hazy but if i remember correctly, the first soap / roach mission in the snow has you recovering an object from a base, one that i think controls the defense grid for america? Not sure, anyway if you are returning this to Shepard it is very likey he uses it and disables the grid to allow the russians free entry into america undetected.
"One dead guy happens to be a CIA agent. So Russia declares war... Does this really make any sense?" The name and opening line of this level is "no russian", this shows that Makarov and his crew + CIA agent do not want to be recognised as Russians, and by leaving the corpse of the CIA agent behind trying to be played off as all Americans, this makes the attack a little more understandable now, right? As the Russian public and government will be lead to believe that americans have waltzed into their airports and slaughtered hundreds of people.
This is about all i have to say, i do agree with you that the story was not great and nowhere near the first or many other FPS's with a story but it is nowhere near as terrible as many people are claiming it to be.
Apologies for any errors in the post, it's late here.
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