"Decent first person shooter with some glaring flaws"

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is the long awaited sequel of Call of Duty 4. When it was released, many people claimed it took the series into the wrong direction, and that it was the beginning of the downfall of a once great series. While I do believe there is some truth to these claims, it still is pretty fun, and among my favorite Call of Duty games at the moment.

Graphics: 9/10

If you have ever played a Call of Duty game before, it looks about as good as any other game of the series (excluding the first one). It also runs about the same as the first Modern Warfare game. On max settings, it looks great. On lower settings, it still looks decent enough.

Controls: 10/10

They are pretty simplistic. Once again, if you played Call of Duty before, you know the drill. If not, you basically use the WASD keys to move, other closely situated keys to crouch and sprint, and you use the mouse to shoot. The controls are also customizable.

Single Player: 8/10

It is one of the better campaigns in the Call of Duty series in my opinion. Some people consider the plot to be outrageous and unrealistic (Russians invade America), but the game play itself is good overall. My only complaint is it is only six hours long; early games in the series were significantly longer.

Multiplayer: 6/10

The multiplayer does a lot of things right, but also a lot of things wrong. On the good side, this Call of Duty has interesting levels. While the first Modern Warfare game had mostly repetitive desert levels that all blend together after a while this game has a good sense of variety. There is a good balance of snow levels, desert levels, urban levels, and and rural levels. Another advantage is that the max player count is much lower than Call of Duty 4. While Call of Duty 4 had up to 64 player servers, the typical game on Modern Warfare 2 has around 12. The max player count possible is 18. This is very preferable in my opinion because the game feels a lot more slow paced and strategic while still retaining a good level of fun. The weapon variety is also much better than Modern Warfare in my opinion.

However, there are a few down sides. First of all, there are no dedicated servers; one gets matched with other players. While this has some advantages, it also has a number of disadvantages. The major advantage is you do not have server admins telling you how to play. One thing I despise about a lot of the other Call of Duty games is entering servers and being greeted with a long list of rules that limit how you can play. If you do not follow these often abstract and nonsensical rules, you get kicked. This does not happen in Modern Warfare 2, since such servers do not exist. However, this system comes at a pretty terrible price. First of all, it can sometimes take up to 5 or 10 minutes to get into a game. It literally takes that long for the game to match you with others. A second issue is that this system leads to increased lag. Third, it leads to an increased number of hackers. What is worst about this is if hacker is made the host of a server, he may hack the game itself. All of the sudden, kills might be worth literally one million points, instead of the 100 or so they are supposed to be worth. While as far as I know, VAC does not ban people who inadvertently wander onto these servers (it is impossible to avoid them, so if they did, no one would be able to play), it is very troubling to me that this is possible.

A second disadvantage to the game itself are the killstreaks. I thought Black Ops was bad, but Modern Warfare 2 is worse. While I think Modern Warfare had a nice killstreak system, Modern Warfare 2 has introduced some extremely overpowered killstreaks into the game. These may include EMP strikes, AC 130 gunships, and even tactical nukes that automatically win the game. Even normally balanced killstreaks, such as the traditional attack helicopter, are made overpowered by the fact that there can be multiple killstreaks in play at once. One helicopter is manageable. Having to deal with three while fending off an AC 130 is not.

Third, this game introduced more paid DLC than previous Call of Duty games. While Call of Duty 4 gave the DLC away for free on the PC, with Modern Warfare 2, the DLC currently costs more than the game itself. On the bright side, you will not really miss it that much. If you do not own the DLC, you will not run into servers that have it, and you will not be kicked from them (which is what happens if you play Black Ops). Moreover, many of the DLC maps are remakes of levels from the first game.

Fun Factor: 8/10

Overall, the game is pretty fun until you start running into hackers (which are relatively common). Aside from the killstreaks, it appears to be among the most balanced and fun Call of Duty games out there in my opinion.

Replay Value: 7/10

The single player is only six hours, which is short. The multiplayer, on the other hand, will last a lot longer. It has around 16 levels, which is pretty solid.

Learning Curve: 9/10

If you have played other Call of Duty games, you more or less know how to play this one from the get go. If you are new to the series, you should catch on relatively quickly.

Overall: 7/10

Overall, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 is a mixed bag. On the one hand, it does a lot that makes it more fun than many other Call of Duty games out there. On the other, it is marred by several glaring flaws, such as the matchmaking system and grossly overpowered killstreaks. Regardless, seeing how it is around $20 now, it is well worth picking up if you want a new multiplayer FPS to play. I am not sure it would be worth full price ($60) though.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 02/15/12

Game Release: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (US, 11/10/09)