Play Your Heart Out: “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2”

“Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2” is the 19^th installment of the Call of Duty video game series. It is a first-person shooter available to play on the Xbox’s, the Playstation 4 and 5, and Microsoft Windows platforms.

“Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2” has two parts to the game: the single player campaign and the multiplayer competitive mode. This is a review of both.

The single player campaign takes between five to seven hours to finish or maybe even 10 to 12 hours to finish, depending on the difficulty level you choose to play it at. If you choose the highest difficulty, you can earn the most achievement points or trophies depending on what system you play it on.

My first impression is that the game has good graphics and resolution and gun mechanics that really work. It has good voice acting, character models, and cutscenes. But sadly, I did not like the mission presentation. You do various missions requiring not only shooting, but swimming and driving, and stealthing, and sniping. You also can shoot targets on the ground from a C-130 aircraft. 

The problem is none of this is fun the way the programmers set it up. The first Call of Duty Modern Warfare, titled “Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare” (2007), and “COD Modern Warfare 2,” (2009) and “COD Modern Warfare 3” (2011) all had relatively perfect campaigns. In comparison, the new Modern Warfare doesn’t stack up to the originals. It has all the good components of game play, but the missions are set up in a way that is indescribably frustrating, even on the easiest difficulty setting. 

Then, there is also the comparison between “COD Modern Warfare” (2019) which is what this game is the sequel of. Unfortunately, that game didn’t have a good campaign either. This review is in comparison to the other 4 Modern Warfare titles. I give the campaign a 6/10 rating.

The multiplayer game is another thing altogether. It uses the previous Modern Warfare title’s gun load out system. The amount of attachments is limited now to 5 instead of 12.  This makes guns simpler and more balanced.  The progression of the guns has changed drastically however for this COD. Each gun level now takes only a few hours to max out depending on how good you are.  Once a gun is completely leveled there are only about 30% of its attachments unlocked. To get the other 70% of its attachments, ie, sights, hand grips, laser sights, stocks, etc., one has to simply just use other guns. 

For example if I want to unlock a special acog sight for my M4 I have to look at the weapon progression chart and  pick a gun that unlocks it. I then use that gun. Sometimes, you have to level two or three other guns to get the sight you want for your favorite gun. Sure, this does encourage using every single gun, but it does seem a little unfair. 

In older COD Modern Warfare games, there were only a handful of gun attachments and cross-leveling was not there. In the older COD Modern Warfare games when you got to around level 50 you could “prestige” and start over again with nothing you had before. However, now a symbol is next to your name indicating you’re prestige level. Most previous games had 10 prestige’s, and each one took many hours to get to.

With this game there’s no prestige mode. There are seasons which automatically reset your player level and there’s no point in even leveling except to unlock new guns and level those.

Overall, the multiplayer for “COD Modern Warfare 2”  is fun and rewarding. It also showcases some of the greatest gun battles and graphics to date. Simply put, it is very different but in a good way.

I give the multiplayer a 9/10 rating.