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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Xbox 360)

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 review

Game: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Platform: Xbox 360
Genre: First-Person Shooter (Contemporary)
Developer: Infinity Ward

Staff review by Jason Venter

November 12, 2009

If a critic were to compare Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 for Xbox 360 to a marathon run through an Afghanistan minefield, would you keep reading? I'm not sure that I would. There's enough talk like that floating around the Internet already. So let's kick the hyperbole to the curb, as much as my prose permits. Let's get right down to the question at hand ("Is the game any good?") and to the answer that I endorse ("Yes.").

Developed by Infinity Ward, the team responsible for the installments in the Call of Duty franchise that you likely remember most fondly, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 boasts many of the same features and attributes that made the first Modern Warfare title such a remarkable experience. It wouldn't be difficult to argue that you're being asked to spend $60 for "more of the same." There are a few differences this time around, though, and you may be surprised to learn just how much they matter.

For me, the most important change is that things feel more involving than they ever did in the past. I realize that "involving" isn't all that precise, so I'll qualify. When I say "involving," I mean that while the first game had me running around gorgeous environments, ducking behind barracks, shooting down helicopters and storming guarded compounds, moments where I forgot that I was playing a game were few and far between. As a critic, I found myself constantly thinking about the care that must have gone into crafting one beautiful environment after another, or I paused to appreciate a particularly solid layout for a multi-player arena. Such reactions aren't unusual and I'm not sure that they're even bad.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, however, changes things up because environments are so convincing that it's difficult not to become involved on a deeper level. I felt almost as if I had stumbled onto an actual battlefield. As I ran through the buildings of a bombed out city, I saw one of my comrades fallen and lying in the field. As explosions rattled the structure around us, another soldier lifted the wounded man's body by the arms and began to drag him toward safety... until another bullet cut the hero down mid-stride. It was a set of events that I didn't have to watch. There was no cumbersome cutscene, no prerecorded dialog. It was just one of many such moments so typical of that level and many others, a moment made memorable precisely because no undue attention was called to it.

The developers at Infinity Ward clearly realize what they have achieved and they seem to understand precisely what matters in a way that other development teams don't quite get. Things aren't always perfect, certainly, but you'll seldom be reminded of the fact. In some games, for instance, you might see a Jeep parked along an alleyway, blocking your progress. Here, the Jeep is burning--and might explode if you hang around too long--and you can shoot out the tires to watch it slowly sink a few inches toward the ground. Then you can run past it, because it turns out that the alley wasn't really a dead end, anyway. Elsewhere, you can watch flags whipping in an Atlantic squall, blast apart computer monitors and bust through windows before crawling over the shards of glass that your actions produced. Nearly everything with which you interact behaves in the manner you would expect, to the point where it stops surprising you and you begin to take it for granted. Persistent violence aside, the world that Modern Warfare 2 presents doesn't feel much different from what you might see on your way to the mailbox tomorrow.

The developers were quick to capitalize on that verisimilitude as a means to produce a fictional military conflict that I can only hope will remain forever a figment of my worst nightmares. There were numerous moments throughout the adventure where I felt compelled to give my best gaming performance just so that I could see the good guys win. Yet even the simple concepts of good and evil weren't sacred to Infinity Ward. There are places where the plot blurs the line in a disconcerting manner that no thorough review of the game can possibly ignore.

Nowhere does that realistic but disturbing blur come into play with more conviction than in the early mission called "No Russian." You can skip it if you like; the game provides the option to do so before you begin the overall campaign. Even if you choose to give it a try, you can later change your mind and move immediately to the next area from the "Pause" menu. When I worked through the story campaign, I decided that I wanted to experience everything that the game had to offer. As a result, I found myself joining a group of terrorists who were planning an attack on a Russian airport. My commanding officer had secured me a place on the team--in an undercover capacity, of course--and he informed me that although my actions would perhaps cost me a piece of myself, the lives that I would ultimately save justified anything that might happen.

I and the thugs to whom I feigned allegiance began a slow march through the airport's lobby. Our march began at a ticket line. As we entered through a service door, perhaps twenty or thirty civilians waited for the chance to depart to places unknown. One of them looked toward us and saw our automatic weapons and grim demeanor. There was a scream, then many more as my comrades unleashed hell. The bodies of innocents sagged ahead of me as blood pooled on the ground and the wails and moans of the dying filled the air. The rampage through the airport continued, with some of the wounded crawling toward shelter as gunmen sought them out and slaughtered them at point blank. Though I wasn't compelled to fire on a single civilian, my complicity in the carnage tore at my gamer soul. This felt too real, a part of my mind kept whispering, the part that paused just long enough to suggest that perhaps I should skip it all.

I'm not sure that I ever want to play through that stage again, or that I ever want to be comfortable performing similar atrocities in other games of this nature, no matter the reason. That's part of the point that I believe Modern Warfare 2 is making, and the developers deserve praise for getting to me on a level that no game before has managed. I don't have to like it, though, and it seems safe to assume that plenty of parents who will happily stand in line to buy this for their youngsters would be horrified upon learning what they've purchased. The 'M' on the game's jacket stands for 'Mature.' Really, it does.

The point may be moot, anyway. Many players will choose to ignore the single-player campaign and the philosophical questions it raises through its 6-hour duration. They'll pick up Modern Warfare 2 not for the border-blurring narration (or the side challenges that can keep players occupied alone for many hours beyond that) but for the local or online deathmatches. Those present no moral dilemmas, no charismatic heroes or treachery. There are only the battlefields--16 of them, all beautifully rendered--the perks, the bullets exchanged and the moments where your squad triumphs using teamwork and ingenuity. Those are both attributes that I would hope to foster in my future children.

Many past games have easily justified a purchase by taking a great idea and making it better. Others have relied heavily on shock value to make their point and to drum up a consumer audience. Despite moments that shock, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is almost exclusively the former. By building on a solid foundation and then taking things to the next level in nearly every area, Infinity Ward has proven that "more of the same" still has the ability to shock, amaze and entertain if it is executed with sufficient passion and flair. That's why I love it, and that's why I'm confident that you'll love it too.

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