The play shifts between straight up infantry warfare (as the US Rangers) and more covert special-ops infiltration and wet work (as a member of Task Force 141) and credit must be given to Infinity Ward for keeping the levels varied. Perhaps the most controversial level will be the one where you play an undercover agent who has been entrenched for some time in a terrorist cell. In order not to blow your cover you have to enter an airport and massacre civilians there. I’m not sure of the merit of it really. I didn’t find it that fun killing innocent civilians. It also didn’t make any sense. Why would this undercover agent not just try and assassinate the terrorist leader before he could commit the atrocity? I would have preferred it if at the critical moment you had turned on them and there had been an airport shoot-out where civilian hostages were taken and you had to chase them through the airport. (Activision — give me a call for Modern Warfare 3… seriously)

And that’s one of the only flaws, for me, with this game. The story has more holes in it than a piece of swiss from you local deli. The writing and voice acting is corny and stiff and the briefing moments between levels were boring and confusing. The argument that gamers don’t have the patience for huge cut scenes and involving storylines doesn’t cut water when you consider the phenomenal success of franchises like Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy and Grand Theft Auto. Indeed, one of the things I loved about the World War 2 Call of Duty games was that the historically accurate missions really made the action feel all the more real and involving. It’s obvious here that Activision were a little too worried about making a game out of real wars that are still ongoing. Consequently, the preposterous plot seems more Die Another Day than Casino Royale and it seems a little bit lazy and cheapens the single player experience a little, especially considering there is only about 6-8 hours of gameplay in it.

Don’t get me wrong there are a few arresting new innovations. There’s a great moment where you get to make a covert knife kill while hanging from a rope above an unsuspecting soldier. There’s also a new ‘breaching’ mode during stealth missions where you set a charge on a door and once it opens time morphs time into slow motion like Max Payne did. And best of all there is a predator drone mode which lets you control a drone from the sky. It’s adequately enjoyable but nothing spectacular. If you’re only interested in the single player campaign I’d defintiely recommend renting it rather than purchasing it outright.

Specs Op and Multiplayer: Worth the Money Alone

Still, the Modern Warfare 2 developers can afford to be lazy with its single player because the real players will be spending hundreds of hours on the multiplayer game. More evolution than revolution, Infinity Ward has nevertheless made multiplayer hugely more customizable. The perk reward system remains the same with players advancing through the ranks depending on their abilities and gaining experience points with each battle but the number of different class configurations and weapons modifications has greatly increased. The Killstreak rewards system has also been expanded upon to include new weapons drops and air strikes such as Sentry Gun drops, Predator Missiles, Harrier Strikes, Pave Low Strikes and the awesome ability to be an AC-130 Gunship gunner from your laptop. Oh yes — and for 25 kills a tactical nuke strike that obliterates everything on the screen! In an attempt to level the paying field a little for inexperienced players a new “Deathstreak” feature ‘rewards’ players that die consistently with out killing anybody with the ability to steel your killer’s military class and weapons. I’m not sure how the hardcore faithful are going to feel about that but I guess it will just give them further motivation to get better and better at the game. Another welcome addition to online multiplayer, is in-game host migration. If the host of the match decides to leave the game (frequently from my experience a sour loser), the game doesn’t automatically reset to the main lobby as in Modern Warfare, but will instead give the option to select a new host from the remaining players and continue the game. Overall, multiplayer is sure to provide many hours of amusement.

Making up for the short single player, is the game’s new Special Ops mode which can be played solo or in co-op online. These are a series of mini-missions divided into four groups — Alpha, Bravo, Charlie and Delta – and are based on sections within the campaign’s levels. They include scenarios such as a racing snowmobiles across tundra and taking out guerrillas in a favela in Rio de Janeiro while avoiding civilian casualties. But best of all is a scenario where one teammate controls an AC-130 gunship taking out enemies form the sky while another tries to escape to a rendezvous point. Awesome fun. The Special Ops missions range from one to three stars in their level of difficulty, and players can use the stars they earn to unlock more challenges. There are 23 missions in all, and a lot of them are highly addictive; especially as they are all timed.

Final Verdict?

Well, single player is as shallow as a puddle but it’s fun to splash around while it lasts. But once you have your feet wet, make sure to dive headlong into the deep reservoir of new additions that have been made to multiplayer and the new Spec Ops mode and you won’t be disappointed.

RATING: 9 OUT OF 10

Related posts on 30ninjas.com:

• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 — A Hater’s Review
• Modern Warfare 2 Now Free!?!
• Modern Warfare 3 Out This Year!
• Modern Warfare: Reflex — Takes More Than It Gives
• Call of Duty Getting Pay-to-Play Upgrades in a Few Months?
• Call of Duty: Black Ops — The Good Gameplay, The Bad Story, and The Ugly Grue