The most awaited game of the year has finally launched and we at Pinoy Gaming has lost a lot of time playing it. The sequel to the best Multiplayer game of 2007 is finally out and it is bigger and better than ever. Just how good is it? Read on and find out!
Modern Warfare 2 continues the story from the first Modern Warfare only 5 years later. Imrahn Zakhaev is dead and a new bad guy has taken his place, Vladimir Makarov, who is even worse than Zakhaev ever was. You play a multitude of characters on this one jumping from one to another depending on the mission. There’s a private Allen and a Sergeant Roach. The story is a bit convoluted and a bit confusing if you haven’t played the first game. The twists in the story give you a couple of surprises here and there and totally makes up for the confusion. It also takes you to several different locales around the world which we truly believe is the strength of the single player campaign.
Graphically speaking, MW2 isn’t exactly the leap in technology you’d expect from such a high profile release but it is still a marvel to witness. Small details added to the maps make the game so immersive. Chickens for sale in a public market, vandals on walls, paper and plastics flying around, fire hydrants (that explode in a gush of water when destroyed), all these minutiae totally add to the experience that create a graphical marvel MW2 is.
The sounds in this game are another factor why MW2 is so much a success. The guns sound real. I’ve fired some of these rifles in real life and let me tell you they sound EXACTLY the same. And bullets hitting glass, stone, cans, cars exploding, are all mastered incredibly. To add to all this is the musical score by Hans Zimmer (yes the Hollywood Sound Genius responsible for the pulse pounding beats we hear in many action films). This all adds up to a frantic gunfight that sounds authentic and feels like an action film.
The gameplay of Modern Warfare 2 is threefold, each of which can function as a separate game. The single play campaign is one, the second one is the Multiplayer which we will discuss a little later and the new Spec Ops – you and a buddy get to do missions together (new in the Call of Duty world).
Multiplayer pretty much functions the same way as COD4 Modern Warfare 1. However it comes with LOADS of new content. Your weapons for instance have a plethora of attachments that you need to unlock. Before you’d be limited to 4 or 5 attachments, now there are 9. There are more perks as well ranging from the ever standard Stopping Power (that increases your bullet damage) to the new and interesting Hardline (which reduces the kills needed for a killstreak reward by 1). Speaking of killstreaks, you are no longer limited to UAV, Airstrike then chopper. Now you there are almost 20 to unlock. You get a UAV, counter UAV, airstrike, stealth airstrike, sentry guns, care packages, a tactical nuke (I love this one) and my new favorites, you get to be the gunner of an attack chopper and the AC130.
Multiplayer rewards aren’t limited to these however, there’s also camouflage for yourself and for your weapons. Also, and this is something new to Modern Warfare, titles and emblems. Titles are given when you achieve something in game. For me, having called several AC130s to win the game, I got the “Angel of Death” title, which I run with complete with an emblem (an image you can use to represent yourself) of a skull with wings. All these can be unlocked once you achieve something and the achievements are practically endless!
This time, multiplayer requires your team to work together well. Gone are the days when everybody is using stealth kits because if the enemy gets choppers and planes as killstreak rewards you’ll get totally owned since nobody could shoot them down. That’s why there’s a party system. You can bring your friends along with you as you hop from game to game.
Here’s the bad news about multiplayer, there are no dedicated servers. You have to connect to IWNET, Infinity Ward’s (game developer) new baby to play multiplayer games. The problem with this is you don’t always get the best connections. It’s a hit and miss thing. AND, to add to the frustration, when you quit a game because of bad connection, it is counted as a loss. We’re crossing our fingers that Infinity Ward fixes this problem with patches soon.
Finally we have Spec Ops or Special Operations. You and a buddy get to join in and take on missions with many objectives. For example there’s one where you and a buddy are a sniper team that needs to stop several enemies, waves of them. There’s also getting from point A to point B without being detected. There’s also breaching and clearing missions and loads more. There’s a potential here for downloadable content which expands on the game’s replay value.
Speaking of replay value, this game has ALL THAT. You’ll get hooked playing it OVER and OVER and OVER again to get unlocks in multiplayer, achievements in singleplayer and stars in spec ops. So for a Php2500 peso game on PC, this one will last you years! We highly recommend purchasing originals, SULIT KASI ITO MGA KAPATID.
All in all, Pinoy Gaming Network brands this game as a MUST BUY. See you in the battlefield mga kapatid, magpapa level pa ako to get new guns yokyokyok.
Graphics – 10
Sound – 10
Gameplay – 9 (minus 1 due to no dedicated servers)
Replay Value – 10