Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

It's been a long time coming that my opinions on this disasterpeice be known. Some, possibly even most, may consider this game to be the utmost in awesome games. Others, like me, see it for what it is - a decent game with a horrid fanbase.

Let's start it off with the game itself, shall we?

The plot line is good - not as great as the first, but good. Although the first MW used the "your character has died" routine very few times - that one dramatic moment when you think you somehow survived a nuke just to be proven wrong - the second actually over-uses it to the extent of you not really feeling that same "holy cow" feeling you may have gotten from the first. The actual plot itself is nothing spectacular, but good enough to keep driving a person to the next mission - enough intrigue and backstabbing plot twists to make any person happy. Difficulty has been ramped down from the first, mostly in part to the end of endless enemy waves. Vehicle segments exist to add to the variety of normal mission batches.

When it comes to "missions", theres always the included of the co-op mode, which chops up parts of the campaign and turns it into a small 2 man mash up of single objectives (ie. Kill 10 juggernauts, disarm the two bombs). It's a nice diversion from the single player, since it lets you bring a friend along for the ride to accomplish some great tactical excursions - something the AI is rarely capable of.

The multiplayer...well, we'll save that for later.

The weapon selection is broad enough, but the largest problem is outside of the rate of fire they all tend to feel very similar. Some do full auto, some only semi, and some burst, but they all take large round counts to kill anyone on the normal match types, and only one or two rounds to kill someone in the 'hardcore' matches. In addition to this, they've added an entire category of explosive weapons - four rocket launcher types and a single crack-tube grenade launcher. It baffles me as to why such weapons would be needed in a game that is totally infantry-based in multiplayer (where such weapons are still pickable).

So the maps are pretty varied, ranging from arctic sub bases, blistering deserts, forested estates, all sorts of stuff - including a very "the rock"-esque stage in a prison. These also go into multiplayer.

So then we get to the biggest problem - the multiplayer. The developers thought hey had a great idea - to force people to chat in-game so that everyone would work as a team for the majoraty of match types - that turned out to be a really, really annoying thing that causes most people to not bother plugging in their mic. To make that matter worse, the game has one of the rudest, most notoriously '12 year old in the parents basement acting like they are big and bad' xbox-live stereotype audiences to exist in any game I have ever played on the xbox, or on the pc. You can't go a match without someone accusing someone of being fat with no friends, not hitting puberty, or spouting the word 'faggot' 10 times in the course of 2 minutes. To make it worse, the few matches that support the Live Party feature have the tendance to seperate your group - sometimes a person just gets dropped from the party, sometimes they get left in a limbo that says they are "waiting for the party leader". The addition of the explosives leads to nothing but grief in multiplayer as well, as people bomb the spawn at the very second of the start of the match from across the stage, wiping out the entire team. The most game-breaking part, however, is the "Tactical Nuke". No game that is multiplayer should have an item, regardless of how hard/easy to get, that instantly ends the match and places the user and his/her team on the top. In a game that supposed to be intense fast paced action, you shouldnt need to worry about a camper winning the game in a ridiculous come from behind instant win victory is needless.

The number of modes is pretty good, being search and destroy (a classic counter strike type 'set the bomb at point X and make sure it blows up), Deathmatch (and team variant), Domination (a king of the hill type hold-the-points longest), Capture the Flag, and some Harcore (no radar, less health) versions of modes.

Now, some would say I got no skillz, that the items I say are horrible is just because im a hater or a noob who cant play. I've single handedly won team matches before - is it a consistant occurance? No. To be honest, the juvenile dimwitted actions of most people that play the game keep me away, and many a friend has had to fight to get me to play it. I love the fast paced action, the ability of bullets to penetrate walls, and the utter absolute carnage that can erupt over a capture point. What I dont like is the overall multiplayer experience. To each their own though, to each their own.