Once More Into The Breach

As the days get shorter and temperatures start to dip, it can only mean one thing – time for a new Call of Duty game.

This year’s installment is a reboot of 2009’s Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, not to be confused with the 2020 remaster on (then) modern consoles – review here.

This is a loving reimagining of the boots-on-the-ground effort, built with this generation of consoles and PCs firmly in its crosshairs.

Fans of the series will be pleased to see the return of some of the franchise’s most beloved characters, boasting familiar yet refined gameplay

It was released on the 28^th of October preceded by a secret underground tournament, held in London on the 27th.

The event saw two teams go head-to-head in a multiplayer duel to display the intense gameplay and some of the best most realistic graphics seen yet in a Call of Duty game.

A wonderful way to get the internet buzzing ahead of the game’s release, celebs like Professor Green, Jordan Pickford and Nicola Adams were in attendance alongside internet favourites like Big Zuu and Sunpi to name but a few.

If you had the foresight to pre-order, you would have had early access to the campaign mode one week before its release, no doubt another way of getting eyes on the game before it hit shelves.

 

 

Story

Modern Warfare 2 (2022) is a sequel to the much-celebrated Call of Duty: Modern Warfare from 2019.

Set three years after those events, we are re-introduced to Task Force 141. MacTavish, Ghost, and Captain Price are back to save the world from freefalling into yet another World War.

A middle eastern warlord has somehow managed to get some American WMDs (Weapons of Mass Destruction) and has teamed up with Mexican cartels to smuggle these weapons into the USA.

It is down to you to prevent this from happening, whilst surviving threats both foreign and domestic.

Some aspects of the original story have been cast aside, whilst others were resolved during limited time events of Call of Duty: Warzone.

This decision does leave some gaps in the overall narrative of this series and can leave the campaign story feeling a little disjointed at times, however the overarching story strikes a strange balance of being entirely grounded and the usual high-octane jingoistic fare.

It also stops just short of asking some probing questions around America’s role in global warfare, but jetting you off to another foreign locale before you can stop and think properly about the nature of your actions…

 

 

Campaign Gameplay

The gameplay – as always – is great; it feels familiar enough for long-time players but also accessible to new recruits.

The guns feel weighty and meaningfully unique – sub-machine guns are as light and snappy as one might expect, whilst assault rifles feel heavy and accurate, and shotguns pack a satisfying wallop.

The roughly 10-hour campaign doesn’t really offer anything new to the franchise.

Its 17 missions will take you to the Middle East, Mexico, Spain, and an impressive interpretation of Amsterdam. A splattering of new mechanics throughout the campaign, like a dialogue wheel, do not outstay their welcome but do occasionally feel a little shoehorned in.

As can be the case with Call of Duty games, players can feel like a passenger, being pulled from one gunfight to another. The pace of the story and constant jumping around the globe can be jarring, as it makes the story feel disjointed.

Developers Infinity Ward did try to breathe new life in Modern Warfare by giving the illusion that a mission can be conducted in numerous ways.

At some story parts, you can choose to breach a building with C4, crash through a skylight, or even drop tear gas down a vent to smoke your foes out into the open. These all sound great but ultimately make a marginal difference to how the mission plays out.

To complement the frenetic gunplay, Modern Warfare 2 slows things down at times with stealth missions and survival scenarios, where scavenging and crafting equipment is your only way to victory.

There is a larger emphasis on deliberate movement and good positioning particularly as the game’s AI has a tricky habit of flanking and pinpoint accuracy.

Death comes quickly if you are not cautious.

The difficulty can jump with no warning, and it feels a tad unfair at times. If you are looking to just get through the spectacle, you may want to select one of the lower difficulty levels.

 

 

Graphics

Graphics and audio are where this game really excels. Built with the new generation of consoles in mind, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 really makes the most of all this new processing power.

Infinity Ward worked hard to deliver one of the best-looking first-person shooter games available. The photorealism, textures and character models are just phenomenal in terms of detail.

Superb particle effects and a clean minimalistic HUD really do draw gamers into the hectic moments and add to the tension of slower stealth sections too.

 

 

Multiplayer

Unlike 2020’s remaster, this year’s release comes with the much-loved multiplayer.

To most Call of Duty fans this is the main event. The campaign mode can be fun but once it is over there isn’t much incentive to replay it. Online multiplayer is where you will get your money’s worth.

We see the welcome return of Spec Ops. A mode that uses a two-player set up and challenges players to work together to complete various objectives around a large map space in a variety of ways.

You are incentivised to complete these as you are rewarded with various prizes and unlockables. These can be used to upgrade or customise your weapons, with the Gunsmith.

There are hundreds of combinations of optics, barrels, receivers, and other accessories you can put on your gun. Interestingly you can even build hybrid guns by taking parts from different gun types and putting them together creating your own firepower which is a nice touch.

The overall multiplayer experience is excellent, it provides the classic tried-and-true CoD experience fans have come to expect. Firm favourites return like Team Deathmatch and Domination but new online modes have been introduced.

Prisoner Rescue and Knock Out are both no-respawn match types that require players to be much more strategic than usual, and really test your mettle.

 

 

Summary

If you are a Call of Duty fan, then this is more of the same…which is exactly what you signed up for!

Whilst the campaign can drag at times, moment-to-moment gameplay is fun and engaging. Realistic graphics and tight gunplay really can get the heart pumping. The game does play out like a blockbuster movie, but it can leave the player feeling like they’re merely along for the pulse-pounding ride.

As the game opens, it becomes clear that Activision and Infinity Ward have plans for Modern Warfare 2 taking it well into next year.

A major Season One update is due in November, followed by more DLC scheduled to release in December.

As enjoyable as it is a lot of this game feels like a preview for the upcoming Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0.

Many of the new mechanics introduced in the story mode are underutilised here but a betting man should wager some – if not all – will reappear there.

The pinnacle of boots-on-the-ground combat, Call of Duty has rarely played better.