Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 single-player review: A hastily rewritten plot

For years, the Call of Duty franchise has been on the top of the chart regarding FPS games. Be it the story-based intense campaigns of Call of Duty or the intense multiplayer or Battle Royale fights, there have been none till now who could beat the COD franchise by Activision and Infinity Ward. Every year Call of Duty adds something new to the list for the players. This year also, we have seen one of the most hyped COD games, “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2,” getting released with a campaign, multiplayer, and also a Battle Royale mode. In this article, we will provide a brief review of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 along with brief discussions of all the aspects.

The latest game of the Modern Warfare series releases on October 28, 2022. However, the game’s campaign mode has already reached players’ hands thanks to early access. Anyone who has played these campaigns of any COD game knows what exactly to expect from the developers. However, unfortunately, Modern Warfare 2 could not live up to the expectations of the players, with a very unrelieved story, the game certainly does not come anywhere close to its 2009’s predecessor.

A new but average storyline

Modern Warfare 2’s story takes place three years after Modern Warfare, where Captain Price, his team, and the new Mexican Special Force hunt down Hassan Zyani. The game starts when a US airstrike kills terrorist leader General Ghorbrani. Hassan Zyani then takes up the role of the leader and vows to take revenge for the death of Ghorbrani.

As a part of his plan, Hassan allied with a Mexican drug cartel to steal the US ballistic missiles and launch them on the US. It falls on TaskForce 141 to stop Hassan from launching the bomb, with Captain Price being the leader and General Shepherd being the commander of the whole mission.

The 17-mission and 7 hours long campaign takes players worldwide to fight the Quds Forces. Players carry out missions from Amsterdam to the US-Mexico border, Chicago, or even the Al Mazrah. The campaign features some popular and known missions from Modern Warfare as well.

COD Modern Warfare 2 features a best-in-class shooting experience

As I mentioned before, the story of Modern Warfare 2 certainly could not live up to the expectations of the players. However, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 features unique character and weapon mechanics. The weapon mechanism and the sniper projectile also feel very accurate in the new game, which most FPS games can only dream about.

Modern Warfare 2 featured the iconic characters of TaskForce 141 including Captain Price, Ghost, and Soap. The game also gave us closer look at the personality of Gaz. More conversations were also added in the game with more interesting voice lines during the missions. All over, Modern Warfare 2 adds a new personality to our well-known TaskForce 141 characters.

The game also saw the debut of the new Mexican Special Forces. Alejandro looks like a very good addition as a character. His boldness and courage for his homeland added more dynamics and changed the outlook of several game missions. Kate Laswell and Grave’s Shadow group also made an iconic comeback to the game. However, it’s disappointing to see Farah not being included much in the new Modern Warfare game.

The graphics compensate for the lack of an exciting story

The story of Modern Warfare 2 could not offer something new for the players to be amazed about. There have always been one or more iconic missions in every Call of Duty game till now. Modern Warfare 2, on the other hand, gives the players more of a trip to the past, as we can see many similar missions from the previous Modern Warfare game.

The missions of the new game very much look like a remake of the old missions with some fundamental changes. One such mission is “Close Air,” where players need to give cover to Price, Soap, and Alejandro from the sky using an AC-130 gunship. Those who have played Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare will remember a similar mission in the previous game where players had to carry out a similar task to cover their teammates.

Throughout the game, the graphics quality of the game and the environment were really remarkable. The most extraordinary moment of the game is in the fourth game mission, where Captain Price goes for the cartel members in the Dutch capital, Amsterdam. The street where the scene occurs also exists in the real world and looks exactly the same as in the games. The city scenario of Amsterdam is bound to amuse anyone who goes through the mission. Infinity Ward undoubtedly did the best remake of an actual place in a game, like no one else.

The mission design of Modern Warfare 2 was up to the mark, like other Call of Duty titles. The story is set so the players will have an adrenaline rush throughout the game. The game features slow missions like Recon with Fire and fast-paced missions to balance out the whole thing. The tasks are comparatively shorter than the missions from the previous games. The first half of the game mostly consists of slow missions where players need to hold an area and clear out incoming waves of enemies. However, as the story progresses, the game gets more interesting with some new twists to the storyline.

The same story of trust and betrayal awaits

In my opinion, the best mission in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is the thirteenth mission, ‘Alone,’ where players need to escape from a town surrounded by guards. Players stay completely unarmed at the start of the mission.

As a part of the missions, players need to gather items and craft several items like bombs, mines, etc. Players must use these crafted tools to make their way out of the town and return to Ghost. The mission gets more significant to the game’s storyline as it takes place in the context of one of the game’s biggest events. I am not revealing the story as it might spoil a major part of the game for you all. 

Another noteworthy thing in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is the increase in difficulty level. In the previous games, playing with regular difficulty and finishing almost every mission on the first try was easy. However, it is not that easy in Modern Warfare 2 anymore, with AIs being made stronger in gunfights. The bullet accuracy of the AIs also seems to be significantly increased, which deals more damage to the players now. AIs also come from several angles, making the positioning of the players harder.

Political depictions or coincidence

If we dig deeper into the gameplay of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, we can see that the developers have taken some pretty bold steps through their gameplay. In the previous game versions, the developers always maintained the military code regarding not hurting anyone unarmed. However, we have seen Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 bringing change to this aspect, as it requires killing unarmed people to progress in some parts of the missions.

As per my personal observation and the observation of several netizens, several aspects of the Modern Warfare 2 gameplay depict real-world political situations. It is not still clear yet, but it looks like the murder scene of General Ghorbrani is a lot similar to the death of real-life Iran Quds Commander Quasem Solemani. Quasem Solemani was also killed by a US drone attack, similarly as shown in the game.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has once again villainised Russia as a nation as it included Russian villains like every other edition of the game. Previously, Modern Warfare depicted a Russian villain entering an airport and mass killing people with his LMG. The previous edition of the series also portrayed Russians as war criminals who killed innocent children and civilians.

Many might argue that it is just a video game. But honestly speaking, no one would like to constantly see their entire country depicted in such a way. The game also added a feature of silencing innocent civilians by pointing guns at them. Several scenes like this and brutal scenes throughout the game can certainly make someone feel a bit uncomfortable.

Final verdict

Call of Duty campaigns hold a different place in every gamer’s heart or Call of Duty fan. Since 2003, the game has been the go-to FPS title for several generations till now. It goes without saying that the 2009 release of Modern Warfare was the most significant hit for the Call of Duty franchise. Bearing the same name, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 undoubtedly held a lot of expectations from everyone.

However, the developers could not meet most of the expectations of the players in many cases. But Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 single-player campaign will forever be the best nostalgic trip to the past game as revealed in this review. The 2009 original and 2019 Modern Warfare remake’s success raised the bar so high that any other game can hardly reach it anytime soon. But adding new things like dialogues and new maneuvers surely shows us what Infinity Ward can do in future titles.

What are your thoughts on our review of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2? Let us know in the comments below!

Follow Daily Meta Dose on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn, or join on Telegram channel for all the latest updates on Video Games, Movies, TV Series, Anime, and more!