“War isn’t about friends, it’s about enemies.”
One of my favorite quotes from the high-octane campaign of this year’s Call of Duty. It rings true in the story, but only partially for the game itself. You’ll be (re)introduced to many of the most familiar faces from Infinity Ward’s previous effort, 2019’s Modern Warfare, including Ghost, Soap, Captain Price, and plenty of others I will leave a surprise.
The sprawling campaign keeps with series tradition and takes Task Force 141 all over the world in a multi-nation covert operation, to Western Asia, The Netherlands, and Mexico to name a few.
I only say covert in regard to the fact that this is a campaign meant to keep a full-blown war from starting, but don’t worry, you’ll engage in plenty of large-scale battles throughout its 6-7 hour campaign.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeVapCrI1pY
Graphics & Audio
Infinity Ward has really honed their craft this year. The visual fidelity and absolutely perfectly tuned audio are clear standouts. The environments are rendered beautifully with a lot of attention to detail. Videos are already popping up online comparing the in-game version of Amsterdam to its real-life counterpart. The result is staggeringly close.
And the same level of detail is kept up throughout its 17 missions. One particular scene had you walking through a tunnel and the environmental textures combined with the volumetric fog and lighting looked convincingly true to life. This combined with top-notch audio work made the campaign an absolute blast to play through. Gunfire properly rips through your eardrums over the shouts of your squadmates. Grenades concuss and disorient.
This all sounds amazing, but it was its added immersion to the gameplay that really sold me. Modern Warfare 2 asks the player to take part in plenty of room-clearing and stealth sections, and being able to know exactly where enemies are based on audio cues is great. I can only imagine how this is going to translate to multiplayer and the eventual Warzone 2.0.
Luckily, it ran great for me too!
At 4K ultra settings and DLSS at Quality, I can’t remember a time that I dropped under 60fps, and often I was above 80fps. There was an impressive amount of pc specific options as well, graphically and to customize your controls. I need to give a special shoutout to the water physics Infinity Ward whipped up for this game, they look really great in motion and made the inclusion of their gameplay elements welcome.
Gameplay & Gunplay
Other standouts of this year’s edition of Call of Duty include snappy gunplay and a quicker time to kill. This makes the game air closer to a military sim than it has in years past, without fully going into simulation territory, on the default difficulties at least. All the gun systems feel great to use, and I found myself swapping between them throughout the missions.
In the previous Call of Duty campaigns, I usually stick to the weapons given at the beginning of the mission, but I was so stoked about using the full arsenal that I often found myself picking up enemies’ weapons to adapt to the challenge at hand.
To both its benefit and detriment, Modern Warfare 2 succeeds at making you feel like you are part of a badass military team. Briefings are done well and pair nicely with the superbly directed cinematics that brings more life and personality to the characters than I’ve noticed in past iterations of the franchise. You even get a few dialogue options throughout the campaign that don’t have an effect on the overall story but give you additional banter with your squadmates or commanders.
Unfortunately, because of how real everything else feels, there are a few moments throughout the campaign that feel a bit cringe. Pointing your gun at a civilian in a trailer park town on the border of the U.S. and Mexico to “de-escalate” the situation feels a bit weird.
MW2’s Mission Design: Nostalgia is Powerful
Missions in Modern Warfare 2 hit very exciting highs sprinkled with a few that feel a bit tired. Some missions stand out as some of the best FPS missions I’ve played, while others rely too heavily on ideas done previously, either in 2019’s Modern Warfare or the original trilogy.
I was enamored with a mission titled “Dark Water” that had me fighting on an oil rig housing a deadly missile, taking a speed boat to catch an escaping cargo ship with the missile controls, and then fighting my way across the boat avoiding containers shifting from the rough ocean waves.
It was frenetic and extremely fun. Another standout was “Recon by Fire” (aka All Ghillied Up Part 2). I was hesitant to be put back into a ghillie suit for a sniping mission, but somehow Modern Warfare 2 managed to have me fully invested. Listening to Captain Price call out “Take the shot, 3 notches.” as I cleared the compound of enemy guards one by one was immensely satisfying. Honestly, the best parts of Modern Warfare 2 brought back feelings of playing Titanfall 2’s near-perfect campaign.
Modern Warfare 2 recycles ideas from the original Modern Warfare trilogy to prey on our nostalgia but they mix up the formula just enough to keep things interesting. You’ll provide air support in an AC130, assault a compound in night vision goggles, and take part in vehicle chases. Unfortunately, it can’t keep that momentum for its entire runtime.
There are a few missions that outstay their welcome by making you sneak past groups of enemies over and over or rehashing level design ideas introduced in 2019’s Modern Warfare, like directing someone through a level while you are on the camera system.
Final Thoughts
I really enjoyed Modern Warfare 2’s campaign. It wasn’t a flawless ride, but the high-octane action set pieces combined with top-notch gunplay and audio/visual design far outweighed any monotonous mission design choices. Maybe it was the 3-year break I took between Call of Duty campaigns that kept me so engaged. Regardless, I’ll be back for another fun romp the next time Infinity Ward is at the helm.
Stay tuned to Magnetic Magazine as we review Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2’s Multiplayer in the coming weeks, and Warzone 2 when it launches in November.
