november 15, 2009Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was one of my first games that I got for my PS3. What I loved about the game was that it had a fantastic single-player story. Yes, the multiplayer stuff really kicked some serious ass too, but the single-player story made the game. It was intense and short -- not too short, but short enough that I felt I got my money's worth out of it.
So, it was no surprise that I was eager to get Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 ("MW2"). Having just finished the single-person portion of the game, I have to say: Bravo Infinity War! What a great intense story with lots of good twists and characters to both love and truly hate. And when I say twists, I mean there were two good ones that caught me completely off-guard.
The characters in this sequel are good, but I felt that they were somewhat less memorable than the ones from the first. For instance, I bet everyone who played the first remembers Gaz. Gaz was cool. But, Ghost, who I guess is supposed to be like Gaz (he's voiced by the same actor, by the way) is quite a bit less memorable (the picture above is Ghost). That being said, the bad guy(s) in MW2 are a lot more memorable! I won't give away any spoilers though.
The single-player missions play much like a "best of" series of action sequences from different Hollywood movies. For instance The Rock's submersibles, prison shower shoot-out and even green smoke scenes make a showing. There's a level named "Cliffhanger" (huh, wonder which movie that is from). The story is mainly told via the interlude/loading sections with voice-overs and that is fine with me.
Th game itself is very intense and I found that I couldn't go for more than an hour at a time because it made my hands shake. Near the end of the game I was furious at the evil-doers, that is how well-written the bad guys are.
I was surprised to see some big Hollywood names in the credits. Voice acting included Lance Henriksen (Shepard), Kevin McKidd (Soap), Keith David and Barry Pepper. The voice acting in MW2 is top-notch and so are the sound effects which brought the fight to my livingroom (via a 6.1 setup). The graphics are great, though not as good as some made-exclusively-for-the-PS3 games like Killzone 2. The score for the game is a bit overbearing, and it is no surprise because it comes from Hans Zimmer -- the man who doesn't know the definition for the word "subtle" (or for that matter "original").
For those of you who complain the single-player campaign is too short, I will disagree with you. It took me 6.5 hours to complete the campaign in normal mode. At $60 for the game, that is less than $10 an hour and that is only for a short part of the whole MW2 package -- since I have yet to mention the hours to be sank into Spec Ops and Online Multiplayer. In the end, MW2 will be cheaper per hour than going to the latest crappy Michael Bay film -- and you'll enjoy this action better than that Michael Bay sludge.
All-in-all this was a fantastic single-player experience. Now, off to bring the fight to my pals online! I can't wait for Modern Warfare 3.
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