So I rented “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2,” I’ve played through the campaign, and taken a pretty good bite from Spec Ops and Multiplayer. I thought I’d hit you with some bullet points about my impressions:
-In general, a big improvement. They go easy on the dogs and grenades, and the infinitely respawning baddies are toast too. All are welcome subtractions.
-The plot is ridiculous. It’s like “Red Dawn” on steroids with 200 million dollars. I don’t get it, I don’t care, they cooked up an excuse for me to ride a snowmobile at 100 mph, and then pilot a zodiac down a raging rapid an hour later. If you want narrative, read some Shakespeare.
-Campaign is a riot and a half. Lots of varied game play, they never let the rhythm get stale. I dropped the campaign in COD4 about halfway in, because I just wasn’t having fun anymore, but I flew through this one in a few days. That should tell you a lot. The vehicle levels are integrated gracefully—MW2 obviously decided not to become another “vehicle shooter,” so these sections are somewhat like an on-rails sequence with limited mobility control. They’re not especially challenging, but they feel really intense, so the illusion of overcoming something is quite strong. I think it was the right move across the board.
Some people will tell you the campaign is too short. I disagree, I think its brevity is appropriate. The game is so breathlessly paced that I think it would’ve worn thin quickly if it had dragged out any longer. You might also hear that it’s too easy (although no one could claim that while playing it on “Veteran”). Again, I beg to differ. COD games are built on incredibly linear, scripted events, and I’ve always felt that this genre is poorly suited to rigorous challenge. If you build a game so there’s only one way to get through it, that’s cool, but I think it’s wise to consider the effect of that decision. If your player is stuck, they can’t “go a new way around,” they’re glued in their seats. Game design 101 is that repetitive, punishing tasks are not fun. It’s beneficial to think of the experience as a theme park ride: you want to focus on the illusion of difficulty more than the literal production of overwhelming obstacles.
If you do this, and Infinity Ward did, some advantages bring themselves to bear. For instance, scripted games have a wider palette of experience to draw from. “Grand Theft Auto” can’t drop an airplane out of the sky right in front of you, because they don’t know where you’re going to be. MW2, by contrast, can create a riveting spectacle right in front of your eyes, because there’s no chance you’re going to wander into a set piece, glitch out the code, and ruin the experience. In other words: the narrower your player’s path, the more cinematic the experience.
-Yes, I played the airport. Yes, it was awful and they should be ashamed. What a terrible blemish on an otherwise fun experience.
-Multiplayer is fun, but it’s probably the least changed from COD4. Deatstreaks are genius: if you’re getting walloped, these perks show up and give you a small boost to prop you back up and get you in the game. They’re well-designed, lassiez fare game mechanics, never feeling Communist or intrusive. Beyond that, though, they’ve basically refused to fix what isn’t broke. Smart guys.
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