Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 – Review

Our Score: 9/10

After previously previewing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’s multiplayer beta, we finally have the single-player. Yes, I know most people these days like to play Call of Duty just for the multiplayer experience but for a lot of us, the campaign matters. Especially when it’s a Modern Warfare story. So let’s get into the campaign of Modern Warfare 2.

War Never Changes in Modern Warfare 2

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 picks up sometime after the events of the 2019 Modern Warfare reboot, and the star of the cover is who kicks us off. That’s right, the game starts us off as Ghost who made quite an impact on gamers back in the original Modern Warfare 2. Anyway, Task Force 141 seems to be majorly present in this game, including Soap (But seriously, what type of a name is that?). In terms of overall story and plot, don’t go in expecting something deep and riveting.

The campaign for this game is like a big-budget Hollywood blockbuster. It’s got great set pieces, really cool missions, and some great moments overall. It’s one of those campaigns where if you try to dig too deep into the logic or logistics of things, it won’t make sense. And doesn’t need to. So just turn off your brain, and enjoy the spectacle of the story.

The old characters that are “rebooted” still feel like their original counterparts. While the new characters are a much-welcome inclusion. Goes to show that Price and Task Force 141 aren’t just doing everything by themselves, and have the help of some other cool folks.

Mission Mischief

The campaign itself has quite a decent length and overall is incredibly fun. However, the campaign seems to be in two minds in a lot of moments. While the frantic, you vs the world missions are an absolute blast to play, the over-abundance of stealth missions and their overall approach can let some folks down. The gunplay is absolutely fantastic which makes you want to have more action-oriented missions. But as the game progresses, you get hit with more and more slow-paced stealth missions. And that sort of takes the wind out of your sails.

Don’t get me wrong, some of the stealth missions are absolute bangers, but I think they’re too frequent and feel like speed bumps. Also, the fact that you can’t really approach these stealth missions differently makes the gameplay slightly stale. Because this game isn’t a slow tactical shooter. It’s meant to be an adrenaline rush. So when you take that away, you tend to see the flaws in the gameplay. But again, this is my opinion and complaint, I can see a lot of people absolutely enjoying these missions and feeling the opposite of me.

The campaign also acts as a tutorial for Warzone. A lot of the mechanics that you’ll find in Warzone are present in the story missions. They really want people to play the campaign so that you can get acclimated to Warzone and the various mechanics present in it. So instead of a boring tutorial, you get a fun few hours and understand how to play the game.

The Explosive Spectacle of Modern Warfare 2

A few paragraphs above, I mentioned how this is like a big-budget Hollywood blockbuster. And that’s true not only in the story sense but also in the visuals and audio. The visuals in Modern Warfare 2 are breathtaking. The amount of detail present on literally everything is incredible. The particle effects are phenomenal and the lighting is mesmerizing. They come together to form visuals that truly feel next-gen. It looks so damn realistic and has that “AAA” polish to the visuals.

And to match the visuals, the audio is also top-notch. The sound of weapons in this game makes you feel absolutely powerful and make you fear for your life. The way sound bounces off of surfaces and the cacophony of explosions, bullets and dialogue adds to the immersion. For character performances, I have no complaints as everything felt like a film.

And if you’re playing on a PS5, the haptic feedback is something you need to experience for yourself. Feeling the kickback of a gun is not something I expected from a controller but here we are. Of course, it won’t pop your shoulder off but the heft and precision of the vibrations are incredibly immersive.

Final Verdict

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has a campaign that fans are going to absolutely enjoy. It’s a bombastic blockbuster of a title that will wow you with its polish and incredible immersion.