At last, the season has arrived for cold air, cozy fires, pumpkin spice seasoning and enough smack-talking, controller gripping lobbies to keep you and your friends fragging enemies all throughout the holidays. I’m talking about the highly anticipated, “Modern Warfare II” — the 2022 re-imagining of the flagship game and not the 2009 game with the exact same name.
Call Of Duty has became a name that receives much-deserved scorn from the hardcore gamers and the filthy casuals alike. However, many people have returned to the series since Infinity Ward relaunched the “Modern Warfare” series in 2019 and damn it; it won over our hearts. Forget the awful Vanguard gameplay and
the “Black Ops: Cold War” broken server mechanics. Here we have an absolute masterpiece. For starters, the campaign is back with enough stealth mission antics to make Solid Snake and Sam Fisher blush all winter long, while maintaining high, explosive-action, and gun fights that one expects from the series without feeling mundane or overplayed.
For comparison, looking back at the narrative of 2019’s “Modern Warfare,” the character development might have been slightly better.
“MW2” takes all the good that Infinity Ward learned last time around and shakes it up. The gunplay is fantastic to put it lightly. These firearms feel like they were made for every kid with a Nerf fantasy cranked up with 10,000 volts of realism.
The art direction was inspired by real military and ballistics experts, right down to the reloading of magazine animations. Every piece of equipment feels unique and fun to use, the maps are well balanced for maximum competitive fairness. Classic game modes are back to gain plenty of XP.
Fancy something more of a challenge?: Tier 1 replaces the classically titled ‘Hardcore’ game modes. ‘Knockout’ (which plays like Steal the bacon) and ‘Prisoner Rescue’ (which plays like Capture the flag) will have you and the squad playing tactically to revive each other as there are no respawns.
‘Ground War’ is back and bigger than before, now 40 vs. 40 players, ‘Invasion’ is a spinoff mode that works very similarly with some added twists.
The all-new Warzone 2.0 has been extremely anticipated by fans and does not disappoint. Best of all if you only want to play Warzone, download it today because it’s completely free to play across all major platforms as a standalone game, like the first iteration. The game itself is cross-gen and cross-platform, so I can play on my PS4 with my buddy who is on PS5, and we can play with my brother who is using his PC. Awesome.
Co-op stealth missions are back and better than ever for up to three players. Aside from the campaign, co-op gives players the opportunity to drop into large maps to complete objectives while avoiding enemy detection.
The all new DMZ mode makes its debut. DMZ plays similar Warzone 2.0, but there are more objectives and AI bots securing high reward areas. If you run into other teams of real players, you may have to fight it out if they’re greedy. However, using the proximity chat feature, you and your buddies can broker a deal or a cease-fire with the would-be combatants and extract safely. The stakes are higher than before because if you die in the DMZ, you lose your loot and any gear/weapons you dropped in with.
The campaign:
The game itself over delivers in being the ‘real deal’ of a complete package. The environments are gorgeous and each mission packs definite thrills. The narrative was short and believable enough. The characters are lively, both new and returning. The only issue with the campaign is it is a bit short at 6-8 hours, and the ending, although exciting, could have been grander. On its own, “MW2’s” campaign can stand alone.
The multiplayer:
With standard classic modes, good maps, weapon tuning, and exciting new game modes that keep the game fresh, it is safe to say Infinity Ward pulled out all the stops when creating this beauty of a beast. The mechanics, animations, player movement, sound design, shadow rendering, and water ripple FX make every poorly timed grenade worth dying for. “MW2” is by far my favorite COD out of the last decade and makes it into my top 5 ‘first person shooters’ list. If you are an FPS fan, or got tired of COD in the past, pick this one up. It’s amazing what they’ve done. “MW2” keeps things fresh, nostalgic, and competitive. If it weren’t for some launch bugs they are fixing, I probably would call this experience perfect. It’s honestly close to it. By far worth the $70 price tag for the ultimate stocking stuffer.