Guest Review – Modern Warfare 2

Well folks here is the first, of what we hope to be many, “Guest Reviews” for Bonus Level. Since there is only so many games that we can play and buy we felt it would be a fun idea to open up the reviewing process to outsiders. So if you would like to write a review for us go ahead and bug your local Bonus Level representative about what game you would like to review. There are no guidelines to this either. We aren’t imposing any sort of scale as well because we are leaving that entirely up to you! But we do ask if you do use a point or star system that you quantify it and put it into context. For example, if you give a game 4/5 stars then what game would be a 5/5 or a 1/5 for you. That’s it! It’s really that simple, so if you ever wanted write a game review now is your chance.

Anyway, our first review is written by my buddy Jeremy. I asked him if he would want to write the review of Modern Warfare 2 because frankly I am too much of a fanboy to be objective. But I also know that he has played the last few Call of Duty games and never became fanatical about them. So their spell never took hold on his soul. He is a good guy and I hope you all like his review! WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD!

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It’s been almost a month since Modern Warfare: 2 launched making it the highest entertainment product launch of all time. Chances are, you’ve already played it. I’m a bit late to the party but here’s my thoughts as a guest here at Bonus Level.

Although I’ve played all the COD games except COD3, I wouldn’t call myself a big fan of the series. I’ll be honest. I suck at first-person shooters. My kill/death ratio for World at War and Modern Warfare 2 is appallingly low.

Plot

The game takes place 5 years after the first MW game. You were Soap MacTavish as well as a couple of other characters tracking the terrorist group Al-Assad in the first game. After a coup of an unnamed Middle-Eastern by Al-Assad, you, Sergeant Paul Jackson, are sent in with the USMC 1st Force Recon, to get to Al-Assad and try to stabilize the region. It’s basically a trap as a nuclear warhead is discovered and detonates before the Marines, as well as Jackson, can safely evacuate. The next mission? You stumble around as you slowly die from the intense radiation that you just suffered. Then you die. Let me repeat that. You fucking die. I was blown away by Infinity Ward’s willingness to just kill off your character. And that was just the middle of the game. You still had to unravel the conspiracy between Al-Assad and a Russian Ultra-nationalist group.

In MW2, You play the missions as one of three playable characters: Sergeant Gary “Roach” Sanderson, part of the the multinational commando unit known as Task-force 141, PFC Allen, a US Army Ranger, and Private James Ramirez, a member of the 1st Battalion 75th Regiment. As PFC Allen, you go undercover for the CIA to infiltrate Vladimir Makarov terrorist group. Makarov was on of lieutenants for the Russian Ultra-nationalist party which took over the Russia despite you taking out it’s leader, Imran Zakhaev, in the last game. He started a campaign against Europe committing acts of terrorism across the continent. This mission is the disturbing mission that Infinity Ward warns you about and offers you the option to skip. It’s pretty messed up but you’d be lame to skip it. The mission is really the beginning of the story as it sets in motion a Russian Invasion of the US. It’s pretty solid and the voice acting is top notch.

One thing that I’ve always admired is how much stuff is happening during any moment. Bombs going off everywhere, numerous grenade explosions, predator missiles. It just doesn’t stop. There’s not too many places to retreat and lots of the material be shot through or blown up. You really have to search for good cover. Thank god for checkpoints because I died over 100 times.

My biggest complaint? I kind of want a CG cut-scene sometimes instead of just a map and a lot of info flashing on the screen. Sure, you get voice over briefing you on the upcoming mission but I just kind of think it’s boring. WaW was a bit more innovative in this department. It’s the only way that it’s superior though.

Multiplayer

Next, the online play. At the time of this review, I’m level 10 of 60. As I said before, I suck at these games. I gave up trying to play Counter-Strike back in the day as I could never seem to get even a single kill. My first jump into Call of Duty Multiplayer was in WaW. I just didn’t even play it in the first Modern Warfare. It’s a first-person shooter combined with an RPG. You “level-up” by winning rounds, getting kills, and completing challenges. Unless you’ve been living in a cave, under a rock or in a cliche, you probably already know this. It’s pretty much what makes MW2 special and keeps it fresh.

So what happens if you happen to suck like me? The truth is that it’s great. I still die all the time but there’s such a thing of “Deathstreak” rewards. This brilliant addition helps keep things a little more fair for the FPS challenged. In a recent match, I died 4 times in a row which activated my Deathstreak. My particular death streak reward was Painkiller which allowed me to take extra damage for the first 10 seconds after I re-spawned. And if that wasn’t good enough, when you do get a kill again, you get a Comeback Reward which is around 200 points. In World At War, there were no Deathstreak rewards and Comebacks which made rising through the ranks much slower if you weren’t good.

Sure, it allows me to sit back and not really care about getting better but I’m pretty sure I plateaued in my FPS ability about 10 years ago.

As far as everything else, you can change your killstreak rewards and the maps are really fantastic so far. I haven’t found anything as lame as “Makin” on WaW. What I don’t like is playing as part of the Militia. I know my teammates are yelling things like “Cover me, I’m reloading” but it’s not in English. I’m not xenophobic but I think it’s pretty annoying. The only way to avoid it is to stay away from all your teammates.

Special Ops

It’s a new mode that allows you to do short missions and challenges to earn stars. I didn’t really play this. I guess by beating this you are awesome and the MW king.

Pros:

+Story is solid and goes farther than I ever thought this game would go. And this comes from a series where they killed you in a nuclear bomb blast.
+Deathsteak Rewards allow a more level playing field in mulitplayer.
+Strong initial set of multiplayer maps.
+Infinity Ward’s highly polished game engine.
+Infinity Ward is not afraid to kill off your characters.

Cons:

-Kind of boring sequences between missions.
-I’m sure some of those multiplayer maps that I think are good are going to get old really fast.
-Paying money for more multiplayer maps. I’m not made of money here.

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Jeremy is an avid gamer who was a beta tester for XBox Live way back in the day. If you want to game with him his gamer tag is Killa JB 83.