Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare has been one of gaming's biggest successes in the past couple of years, boasting impressive sales numbers and an even more impressive online following. It was the biggest departure in the series, shifting from World War II to present day and making enough gameplay improvements to get enthusiasts hooked once again and even pull in the most casual of gamers. A year later, Call of Duty: World at War was released, once again returning to its roots and shifting the focus back to single player. While the campaign was easily one of the best this series has seen, the multiplayer didn't quite catch on like before. Many gamers chose to stick to Modern Warfare for online play and wait for the inevitable sequel. Well, Modern Warfare 2 is here, and while most fans will be pleased for the most part, some unfortunate drawbacks have managed to hinder the overall experience.

Modern Warfare looked great for its time, and while the sequel definitely lives up to it, things just haven't seen enough of an improvement to truly call it a step up. Don't get me wrong, it looks good when charging through the environments and taking it all in together on a basic level, but if you stop to look around for just a second you realize that corners have been cut almost every step of the way.

Character models do look quite a bit better, and battlefields are broader and more occupied than before, but that's about as far as it goes. The textures are muddy and low-res, blood and other simple effects still look awful, trees and brush are flat, and most of the time the backdrops are completely unacceptable. I know you could pick apart just about any game and find things to complain about, but after the improvements we've seen in other games throughout the past couple of years, things like this are truly beginning to stick out like a sore thumb. Developers need to add that extra layer of polish if they want the visuals to hold up to current standards, and while Modern Warfare 2 does have a few standout moments in terms of graphics, it just doesn't do it as a whole.

The biggest turn that Modern Warfare took was completely reimagining the gameplay engine, introducing a barrage of improvements over the games that came before it, and the sequel does a good job of holding onto that. At its core the combat fares pretty much the same as the original, introducing only a few subtle improvements. Still, it handles better than almost any shooter I've played (on consoles, at least), and still has some of the smoothest and most responsive shooting mechanics to date.

The main game is split up into three separate parts: campaign, special ops, and multiplayer. The campaign in Modern Warfare 2 is by far the most varied of any game in the series, offering more environmental and gameplay diversity than either Modern Warfare 1 or World at War. While some may see this as a good thing, for me it's where the game began to fall apart. You'll be dropped into tons of different locations and asked to not only blast your way through them, which is fun enough, but also perform a number of different tasks, such as taking control of air strikes, planting bombs, sneaking through battlefields, defending locations, and even hopping on a snow mobile for one of the most enjoyable vehicle segments I've experienced, that's unfortunately over way too soon.

While this all works out well enough on its own, the problem is that none of it is placed in any sort of context. The story, if you could even call it one, takes place through the eyes of several different characters in different parts of the world, and don't seem to be connected in any way whatsoever. Even on their own, the different gameplay segments have no real plot and 90% of the time you're just doing random things in random places and have no clue why.

Beyond this, the intensity of the gameplay has been ramped up to unnecessary levels. They drop you in the middle of firefights, already getting hammered by enemy fire, provide no clear directions or objectives, and expect you to get through it. Most of the time the enemies have you completely surrounded, there's no clear cover, and on top of it you can only take a few shots before you get dropped. Yes, the AI is still ridiculously accurate and completely unrelenting in order to make up for the lack of actual tactics. I know that the point is to get your blood pumping and make you feel like you're in the heat of battle, but when things stop being fun, which they do quite often, you know they've taken it too far. The newly added blood splatters that show up when injured, blinding and distracting you, certainly don't help things.

The campaign as a whole is probably the most random and over the top thing I've ever played. Its complete lack of cohesiveness is a clear indicator that the design stages consisted of little more than thinking up individual segments that they thought would be totally cool and throwing it all together in a big jumbled mess, Michael Bay style. What may have looked good on paper does not translate well in-game, and it's pretty unfortunate that they felt the need to cut out much of the basic functionality in order to fit in flashy action scenes.

Special ops does provide some good variety, putting a large number of shorter gameplay segments together to form a sort of challenge mode that can be played alone or with a friend. A lot of it is taken straight from the campaign, making you run through and kill a number of guys or defuse bombs, but some of them, such as defending, sniping, or manning an AC-130 gunship to defend a second player while he makes his way through the battlefield, are totally new and quite a bit of fun. Those who are looking for something besides competitive online play, but still want to team up with a friend or get away from the campaign, will be pleasantly surprised with this addition.

The main multiplayer mode is the real star of the show here, and while it too is pretty similar to the original, a nice amount of little tweaks and improvements have gone a long way in rejuvenating the experience. As in the campaign mode, the controls are fast and precise, however now that you're up against actual players, pulling off kills becomes much more fun and rewarding, and the gameplay engine is really able to shine.

Two major complaints with Modern Warfare 1 was the lack of both dedicated servers and a lobby system. Unfortunately, neither of these things were added, which is a bit disappointing, however a newly added host migration system goes a long way in easing past frustrations of game after game ending early due to the host quitting or disconnecting. Now if this happens, the game pauses for a short second, finds a new host, and picks up right where it left off.

Plenty of other additions, such as new and expanded perks, new killstreak rewards, a good number of new guns and equipment, hundreds of custom unlockable player icons, a wider variety of maps, and tons of other new features that you'll have to discover for yourself, really breathe new life into the online system. This is by far one of the best online multiplayer games I've played, and if you're wondering if it's finally time to move on from Modern Warfare 1, the answer is definitely yes. If like me you got too fed up with the online system in the first game, give this one another shot because things have really been improved and everything is now more in-depth, and more importantly, stable.

Overall, Modern Warfare 2 is a nice package. The campaign is a decent amount of fun and offers some good variety, but with a five hour length, no solid plot elements and a good number of frustrations along the way, it's probably the most disappointing thing to be found here. The competitive multiplayer is the true selling point, and if you're honestly not interested in that, I'd recommend passing on dropping the $60 for it. However, if you're looking for a good multiplayer experience that will quite likely pull you in and not let go for months at a time, Modern Warfare 2 is definitely the game for you.

Visuals: 8.8
Audio: 9.0
Story: 6.0
Gameplay: 9.6
Entertainment Value: 9.5

Overall: 9.1

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