Latest installment in famed shooter brings A-game, controversy

By: Spencer Taylor

Posted: 11/18/09

So far in this current console generation, two juggernauts have battled for supremacy of the spotlight and reverence among millions of gamers around the world.

Last month, Bungie released the fourth installment in their renowned Halo franchise with abounding praise.

Last week, developer Infinity Ward responded with their own powerhouse, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

In all fairness, publisher Activision has maintained the Call of Duty franchise, with developers Treyarch and Infinity Ward alternating to produce each sequel.

Treyarch bombed with Call of Duty 3, but later managed to save face with World at War, both titles using World War 2 as their backdrop.

It was Infinity Ward, however, that moved the Call of Duty franchise out of World War 2 and into the modern scene, re-invigorating the single player campaign and multiplayer in the process.

Projected to be the "biggest release of the decade" in terms of pre-orders, Modern Warfare 2 seems to have been hyped more than any other game this decade. From startup, MW2 feels like a five-star game with a Hollywood budget.

Beginning with the single player campaign, the game opens with a pseudo- James Bond sequence with images and audio from the previous game played amidst a futuristic global map. The game is a true-sequel taking place about five years after the events of the previous installment.

As in the previous game from Infinity Ward, the player will go through a timed "kill house" to help determine the difficulty they should play at throughout the game. After this segment, however, the game takes off and doesn't slow down until the end.

What immediately sets the tempo in the opening acts of the game isn't the highly anticipated snowmobile chase sequence ala True Lies; instead, it is the highly controversial segment that has the player gunning down hundreds of innocent civilians in an act of terrorism in a Moscow airport.

Infinity Ward has never backed down from presenting the player with scenarios that may be hard to swallow (their first game had the player experiencing a nuclear attack, with obvious consequences). However, this has set a new standard in terms of graphic and questionable content.

While the game offers the player numerous attempts to bypass the event before and during the sequence, it is nonetheless controversial.

MW2 seems to challenge the saying "there is no such thing as bad publicity," especially amidst the recent shootings at Fort Hood. However, when any new release is as hyped as this was, it seems like nothing can derail it.

Many will write the sequence off as a tasteless way to generate some talk and hype up their game. Others may view it as an event that should invoke serious emotion and ask the player to question the role in violence in video games, whether done seemingly for better or worse. Visit the Pacer comment section and voice your
opinion.

The game's multiplayer returns better than ever, and really, it's this area of the game that the fans have waited for. The gameplay has gotten deeper while the basic functionality of the game remains the same.

Expanded perks and a deep weapons load out paired with new game types will undoubtedly make MW2 the game to beat in terms of multiplayer quality. Little has been left off, while plenty has been added on.
Really, this sums up Modern Warfare pretty well: bigger and better.

Bottom line, fans of the series should have their appetites filled on into the New Year when they should most certainly expect downloadable content to gradually hit the market. The single player campaign puts the player in a fast-paced, albeit controversial ride, while the multiplayer does what it does and ultimately steals the show (surely not surprising there).

The game had few faults, with my main complaints being the rushed-pace of the single player campaign and the woes of the PC faithful lamenting the lack of dedicated servers.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is the box office smash everyone knew it would be and has raised the bar in the video game industry in more than one way.