Issue Date: 11/16/09
'Modern Warfare' refines proven formula
Infinity Ward keeps what works, fixes what didn't, produces a contender for Game of the Year
By Dan McCarthy
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Without question, "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" is the best shooter on consoles.
Period.
Resuming five years after killing Imran Zakhaev, a Russian Ultranationalist/terrorist from the last game, "Modern Warfare 2" centers around his protégé, a fellow named Vladimir Makarov - noted, if not for his brutality, then for his oddly feminine and nasally voice - who seeks to use Zakhaev's death for his casus belli against the West. But if you're looking for Tom Clancy-like story weaving and presentation, search elsewhere. "Modern Warfare 2" plays out as some unholy fusion, albeit one with a flair for the ostentatiously dramatic, of Fox's systemically cliché "24" and "Red Dawn."
The spark for "Modern Warfare 2's" campaign is an early mission that pits you as an Army Ranger turned undercover CIA operative partaking in a terrorist attack with Makarov and his lot (the long term objective is to get close to Makarov and kill him). The target is an airport terminal in Moscow, where you slaughter both unarmed civilians and law enforcement officers in a hail of grenade and rifle fire. As you clamber into a van with your compatriots at the level's end, the American you play remarks, "We've sent a strong message with this attack, Makarov."
The Russian retorts by shooting you in the face. "That was no message," he says, drawing a pistol. "This is a message." Bang.
Like I said, clichés abound.
The Moscow attack is quickly blamed on America, and in short order, Russian paratroopers are dropping on Virginia and Washington D.C. With the aforementioned death of your first character, you then take control of an American Army Ranger, Private James Ramirez. Though I rarely get excited about a fictitious battleground setting, I quickly found myself engaging the autumn-camouflage clad Russians with all haste and extreme prejudice. And it was awesome. Actually, it was doubly awesome.
Alas, this wouldn't be a "Call of Duty" game without multiple fronts, and this installment does nothing to break the mold. Players switch between Ramirez and the mohawk-sporting Sgt. Gary "Roach" Sanderson, a member of the elite Task Force 141 who globe trots from Kazakhstan to Rio de Janeiro to Russia ventilating skulls to his heart's content.
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