COD MODERN WARFARE II [2022] XSX REVIEW
🎮 GREAT 🎮
Modern Warfare II was released in 2022 as a great sequel to the 2019 MW reboot masterpiece. It has that good COD campaign feel to it, and the gameplay mechanics and graphics along with the creative design and strong character development are the highlights of this package. The gunfights and combat dialog are top-notch too. After completing the campaign I feel positive about this new installment and can't wait to see where they take this reboot story next. I'm also left with dislike about some mission design choices and the flawed plot that, given a lot of consideration I decided were not that big of a deal to affect the overall experience.
I never played a COD campaign on the launch date before, since I was not able to afford them at full price. Thus many of the problems that gamers and critics complain about usually get fixed by the time I get my hands on the game
A FLAWED EXPERIENCE
So I experienced for the 1st time a broken COD campaign. The game crashed several times during both playthroughs on regular and veteran, returning to the Xbox home. Some character animations are broken like when an enemy soldier is supposed to transition from walking to running, they would freeze in place and slide their way around like Michael Jackson. Your teammates' weapons might disappear from their hands from time to time, looking really weird like they are fighting with imaginary weapons. There are many bugs, the likes I've never seen on a COD campaign before, probably because I'm playing on day one. The checkpoint system is unforgiving but depends on the missions. They are stretched too few, forcing you into some boring repetition of the same gunfights over and over, especially on higher difficulties. The game might create a checkpoint right next to a fully armored badass enemy carrying a semi-auto shotgun that would destroy you right after you respawn. Again, broken checkpoints never happened before in COD.
STRONG CHARACTER FOCUS
Despite the game-breaking bugs and the fundamentally flawed plot, I love the new focus on strong characters! They started that trend in the MW 2019 reboot with Price & Gaz, introducing more emotional depth and character drama into the story, but now every character is multilayered with a strong focus on their personalities. Now we are introduced, or reintroduced to Ghost and Soap, and those two steal the show. I love that they added simple dialog interactions with your teammates. That is built on top of the classic in-game chit-chat that has become a COD signature in mission design. The combat dialogue as always is one of the highlights, featuring even more realistic chatter than ever.
GET THE MISSILES
The plot is full of contradictions and structure problems, but I still enjoyed the overall theme and story mainly because of the strong characters that Infinity Ward crafted. The campaign takes place three years after the close of the MW reboot story. The newly created Task Force 141 is sent to track down an Iranian terrorist who has somehow acquired a set of Long Rage American missiles.
While most of the new missions are a blast to play with brilliant structure and open design, others feel somehow detached from the overall core gameplay experience, disrupting the game's direction and soul, which feels wrong given the potential it had to surpass the MW reboot and become a masterpiece. As with every other COD campaign, you need to stick to the script otherwise you’ll disrupt the mission and fail. But if you do accept that and tag along for the ride, you’ll experience some excellent-level design...mostly.
The story and mission design are both great and inconsistent, full of contradictions and structure problems. The "Borderline" mission is fun: Mexican special forces chase the bad guy across the US border, break into Americans' homes, and exchange fire with cartel thugs. This is plain crazy. This would be a ground-shaking political scandal. "Kill or Capture" is brilliant in general with a good mission design structure, amazing character dialogue, and a constant feeling of urgency. But! there are some crazy parts too. Holding heavily armored attacks from an enemy battalion with a squad-size force INSIDE the downed chopper is plain crazy. There is no way special forces operators would choose to "make a stand" there.
Modern Warfare 2 continues to suffer from serious jumps in logic throughout the entire campaign. During the span of three missions, players are forced to completely obliterate countless Mexican army soldiers and cartel thugs in an attempt to capture some HVT. In doing so, they level half of Mexico leaving death and destruction in their wake. After catching Hassan, our beloved Tier one Operators have to let the captive go because they are told that holding him, or taking him down would be illegal. Making the whole premise ridiculous. Yet, in the previous mission, the orders were to capture or kill Hassan.
Infinity Ward's attempt to keep things fresh created the worst two COD missions I have ever experienced. "Violence and Timing" is crazy and bizarre, the whole thing feels like a cheap knockoff of the uncharted 4 car chase. But the gameplay mechanics do not suit this type of mission design, leading to some awkward controls and tons of missed jumps that lead to boring repetitions. Even if you get it right and jump from car to car like a frog, the whole situation is more action comedy than the serious story that intends to tell. "Alone" is the worst mission of the game and the worst mission of the entire COD franchise. I can't stand Ghost giving Soap basic survival tips over the radio as they already stated they go way back, this is not some new guy it's a Tier one operator! why does he need to go to the stealth refresher course? To make tools to... Open doors? what went wrong here? Soap should be able to snap the neck of some shadow PMC grunt and take his weapon. Why do they force you to farm for items to craft a knife? It's the most boring, counter-innovative, and dumb mission ever.
ULTIMATE GUNPLAY
Call of Duty has always relied on its super epic set-piece moments to create a memorable, action-packed experience. Modern Warfare II uses that blueprint with a strong focus on realism, placement, positioning, and mastering those marksman reflexes to move quickly and shoot at moving targets. Hardened & Veteran difficulties are perfect for players looking for a challenge, the game makes you fragile, but it gives you all the tools you need to become powerful. Just a couple of bullets can end your life on the spot, creating tense gunplay during enemy encounters.
The quality of weapons, ballistics, sounds, and animations has never been so good. There's a real throttle to the Assault Rifles, and those Marksman Rifles pack one hell of a punch. The result is a lightning-fast FPS where every shot counts. Throughout the campaign, that tension establishes tense encounters and thrilling theatrics.
CONCLUSION
Despite the game-breaking bugs and the fundamentally flawed plot, I feel positive about this new installment and can't wait to see where they take this reboot story next. MWII features tight gunplay and lighting-fast FPS combat with state-of-the-art graphics, sound design, and a killer soundtrack. After completing the campaign again on Veteran I feel positive about the franchise's future and can't wait to see the next deployment of task force 141.
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