In 2019, Infinity Ward and Activision released theCall of Duty: Modern Warfarereboot and brought the beloved sub-franchise back in a big way. The 2019Call of Dutygame came out swinging with a brand-new engine, the return of fan-favorite characters, and a commitment to classic boots-on-the-ground gameplay. There’s been a great deal of hype for the 2022Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2thanks to the positive buzz generated by the 2019 game, but unfortunately,Modern Warfare 2fails to live up to its predecessor, with the most disappointing part of the package being the single-player campaign.
The campaign is full of problematic story beats, withModern Warfare 2’s supposed heroes committing all kinds of crimesand general atrocities. In one mission, Mexican special forces cross the border, break into Americans' homes, and kill them when they try to defend themselves. In real life, this would be an Earth-shaking political scandal, but inModern Warfare 2, foreign forces murdering American citizens on American soil is brushed off and never mentioned again.
Modern Warfare 2suffers from serious jumps in logic throughout the entire campaign. In one mission, players completely obliterate countless Mexican army and cartel members in an attempt to capture someone. After catching this person,Modern Warfare 2’s protagonists are told their captive must be let go because holding him would be illegal. Yet, in a previous mission the orders were to capture himor kill him. Apparently, the military leadership inCall of Dutyhas no problem committing war crimes or assassinating people, but they draw the line at kidnappings.
The story inCall of Duty: Modern Warfare 2is a complete bust, crossing the line intoFast and Furious-levels of absurdity with zero care for establishing a believable world with believable characters. Everyone is one note, spouting emotionless military babble at each other, with Gaz’s constant use of the word “rog” especially grating. If all that wasn’t enough to make theModern Warfare 2campaign storyeasily one of the worst in the series, it completely fails to follow up on the cliffhanger left by the 2019Modern Warfaregame, though there’s a reason for that.
Those that remember the 2019Modern Warfarecampaign will recall that it ends withCaptain Price putting together Task Force 141to take on Victor Zakhaev, one of the main antagonists ofCall of Duty 4. One would think thatModern Warfare 2would continue that storyline, but it doesn’t, and Zakhaev is hardly even mentioned. The reason for this is because that story was actually wrapped up as part of limited-timeCall of Duty: Warzoneevents. This baffling narrative decision will leave players trying to follow the overarching narrative from one game to the next utterly confused, and it’s a choice that makes an already lackluster story even worse.
Unfortunately, it looks like this trend will continue withModern Warfare 2. The new game’s campaign ends on a chilling cliffhanger that it seems will likely be concluded in the upcomingWarzone 2.0battle royale or maybe the rumoredModern Warfare 2campaign DLC. As it stands, the entire story is one giant set-up to more interesting things, and its inability to finish the story started by the 2019 game makes the whole thing completely unsatisfying.
Gameplay-wise, theModern Warfare 2campaign fares better, but it’s nothing to write home about. Anyone that has played aCall of Dutycampaign in the last 15 years knows exactly what to expect from this. Levels play out like a shooting gallery, with enemies popping up to get shot and putting up little fight. Missions are even more hand-holdy than ever before, with the obligatory sniper mission having Captain Price fixing players' mistakes by killing the enemies they miss.
TheModern Warfare 2campaign gives players the illusion of choice, allowing them to make decisions like if they should enter a warehouse by breaching the door with C4, throwing tear gas through the vents, or coming through the skylights. No matter what players do, the outcome is going to be the same, and they always end up on the ground shooting enemies. Still, this is preferable to the moments where the game tells players every single thing they should do at any given time, like “stay still in the grass, pull out your heartbeat sensor,” etc.
TheModern Warfare 2campaign is excessively hand-holdy for almost the entire experience, minus out-of-place sections where the game suffers a difficulty spike and has players facing off against armored enemies with limited weaponry at their disposal.Armored enemies in theModern Warfare 2campaignat least make the missions more challenging, but going from run-and-gun gameplay to strict stealth in aCall of Dutygame is jarring.
Armored enemies are one way theCall of Duty: Modern Warfare 2campaign incorporatesWarzoneelements, but there are other ways the battle royale finds its way into the single-player experience. There are a couple of missions where players are encouraged to loot and equip armor plates, like in the BR, and there’s also a horribly misguided and frustratingly wonky vehicle mission that seems to be an attempt to showcaseWarzone’s driving mechanics.
Even thoughWarzone 2.0doesn’t launch until November 16, the battle royale’s influence can be found all over the game. The big team Ground War and Invasion maps from the multiplayer are re-purposed chunks ofWarzone 2.0’s Al Mazrah map, and the same goes for the Spec Ops co-op missions. Speaking of Spec Ops, the fan-favorite mode is back, but this time there are only three missions and none of them really capture what made the original Spec Ops special.
In the 2009Modern Warfare 2, the Spec Ops missions were bite-sized co-op experiences that offered genuine challenges and utilized the two-player set-up effectively by sometimes putting players in different roles or giving them distinct objectives from their co-op partner. In the 2022Modern Warfare 2, theSpec Ops missionsare long, drawn-out affairs where players complete objectives across areas of the Al Mazrah map.
The good news is that theModern Warfare 22022 Spec Ops missions are fun in their own right, giving players the freedom to tackle objectives how they want and allowing the game’s excellent gunplay to shine. However, this is not the grand return of the 2009 Spec Ops that fans have been wanting for years, and saddling these missions with that name will likely leave some fans of the originalModern Warfare 2feeling misled.
Spec Ops is fun but not really Spec Ops, and the campaign is the definition of style over substance. However, they’re both worth checking out if for nothing else than to unlock content forWarzoneand multiplayer and ogle the graphics. Even as a cross-gen release,Modern Warfare 2has some of the best graphicsindustry-wide, with a buttery smooth frame rate and a high level of detail in each level.
This polish carries over to the multiplayer, withModern Warfare 2providing the best-lookingCall of Dutymultiplayer to date. While the campaign fails to hit the mark, theModern Warfare 2multiplayer experienceis excellent from a core gameplay standpoint, providing the classicCall of Dutymultiplayer experience that fans have come to expect with an extensive arsenal of weapons and a decent variety of game modes.
Along with the standardCall of Dutygame modes,Modern Warfare 2introduces Prisoner Rescue and Knock Out, both of which are no-respawn match types that require players to be more strategic than mostCoDgame modes. As far as maps go,Modern Warfare 2has launched with 10 multiplayer maps, none of which stand out as egregiously bad. The maps are fun with nice variety, and while some may prove controversial in the community, like the Border Crossing map that takes place on a narrow highway crowded with cars, they at least offer something new.
WhatModern Warfare 2multiplayer delivers at launch is well-designed maps and classic game modes that should keepCall of Dutyfans busy for weeks. Even so, there are some omissions from theModern Warfare 2multiplayer experience that keep it from being the saving grace for the game. At the time of this writing,Modern Warfare 2multiplayer has no way for players to check their stats and there is no Hardcore mode. Also, theGunsmith is missing important functionalitylike saving custom blueprints, and split-screen is either broken or purposefully limited compared to previous games.
Call of Dutyhas kept split-screen at a time when most other games have abandoned it, but the split-screen inModern Warfare 2leaves a lot to be desired. At the time of this writing, players are unable to play any online matches in split-screen and Spec Ops is also unplayable in split-screen. Instead, the only option for split-screen gamers is to play custom matches against bots, which is better than nothing, but a far cry from what’s been offered in the past.
Activision and Infinity Ward have big plans forCall of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and the game should see plenty of support in the weeks and months ahead. Thebig Season 1 updateis scheduled to arrive in November, while Season 1 Reloaded will come in December with even more content. These updates will likely address fan feedback about the game and bring back missing features as well. Eventually,Modern Warfare 2should get to a point where it becomes an easy recommendation for shooter fans, but it’s undercooked and underwhelming in its current state.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2is out now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. Game Rant reviewed the Xbox Series X version of the game.
