Modern Warfare 2 PC review
Modern Warfare 2, the most anticipated game of the year, is out and has already broken the sales records. And it’s already showered in rave reviews, so let’s be clear from the get go: this is not one of those reviews. In fact, we were quite disappointed by Modern Warfare 2. Even though we were fans of the first game, the sequel feels a lot like going from a great movie to its sequel: nothing new and much of the same.
Modern Warfare 2 is the Transformers 2 of the video games. A huge blockbuster with plenty of thrills and action, but a confused to no plot, and, for the PC version which we’re reviewing, a crippled multiplayer part. It feels like a genuine overhyped piece of entertainment, which will be swallowed up by fans no matter what, still with all the great ingredients of Modern Warfare 1, but with not much new, not chances are taken by the developer, in fact, it’s far too much like its predecessor, in almost every aspect.
Modern Warfare features the same style campaign as the previous game: short, confused and on steroids. In the campaign, you’re more or less thrown in the action — there’s no act 1 here — and the levels are short, and likewise, feature no formal introduction or ending, and are extremely linear in design and gameplay. If you’ve played Crysis, or Far Cry 2 or Battlefield Bad Company, where you had a ton of options and could take on a level the way you wanted, Modern Warfare is nothing like that, and keeps the strict linear gameplay, forcing you through a set route, with planted enemies every few yards. You reach the end, you win. Big deal. There is little to no new things in the campaign, it feels the same way, plays the same way, looks and sounds the same — the changes are microscopic. The visuals are lacking as well, as the engine is showing its age, no matter how high they can crank up the textures and lighting effects, while better than Modern warfare 1, it’s still years behind the likes of Crysis and Battlefield Bad Company. Destructive environments should be standard now, especially for a game of this caliber.
The campaign is not only short — you’ll be done with it in less than 5 hours — it’s also filled with cliches and seems like an interactive Micheal Bay movie. There is no connection between the levels and it feels like the designers merely had a few great idea for some levels which were completely disconnected, then wrote a show-string hack story to somehow hold it together. It doesn’t hold it together, there is no decent narrative, no structure, just a bunch of action filled levels. We’re not buying it, Infinity Ward. Having said that, the campaign and overall single player experience is great fun and feels polished, but the strict linear gameplay takes away a lot of said fun. There’s also the Special Ops mode, which consists of 23 small missions which you can play alone or in co-op, which is great fun, especially if you’re playing with a friend.
Multiplayer wise, the gameplay feels a bit more varied and fair than previously, and there are a ton of upgrades and perks available. Sadly, there are no dedicated servers on the PC, and if you feared that it was going to be an issue, you were right, it is. In addition, matches are limited to 18 players only, which is another great disappointment, as 32 players have been standard for years, and even Modern Warfare 1 supported 32 players, with some dedicated servers running 64 player modes. While the multiplayer is more balanced and fast pace than before, it feels like a port from the console version, and when it comes to ports from consoles to PCs, they’re always worse on the PC. This is the case with Modern Warfare 2 as well.
Overall, fans of Modern Warfare will have no issues with the sequel — they probably already have the game. And general FPS games will enjoy the short single player campaign and deep multiplayer, but with so much hype surrounding the game, it leaves us wanting something more, a decent campaign for one.
The Good:
Fun gameplay
Polished
Deep multiplayer
The Bad:
Campaign story narrative is non-existent
Very linear gameplay
Aging visuals are beginning to show
PC multiplayer is severely crippled
Overall score: 7/10
November 13th, 2009 at 3:06 am
Great Review.. Even though i have it for the X360 i agree with most of the review.. I liked the campaign, not because of it’s story, but merely because i needed a action-packed no brainer campaign that day.. I’m having great fun in MP and Spec Ops, that’s merely it..
I’ve always bin a PC Gamer, but with MW2 it would be for the PC it would be a waste of money, since it’s just a console port.. PC Ftw, and with BC2, Crysis 2 and BF3 coming, PC won’t die..
November 13th, 2009 at 12:09 pm
Very poor review. No professionalism in the writing and one of the pictures is actually from Modern Warfare 1, not 2.
The article wreaks of someone just sick of the publicity and reviewing based on that and not the game’s quality. It’s short and none of the complaints are well explained or backed up. The co-op, which is one of the most incredible additions and one third of the total game, is only mentioned in 1 sentence – kind of makes me think the reviewer didn’t even play it.
I’ll just add one last thing – I think any reviewer who docks a game because it’s linear is poor at his job. Linear is not a shortcoming, it’s a game type. If you don’t like linear games, you shouldn’t review them. It’s the same as saying, this game is good except it’s a sports game and I hate sports games so I’m giving it a poor review.
MW2 would not have worked on the dramatic level it did in a different style of gameplay and accusing it of linearity, especially when it was well documented that that was the purposeful intent of the single player, is unprofessional.
November 16th, 2009 at 12:30 am
I just finished Far Cry 2 and coming from that to MW2 was a bit of a step down single player wise. But MW2 rules all in multiplayer, even with no dedicated servers.
November 18th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
[...] five days of its release. While you’re crunching over those number, you can check out our Modern Warfare 2 review. Tags: modern warfare 2 This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 at 12:27 pm and [...]
November 19th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
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