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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare review

Posted by T3 Online on Wed 11 Nov 2009

Should we believe the hype?

We would've loved to have been able to tell you how fantastic Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is before the game was released. But Activision had those embargo shackles tied tightly round our wrists.

- Find the best deals for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare here
- Read what everyone else has been saying in our Call of Duty: Modern Warfare review round-up

 

But if you're not still cold from queuing outside HMV in the wee hours, you should be planning your trip to the high street this afternoon, because Modern Warfare 2 well and truly meets the incredibly high expectations.

 

It should be deemed actually illegal to play this phenomenal-looking shooter on a crappy portable TV with mono sound. This is a compulsory widescreen, 5.1 surround sound affair. It's a true videogame action blockbuster - it's the no-expense-spared Michael Bay production of the videogame world.

 

A relatively cheap-as-chips title screen leads into the most explosive first-person action game we've ever played. From the very moment your military boots hit the battlefield soil your eyes and ears are battered with the most intense shootouts and sometimes overwhelmingly chaotic scenes of war.

 

The game modes are the same (bomb-planting objectives, capturing outposts and base raids), but there are 16 completely new maps to learn your way around, plucked from the huge variety of environments in the single-player campaign.

 

The vanilla single-player missions are brilliant, but bolstering the action with another player adds an incredible amount of co-operation to the game. In a nod to Left 4 Dead players don't die instantly when shot but enter a downed state, giving the other player just over a minute to revive them before they bleed out.

 

In sniper missions you'll be assigning enemies to each other and synchronising your shots. In more chaotic battles you'll spread out and watch each others' backs. There's even one mission in which one of you takes control of a gunship high in the air, using its night vision to drop giant explosives on incoming waves of enemies (sound familiar, CoD4 fans?).

 

Much like the first Modern Warfare, the sequel's multiplayer mode is likely to have its greatness appreciated more as time goes on. But out of the box it's certainly as engrossing, fluid and all-round bloody brilliant as you've expected.

 

To say the least, CoD4 is a tough performance to follow. But Modern Warfare 2 does it beautifully.

 

While on the surface whiffing a little like an extension of the excellent first game, the sequel manages to keep the action genuinely and constantly fresh with incredible set pieces, unique gameplay and many an epic twist in the story.

 

And after all that, you've got that legendary multiplayer to tuck into and the co-op glory of Spec Ops mode. Infinity Ward has served up its greatest shooter yet. We're just sorry we couldn't tell you that before you queued for it at midnight.

 

For the full review head to Modern Warfare 2 Review – Call of Duty latest from CVG.co.uk