“Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2” is a direct sequel to the first game “Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare”. This mammoth of a game takes place five years before the first game. Like the last game you play as two different characters, ’Roach’ Sanderson in the new task force 141 and Pvt.Ramirez in the army rangers. The mordant Captain ‘Soap’ MacTravish is now your superior (the first person you played in Modern Warfare). This game is made by Infinity Ward and published by Activision. There is a lot of hype for this game (making over 500 million dollars in its first weekend) but it delivers, surpassing its predecessor in every way.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is broken up into three sections. One is the campaign of story mode in the game. This leads ‘Roach’ Sanderson on a race to find a terrorist named Macarov and Ramirez protecting Washington D.C from an invading foreign power. The American levels start out bland, like protecting objectives, but it picks up when you enter Washington D.C and you try to take back the white house! It is imperceptible how many memorable action sequences there are in this game. On the other hand, the Sanderson levels are more exciting throughout and with much more variety. One minute you will be taking part in a James Bond style snow mobile chase and the next minute you will be rushing through the streets of Brazil chasing an arms dealer. The roach levels tie up all the loose ends from the first game, Surprises you with stunning plot twists and a huge cliffhanger at the end. The only problems with the campaign are it is to short (four hours) and the story starts to not make sense.

The second section is the brand new spec ops mode that is a totally new feature to the Call of Duty franchise. It is basically the story missions and set pieces in the campaign redesigned to play with two players. It is broken up into five sets of missions-Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta and Echo, and they get pretty hard. For example, clearing out a shower full of riot shield guys and snipers which you can’t step into their laser sights without dying. Don’t forget you have to do it in three minutes! You have to be vigilant at all times. There is also a cool stealth mission that takes place in a level of the first Modern Warfare campaign. There are a total of 69 stars which you get by completing every mission on Veteran difficulty which is nearly impossible. Spec ops are a welcome addition to the Call of Duty Franchise.

The final part is of course, Online Multiplayer. This mode is nearly perfect. Every part of Multiplayer is improved over the last Call of Duty. The level cap is now 70 which is a lot, but you get rewarded for almost everything including killing someone when you aren’t doing well. The Multiplayer is so deep that you only scratch the surface on your first play through. There are many new attachments for the guns like Heartbeat sensors, Holographic sights, Akimbo (firing two weapons at once) and brand new acog sight which are much better. Also, there are a lot more guns that handle differently. For example, on a long ranged map like Wasteland, You will a lot better of playing with Modern Warfare which makes for more interesting matches. The Multiplayer is better in every way; it is the reason to own the game.

All in all, the game is pretty much perfect. Even though this game doesn’t do anything new, it perfects what every other First-person shooter has tried to do. The only problems I had with this game were the campaign was to short and far less realistic than the other entries in the series, but that is fine because it was still really fun to play. This game is rated M but is a lot less gruesome then Call of Duty: World at War. This game is incredible and probably the best thing you can buy for $60. I will probably play this game for another two years. They tried to make a game that surpassed Modern Warfare, and they deftly accomplished it.
(9.8/10)