Originally posted by Deriaz:
I'm gonna be talking about the game as a whole. There are campaign spoilers in here. A lot of them. I'm basically voicing my unhappiness with the campaign one thing at a time. I'll let you know once I'm done with the campaign stuff. TL;DR version at end of post.
Don't get me wrong -- I'm not saying it's entirely bad. There are some redeeming qualities to the game. Breaching doors was a little fun, death streaks seemed to be a nice addition, and riot shield were fun to poke around with if not insanely easy-mode for campaign. However, those are the only good things I can think of regarding the game; otherwise, I would be lying through my teeth. I did not enjoy the game at all. Happy to be done with Veteran campaign so I wouldn't have to touch the thing again save for one achievement I may go back for.
If you've played Modern Warfare 1, you know what to expect in Modern Warfare 2's story, and that's probably where my biggest gripe comes in. I'm not saying that they share qualities, or that they share characters. I'm talking that, at the core, the skeleton, Modern Warfare 2's story is Modern Warfare 1's story. I didn't realize it at first, but about halfway through the story, you get a slap in the face in the form of a "I've played this before", and another slap in the face by the game saying, "I'm making the story confusing with a little meaningless twist that isn't explained from here to the end."
Like the first game, they're going to ask you to control multiple characters, which is fine and dandy. We did that in the first game. Soap returns with a silly looking mohawk, and Shepard gets to pretend to play general or some crap. That's nice. Like Modern Warfare 1, you run through a pit, and then do a little mission that doesn't really have any bearing at all on the story other than to ease you in (the boat level from the first game). Airport level is thrown in for two reasons, it seems -- One, it "sets the war off" though later you're similarly told the two armies have been at unease for awhile, so it really lessens the impact of the level, and two, for Infinity Ward to stand up and go, "Look what we did!" The level is nice and all, and introduces you into the concept of the riot shield at one point as well. But beyond being a controversial level, we could have completely done without this, which makes me a bit upset, and only serves to draw out the campaign to an even longer degree (and believe me, it drags ooooooon.).
Makarov is the terrorist in this game that everyone's after, but the funny thing is that in Modern Warfare 2, unlike the first game, we completely forget to see Makarov through the rest of the game, which is complete crap. Some stuff happens in Brazil, and it turns out Captain Price is Makarov's most prized prisoner or something. This is never really explained either, making the story more diluted and confusing than it needs to be. But everyone's happy, so you're expected to smile, nod, and move on with Captain Price and the gang back together. Yay for them. Not for the player. A little bit of an explanation would be nice beyond "lol prisoner!!1", but Infinity Ward decides to blow up the castle thing Price was being held in. So, no explanation for you.
Oil rig gets taken. Serves no purpose. Boring level that just goes, "lol thermal sights!" By this point, the whole game feels like they're saying, "Look at all this cool crap you'll never see reason to use!" Example: Holographic sight, red dot sight, ACOG sight. They all are a version of a scope with a dot that says, "Bullet goes here!" Why do we need them? To dilute the gun drops so ammo becomes a little scarce, I get. It seems at times I couldn't pick up AK47 ammo, though I needed it, because the gun had a different scope. Bullcrap; all I want are the magazines. Not the whole thing.
Nuke goes off. Looks familiar. Flies towards USA. Looks familiar. It goes off in space. Oh noes, spaceman dies. Now you get to walk through DC in its whole destroyed look, to get to the white house. The whole beginning of the level reeks of "Guys look! It's like the nuke level where you crawl for a few minutes and then pass out!" Absolutely un-needed, really. Just put us at the damned White House so we can keep going. Oh, and Ramirez, one of your characters, dies along the way I think. I don't even remember why -- no one really cares, because the character has no emotion, just like everyone else you play as. Yay.
Now we kill off Ghost, who I guess was important to the story since he's the "mascot" when you're in the campaign menu, and Roach, the character you play as. Shepard ends up betraying you for. . . Some reason, I guess. He wants to write history, I suppose. He'll be a "war hero". For completely destroying the East Coast and stuff. I know I totally want to be a war hero in a country I just helped destroy. They cover you two in gasoline, flick a cigarette in the thing. I guess you're suppose to feel sad, but you don't, because at this point the campaign feels like it should be over, but it drags on. Moving on.
And once again, we come full circle to Soap, because Infinity Ward has such a hard-on for the guy. You go through this big chase scene thing, except this time in a boat instead of a car like the first game, you almost get him like in the first game, stuff blows up like in the first game, you go through a scripted scene like in the first game, you watch people fight like in the first game. . . The whole ending is nearly a copy-paste. The only difference here is that one, you don't die, though you and Price get really injured (I wish Soap would have died), and you kill Shepard by throwing a knife at the guy's head. A knife that was in your stomach that Shepard put there. A knife that asks you to mash X for at least a minute, if not more, acting all melodramatic as Soap sloooooowly pulls the thing out, even having to use two hands at one point like it's the heaviest knife in the world. But once again, you play hero, getting to throw a knife. And, unfortunately, the bomb is dropped that Modern Warfare 3 is a possibility.
. . . If. I. Wanted. To. Play. Modern. Warfare. 1's. Story. . . I would load up Modern Warfare 1. It had less holes at least. Where's Makarov? Why are we acting like the war's over? What happened at the White House? Who the hell was Ghost? Does anyone even care why Shepard even betrayed the whole US? What was the motive besides wanting to somehow be famous for betraying your own country, yet being glorified by the people in that country? I could go on. What the hell?
Now for the AI. I really don't have as big a complaint here, because the AI is absolutely shoddy as usual. Soldiers doing grenade dances over grenades instead of throwing them back. Soldiers throwing grenades at walls for them to bounce back at us. Soldiers shooting enemies that are hundreds of feet away instead of the guy right in their face that's turning and shooting me. Which brings me to my complaint of one level in particular. You're asked to run through two warring armies -- Shepard's army and Makarov's army. I don't know why they're fighting, 'cause they're supposed to be working together I guess. But on Veteran, enemies are scripted to go after you. See the problem yet? You get two armies that drop what they're doing to target you instead. What should have been a stealthish level becomes just Soap shooting two armies to death. If the AI was smart and focused on what they're supposed to be doing, or even just acted a little better, the game might be more fun because the whole war isn't thrust on your shoulders. But again, it is.
Oh, and protip for a few levels: If you get a Riot Shield, keep it. Seriously. Just melee everyone as they come to you, which they will. I literally flew through the first half of the final level using it, until they asked me to steer a stupid boat.
I think I'm done with the campaign. Moving on to Spec Ops and Multiplayer now. You can read past this point.
I poked my head into Spec Ops to see what the hubbub was about as well. I was greeted with some different categories, each requiring a certain amount of stars to reach. Understandable, I guess -- you want me to grind out this stuff to be able to access it all. Fine. I went into the first section, only to find missions from the story, asking me to do them in a certain way or in a certain difficulty. This brought me back to something Infinity Ward said about not being able to do co-op in the campaign. Yet the first mission is asking you and a friend to work together through the time trial pit thing. Really? No co-op? 'Cause I see it right here. I guess it "ruined the experience", but whatever. I didn't see any experience ruined if I had done the pit or something else with a friend.
That's really all I have to say about Spec Ops -- Infinity Ward used it to make the game look like it had more content. So, I ditched it after getting a paltry achievement for doing the stupid pit and just completing it. One star. Weeeeeee. Anyways, I poked my head into Multiplayer shortly after.
Right away, you're greeted with the familiar screen, just cleaned up a bit. Everything seems locked until level 3 to 10, so I ignored the menu and hopped into a Team Deathmatch. Apparently, you can get a Riot Shield in Multiplayer -- whether or not it's useful, I don't know, but I'm assuming no, because everyone seemed to be using either a P90 or some MP40-looking thing. Oh yeah, there was customization for sure, which I guess was nice. But, yet again, a lot of the stuff seemed useless. I looked between a red dot sight and a holographic (I think those are what they were. Don't quote me.), wanting to see if there was a difference. Well, one, there is none. Two, don't do that during a match. (Heheh. I should have moved into an alley. Not stand in the open.)
It feels a bit like an arcade game, like PlatinumIce said. I thought it was a nice nod to include things like Payback, Killjoy. . . Little EXP bonuses for just playing and stopping other players or something. Death streaks were also a bit of an appeal, allowing me to steal someone's class. . . Though it made me wondered what the deal was, considering everyone had Stopping Power Pro, an automatic weapon, and some sort of sight. Oh yeah. Totally useful.
Once you get past the little display things that try to make the game feel fresh, you hit the brick wall of having done the grind for the prestige again. We did it in MW1, WaW, and now MW2. It's old, and no matter how much you try to pretty it up, it's still the same thing. It's absolutely boring. Made even worse by the large maps, yet limit to 6 v 6. There was literally a moment or two where you couldn't hear gunfire -- everyone was just running around trying to find an enemy. It wasn't exciting at that point, so I left, because I knew that joining another game would bear the same result. (On a side note, I have 87.50% accuracy. Hah. Friend is gonna be nuts that he can't beat that.)
JamesBond225, if you're even still reading this, I don't doubt that there is "crap" in Mario. We've done this all before: Peach gets taken. Bowser took her. Stomp the koopalings, get her back, be the hero of the Mushroom Kingdom. But you know, at least at the end of the game, I'm not left wondering what the point of it all was. There's no grind to Mario. There's simple level hopping, 1-up collecting, box smashing fun. I don't want to grind Mario to the 10th prestige of koopa stomping -- I just want to have some fun. And that's exactly what I'll be getting tomorrow when I pick up New Super Mario Bros Wii. I value your opinion that you like Modern Warfare 2 a lot, but I also realize that many people are fawning over the game because 1) It's new and 2) It says Call of Duty. I'm being very blunt here and looking past that to see the mediocre game that it is, the holes that are abundant in the story, and the grind that Infinity Ward managed to shove into every aspect of its game.
TL;DR version: I respect that people may like this game. Look past the hype and find a mediocre game, however. There is grind in the multiplayer, copy-paste in the Spec Ops, and a campaign that has more holes than a strainer, yet lasts longer than a spaghetti noodle. I'm aware the game will sell ten times better than Mario; of that, I have no doubt. However, I play games to have fun. And Modern Warfare 2 does not deliver that at any point in its content.
Hindsight EDIT: Wow, I, uh. . . I really typed a lot, didn't I? . . . Oh well. I don't think I rambled, but. . . I'll leave it.
right i just dont get mario you just jump over thing what is the fun in that. It is more fun playing modern warfear.
