For me, COD games have always been about the multiplayer experience. I don’t dislike the campaigns; they are fun action movies for me to take a break from the multiplayer. But that was not true for the original COD 4 Modern Warfare (2007). The captivating campaign and the ingenious multiplayer were some of the best things to ever happen in the history of COD. Yes, the love for that still lives on in me. But something was missing in the 2019’s reboot. Now I realize it was the original trilogy’s main characters and the story arc. Modern Warfare II promises to bring that experience back to us. Does it live up to the hype? And how good is the multiplayer now? There’s a lot to dissect here. So today, we will look at both these aspects of the game in our Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 review.
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COD Modern Warfare 2 Review
Let me cut to the chase. Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 should have been the first game in the reboot. It has everything fans would expect from a reboot. Better graphics, astonishing 3D directional audio, enhanced AI, and a lot more elements bring back the memories of the old days when the campaign was fantastic. So, let me try to give a breakdown of the best things about the story in our Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 single-player campaign review.
Setting
As teased at the end of 2019’s Modern Warfare, Captain Price managed to bring together “Task Force 141”. If you have played the previous MW2, all your favorite characters return as unit members in Modern Warfare II. So, the Task Force 141 operatives are Johnny “Soap” MacTavish, Simon “Ghost” Riley, and Kyle “Gaz” Garrick. All led together by Captain Price, Kate Laswell, & General Shepherd.
Aside from Task Force 141, you will also play as the Mexican Special Forces unit “Los Vaqueros.” You will meet their leader, Colonel Alejandro Vargas, and his second-in-command, Rodolfo Parra. Build as a new character from the ground up for MW II to take full advantage of the IW 9 game engine, Alejandro is one of the best realistic-looking characters in video games to date. All the cutscenes featuring Alejandro in the game have become one of my favorite things to watch repeatedly again & again due to the uncanny realistic eyes.
Throughout the story, you will meet many characters you are already familiar with. Even though Alex is missing in this campaign, Farah Karim is back. You might remember her as one of the playable characters from the prequel. But there, in MW II, she is a minor character and has only one mission where she will assist Captain Price’s particular unit. The same mission will also bring everyone’s favorite Russian “Nikolai” back. Now you are familiar with the character, let’s get into the story of MWII.
Call of Duty Modern Warfare II is not a direct continuation of the prequel. So, if you are a fan of the previous Modern Warfare Trilogy and skipped the 2019 reboot, you can still pick up the new MWII and enjoy the game. As a fan of the last trilogy, I believe this should have been the first game in the reboot (with minor adjustments to include events in the 2019 game for the story).
Every bit of this new campaign feels like a COD game, which is all we were waiting for. But considering how much I loved 2019’s MW, it is a relief knowing that both games exist in the universe now. And it is fair that Call of Duty Modern Warfare II successfully retrieves the essence of the previous trilogy and will let you recall highly action-packed, delightful, nostalgic moments from them.
Story Synopsis
Modern Warfare II is set in motion when General Shepherd assigns Task Force 141 & Graves’ “Shadow Company” to take out General Ghorbrani, Commander of Iran’s Quds Force. Major Hassan Zyani takes up the central antagonist role by joining the insurgent terrorist group Al-Qatala. You learn that Major Hassan Zyani has control of three stolen American ballistic missiles that could destroy major American cities. So, the story revolves around how Task Force 141 & Los Vaqueros come together to take down Hassan Zyani. If I go into more detail, I will spoil the game plot for your experience. So, I will stop at this basic synopsis.
Maps
The campaign feels like an international expedition across the Americas, Europe, and Asia. It is not overwhelming, owing to enough time to take in views of Amsterdam, & even lets you explore Warzone 2’s map Al Mazrah in this campaign. There are levels involving the US/Mexico Border and a fictional Mexico region called Las Almas, which were well-detailed and worked towards making your story immersion more impressive. The variety in the map, from the arid Caucasus terrain of Urzikstan to the humid oceanic climate of Spain, kept the phasing well between the levels.
Gameplay
Spend a few hours in the game, and you will quickly realize it is a well-refined FPS game the series needed. The new freshening lake on game mechanisms from using AC-130’s display as a gunship gunner to point and click experience through a CCTV like playing stealth-focused Commandos games. The famous night-vision goggle-based missions are back, but the true highlight for me was playing the mission “Dark Water” on “Realism” difficulty. This single level tells you how MWII managed to bring the best of the previous trilogy into the modern new age. Before I explain it in detail, check out the gameplay reveal by the official channel:
If you have played the trilogy, you will recognize the first half of the level resembling the 9th mission of 2009’s Modern Warfare 2 called “The Only Easy Day… Was Yesterday”. The first part of the mission also takes place on an oil rig, then, as you can see in the clip above, quickly takes the fight to a nearby cargo ship. This will remind you of the famous 2nd mission in COD 4 Modern Warfare, “Crew Expendable.” If you were playing multiplayer, it would also bring you memories of the “Wet Work” map, which is the same ship in the story mode.
But there is a vast difference in gameplay this time. You see, even though the mission takes place in the same kind of storm, the shaking of ships and cargo containers was limited by the technology of the time. Unl, like the previous games, the cargo container moves across the map, causing the physics of the ship’s m to congestion change. You can even get skilled if you get stuck between two. The entire experience is out of this world if you are a fan of the original trilogy. And for new players, it is a technical marvel in COD standards.
Apart from this, the gunplay is awe-inspiring, the gun sounds are fantastic, the enemies react to gameplay, and finally, this surprising guerrilla warfare session is in the game. An entire mission is to teach you how to craft items and survive a Mexican town taken over by your enemies. All the knowledge you acquire does not go to waste later; there is an essential level in a game where you can use your crafting knowledge to survive. You have to be quick and plan out your attacks until the story’s end. It is a wild, thrilling experience to get to the end.
Graphics
Since the ninth generation of video game consoles, like Sony’s PlayStation 5 & Microsoft’s Xbox Series X/S, just two other COD games have been released. They are Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and Call of Duty: Vanguard. Considering Vanguard is built on IW 8, an enhanced version of the previous Modern Warfare engine, and Black Ops Cold War is built on a customized version of IW 3, the true capabilities of the series were still missing.
So, Infinity Ward’s improvements to the new game can be felt across the game. From the motion capture of characters in cutscenes to the breathtaking water simulation system in the canals of Amsterdam, the game is aesthetically magnificent. Playing on our RTX 4090 test unit, the Modern Warfare II campaign felt like the best-looking game the series released till now.
Verdict
Just because the Modern Warfare II campaign is around 6-7 hours doesn’t mean it lacks anything. It is one of the most action-packed linear fun I have ever had in a story after the 2019 reboot. Even though it is not a technological marvel compared to 2007’s Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and 2009’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, the new reboot tries to stay grounded on realism and efficiently manages to excel at it.
But suppose COD games are among your favorite series. In that case, Modern Warfare II will offer you new locations, new enemy types (shielded enemies), new weapons, new skills, and abilities (crafting for guerrilla warfare) to go along with it. There are moments you will enjoy playing Modern Warfare II more than the 2019 version. But still, 2019’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare had a better campaign arc. So overall, as per our Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 Review, we suggest you pick this up if you are a fan of the series and want to play more of the Modern Warfare reboot until the next game in the series comes out.