The Call of Duty series is known for maintaining a quality gameplay experience that's barely budged from its tried-and-true formula since the break-out hit Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare in 2007. 2022's Modern Warfare 2 manages to maintain the standard and even elevates it to a degree with the addition of some killer details and retrospective callbacks to Call of Duty history.
Whether you're embarking on the globe-trotting campaign or going head-to-head with other fans in multiplayer, there's a lot to absorb in Modern Warfare 2. It's just a matter of keeping your eyes peeled and exploring every inch of the sandbox Infinity Ward gave us to play in.
10/10 Helmet Camera: A Real-World Perspective
Perhaps, one of the coolest new details in the multiplayer arena is being able to spectate your comrades from the helmet camera view. Traditionally, those who have died and are awaiting a respawn in game modes like Prisoner Rescue, can view their teammates from the first-person perspective or sometimes even third.
However, Modern Warfare hearkens back to real-world engagements where the operators are often outfitted with helmet cameras so that leadership and others behind the scene can review the mission. So now, you can do the same with your teammates as they wait their turn to jump back into the fray.
9/10 All Ghillied Up Reprise
In the single-player campaign, players are tasked with tracking down a rogue extremist named Hasaan. In the mission entitled Recon by Fire, Gaz and Captain Price are donning ghillie suits as they crawl through the grass to surveil and recon potential storage facilities for errant missiles stolen by the terrorist leader.
The entire sequence is a callback to the famous mission in 2007's Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare titled All Ghillied Up where Price and his former Captain (MacMillan) attempt to assassinate Russian ultranationalist leader Imran Zakhaev.
When players must lay in the grass as soldiers walk past them, Price even utters the exact same instructions to Gaz verbatim as his former mentor in the 2007 game. "Try to anticipate their paths. If you have to maneuver, do it slow and steady. No quick movements".
8/10 Inspecting A Weapon With Ammo And No Ammo
In-game, you can inspect your weapons. When doing so, the player will see their character remove the ammo clip from the gun, look it over, and then put it back in. This is one moment where the development team really paid explicit attention to detail.
If your ammo clip is full or still has rounds in it, you will see that during this quick inspection. However, if the ammo is depleted, the inspection will highlight this as the clip will be visibly empty and no rounds will be loaded in the chamber. It's a cool detail that aids immersion in this first-person experience.
7/10 Ghost's Dark Reference To His Own Fate In Another Life
This is one detail players might not pick up on if they never played the original Modern Warfare 2 released in 2009. As this is a semi-reboot of sorts, the narrative doesn't play out the same as the original game. Fans may remember that, originally, Ghost died tragically as General Shepherd murders him in cold blood along with the player character, Roach.
While Shepherd in this new-and-improved Modern Warfare 2 shows his true colors, his betrayal is carried out in a far different manner. Ghost doesn't die, but that's not for Shepherd and his cohort Graves' lack of trying.
In a line to his fellow operatives after the prison break mission, Ghost exclaims, "Shepherd burned us." This macabre reference recalls the moment in the original when Shepherd literally burned the bodies of Ghost and Roach, just after his lethal betrayal.
6/10 Breaking Bad At The Santa Sena Border Crossing
One of the maps available in multiplayer is the Santa Sena Border Crossing. The map is a road littered with vehicles at the border of the U.S. and Mexico. Since the map is basically a massive highway, it makes flanking your enemy rather difficult.
Still, if players take note of the vehicles, they'll find one that is fairly recognizable. The RV from the hit AMC show Breaking Bad can be seen. And before you say 'well that could be any RV', take note of the duct tape on the door. It's the same duct tape pattern from the show that was used to cover bullet holes.
5/10 Main Weapon At The Ready While Using A Handgun
Every new entry often makes slight tweaks to the gameplay just to improve the overall quality. This update is incredible, because it's a highly functional detail to take advantage of.
If you shift between a handgun as your secondary weapon and your primary, might notice that your character is visibly holding your main weapon off to the left side instead of putting it away, while pointing their handgun with their right hand. You will completely put the primary weapon away if you reload or sprint, but this affords you a quick option in a shootout instead of reloading the primary weapon. You can then also quickly switch back to the primary weapon much faster than usual.
4/10 Vehicular Destruction
In every multiplayer map, cars often take the brunt of the destruction. Inevitably, you can use them as cover, or they're blown sky-high with explosives. But if you truly want to appreciate the level of detail the development team put into the destructibility of automobiles, you might need to slow down.
Put a bullet in the tire and watch it deflate. Shoot the trunk and watch the trunk latch pop. Try shooting the door and watch it open. There are so many different angles here, and the creators took into account just about every single one.
3/10 A Reference To Call Of Duty's Goodest Boy
Do you remember Call of Duty: Ghosts? If not, you can be forgiven. It's easily one of the more forgettable entries in the series' long history. But an obvious standout in the campaign is, of course, Riley – a German Shepherd companion. And just like the premise and title of the game, the dog is also inspired by the character of Ghost from Modern Warfare 2, whose real name is Simon Riley.
In the campaign of Modern Warfare 2, Soap finds himself injured and on the run after Graves betrays the team. As you take Soap from house to house scouting for supplies to craft gear, you might find on one shelf a cutesy figure of a German Shepherd outfitted in tactical gear, just like Riley.
2/10 The Details Of Underwater Warfare
Perhaps, one of the most interesting additions to the player-versus-player skirmishes is the addition of bodies of water that players can swim through. While Call of Duty has dabbled in this arena in the past, Modern Warfare 2 expertly elevates gameplay in water including all the details that go along with it.
Weapons fired in water do less damage. But conversely, you can throw a shock stick in the water with an enemy nearby and the effects are heightened, typically even killing the enemy. Grenade explosion sounds are muffled in water and create blast ripples. Go ahead, tinker with the water mechanics, and you will be surprised by how much the development team considered.
1/10 No Russian
The ending cinematic to the campaign shows a few faceless miscreants with Russian accents aboard an airplane. If you were paying attention earlier, Captain Price highlighted the fact that Vladimir Makarov is Task Force 141's next target. Famously, he's the villain of the original Modern Warfare 2.
So, we can obviously infer that these Russians are Makarov's men and are up to no good. They assemble plastic handguns before receiving a text that reads "No Russian." This is a callback to the infamously controversial mission in the original Modern Warfare 2 where Makarov and his men attacked a civilian airport. He told his men to not speak Russian so that no one could pin the attack on the rogue Russian outfit.
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