I’ve had some thoughts. I feel well versed in MW2 after playing through the single player and spending a considerable amount of time on the multiplayer. These thoughts are often heady realizations about the message of the game and the choices it makes through the immature medium of video games. Likewise, these thoughts are also basic critiques of mechanics and simple functionality. I’m not sure than anyone will read them, but here they are.
What is modern warfare? I mean actual war in a modern age. In CoD4, nothing said modern warfare like the cold detached chatter of the AC130 crew decimating enemy combatants. While tons of fun, I thought at the time that Infinity Ward’s AC130 mission was trying to critique the cold calculation of today’s war technology. Couple that with the brutal first-person execution scene that opened the first Modern Warfare and I think a message can be divined from the narrative experience. Still, I didn’t think much more about it. MW2 has brought those thoughts back. I think IW’s message is more implicit in MW2. War and international intrigue is ugly and gray. No country or actor has the moral high ground. In the end, it is about self-interest, self-defense, and sometimes sacrifice. Both MW titles have made a curt nod in the direction of the non-state actors. Our new political reality has indicated that terrorists with hidden agendas can dramatically affect the course of international events. The same gritty reality exists within a hyperbolic universe of Modern Warfare.<!--break-->
There is also a distinct turn away from the jingoistic, blustery CoD titles of days past. After all, WWII is one of the rare times that the line between good and evil was visible or became visible over time. It’s easy to root for the allies (even the Russians). In MW2, its harder to paint the protagonists as loyal patriots. Actually, the main “heroes” in MW2 are cynical fighting men who do whatever it takes to win. They are still committed to their duty but less glorified that their counterparts in the greatest generation. At the death screen, quotes from Donald Rumsfield and Dick Cheney, arguably two of the most disastrous civilian military leaders in recent history, replace the time honored quotes from Lincoln and FDR. At first these quotes were off putting, but I now believe that the irony is not lost on Infinity Ward.
In this pastiche, one of almost literary criticism, the game is somber and anti-war. While playing the game, those moments are felt; however, make no mistake this “message” is wrapped in a white-knuckle Michael Bay movie. At times the Bay-reverence is painfully obvious and, for sheer fun, appreciated. In this juxtaposition, I see the primary problem with video games as a serious medium. The game, despite aspirations to be more, must be fun. You can watch a movie or read a book for edification or enlightenment; a video game has to be enjoyable. What is the point otherwise? So, gruesome scenes in Modern Warfare 2 end up looking tasteless or pandering especially out-of-context. Still, I like what they did all round. The thrill ride is satisfying and the message, while occasionally ham-fisted, was at least attempted and occasionally powerful.
As for the multiplayer, here the pandering knows no bounds. This game is for the ADD generation. The game targets college frat boys, rednecks, football super-fans, and other obnoxious types that I would rather not hang around. The small honorary titles in that game’s busy multiplayer presentation feature sophomoric pot jokes, Fast & Furious references, and sexy ladies. They also have some solid puns and movie references but those are reduced by the lowest common denominator. The titles, emblems, killstreaks, deathstreaks, equipment, gun attachments, perks, extensive secondary weapons, ect. make for a game packed full of content but hard to follow. During a match, the screen is frenetic with information, nearly to the point of distraction. Still the old shooting mechanics of Modern Warfare and the “carrot” of leveling your character up do make it addictive as hell, as Setser has pointed out.
However, the online and matchmaking mechanics make it frustrating. I occasionally have a bad night, one in which I could not buy a kill. I can accept having a 1:2+ kill death spread. When people like Rance and Walter have that kind of spread in a straight up deathmatch, something is wrong. The difference between three connection bars and four seems to be an ever widening gulf. If the other team has more players with a full four bars of quality connection, prepare to loose. To be succinct, I have experienced a more than acceptable amount of the following:
* Shots not registering.
* Party members being dropped.
* Hosts timing out. (Lauded by IW as a thing of the past)
* Severe host advantage.
* Absurd spawn placement.
* Discrepancies between where you think your character is, and where your opponent shows the character to be. (Proven via Killcam)
* Generally crappy voice chat quality.
Neat, addictive, but flawed. Why do the same peer to peer hosting issues that existed in the first two-year old title still exist in the sequel? We asked the same of Epic Games since Gears of War had the same nagging issues time after time. As far as fair and balanced multiplayer matchmaking goes, no one, NO ONE does it better than Bungie.
In the end, MW2 is a collection of conflicting opinions with one exception. The one-off missions of the 2-player co-op Spec Ops mode are truly great, tightly paced, brief and challenging vignettes that hit all the gameplay highlights of the series without the albatross of story or technical issues of matchmaking. The game is certainly worth it to fans of the military shooter genre. All others, beware.