If you play video games, chances are you've played Modern Warfare 2 at least once. For avid gamers like myself and many others, this was a much anticipated game, but did it truly meet expectations for the hardcore fans of the first Modern Warfare? My answer is yes and no.
I say both because in some areas it definitely met my expectations and/or surpassed them, but in other areas (some extremely important, key areas) it did not. Let me first go over the negatives from what I thought of MW2.
Lack of Demo/Testing
This was probably one of the biggest things Infinity Ward screwed up on - not releasing a demo for actual gamers to test and find anything wrong. A demo would have most definitely have led to the discovery of the many problems and vulnerabilities that MW2 had on the XBOX 360 at least. Within the first month after release, there were a few glitches that had players running rampant and really making the game hard to play and annoying to try to play. I think that it turned away a lot of players for a little while before it was patched. I think the first glitch was the "javelin glitch." I don't really know the full extent of this glitch, but it obviously had something to do with the javelin and it was obviously abused. Thankfully, it was patched. Another glitch was the unlimited grenade launcher ammo. This is one of the worst things in MW 1 + 2: noob tubing. They were then given unlimited ammo for a short time and they went nuts with that and then it was patched. There were other glitches, but I haven't been playing that much to really know what they were, but I think they were patched so that's a good thing.
Again, most, if not all, of these could have been fixed if only IW released a demo for testing, but it didn't happen so problems arose, players became aggravated, and MW2 got a little less playing time for some like myself.
Camping
Well, this was in MW as well as MW2 and it's almost impossible to completely get rid of. "Camping" refers to players who simply sit in one place for the majority of the match or until they are killed and move somewhere else to camp and just shoot whoever comes around a corner or whatnot. It was really annoying in the first MW and still is in MW2. I really wish there was a fix for this, but I don't see how there could be.
Noob Tubing
"Noob tubing" refers to players who use the grenade launcher attachment on any weapon that can all the time or the majority of the time. I understand when you first start off and all you have for an attachment is the grenade launcher, but using it almost every match is just retarded and unnecessary. I really think that that should be limited or removed from online multiplayer matches. The latter would be best, but I doubt it will ever happen. It's especially unnecessary and annoying in Hardcore Team Deathmatch. In this mode friendly fire is on (you can shoot, damage, and kill your own teammates), higher damage (opponents usually die within a few shots like real life instead of having to empty an entire clip and they still live sometimes that's evident in the regular team deathmatch modes), and limited HUD (Heads Up Display) so there really is no need for noob tubing.
Maps
Honestly, most players have a large problem with the maps in MW2 and, quite frankly, they should because they're horrible. There's only a few good maps and the rest of just plain horrible to play on. IW really dropped the ball in that area. I truly hope that they release a map pack soon with better maps so that people can really enjoy this game.
Now, onto the positives.
Maps
Yes, there are some good maps and those ones are actually really fun to play on. My favorite is probably Terminal. Terminal takes place at an airport and has an airplane attached to the loading dock and an actual terminal with all of the details you'd find in a normal airport. Favela is probably another favorite of mine. Favela is pretty much just a bunch of buildings and alleyways set in Brazil. Depending on the players and type of game you play, this map can be really fast paced and a lot of action. Highrise is pretty cool as well, but you have to know the map and play in certain modes. It's just that, set on a highrise building with 2 buildings on both sides. A good bonus to this map is that you're pretty high off the ground and if you fall, you die. There is a way to get off the building, though, so if you haven't found it out yet, look around in a private match by yourself and move around the map to figure out good points to post up in heated battles and where to move to gain important ground on enemies. Invasion, Karachi, Rundown, and Skidrow are probably right in the middle of my favorites and least favorites. Invasion is set in a city in the desert and can have some great street fights. Watch out, though, the buildings can be a very advantageous point to pick off enemies not paying attention. If you're good enough, you can move from building to street/building and take out enemies quickly. The streets are where the most action happens for the most part, though. Karachi is another desert town, but this one requires a slightly different approach. The streets are where the most actions happens as well, but with more tactics if you're good and want to win. Rundown is just a rundown village in Brazil. This map can get really crazy when the heat of the battle starts to erupt. You're going to be fighting from pretty much every angle because there are ins and outs to various buildings and locations that you have to pay attention to or you're going to die. Quarry is an okay map, but it's really frustrating to play on most times. It's just a large quarry that has a lot of ways to get to different areas so you also have to pay attention on this map as well. Not only are there tall buildings where snipers can pick you off from across the map, but there are many nooks and crannies for campers and for enemies to pop around the corner from and take you out. I can say that the capture the flags matches are probably the best matches for this map. Skidrow is an urban map with a few apartment buildings to run in and out of and a couple of streets to stay off of for a prolonged period of time unless you want to get shot. A lot of people don't like Wasteland, but I don't mind it because I am a pretty good sniper and it's perfect for long range fighters and snipers. It's basically an open field from Chernobyl and there are areas where if you stay too long you die from the radiation. Derail and Afghan are similar maps to me because they can be used for sniping or closer ranged fighting. Both maps have areas to snipe from as well as areas to get in close combat. Estate is a rough map to play on because it's basically one large cabin at the top of a hill and a few structures at the bottom. It's good for matches that you have to capture the cabin, but besides that, it's rough to play on. Sub Base is rough, too. It's just that: a submarine base. There's snow and a few buildings to go in and out of as well as some smaller open space to run around. I'm not a fan of it, but don't mind it when playing with a decent team. Rust, Scrapyard, and Underpass are probably my least favorites. Rust is the smallest map and, if playing a larger mode, very fast paced and the highest action. There's literally no place to hide from enemies if you need to recover health or for the campers. There's one tall structure in the middle with a few objects along the sides so there's really nowhere to go but to fight the enemies straight up so expect to die quite a bit unless you manage to kill them before you get shot, which is pretty difficult to do for a long time. Scrapyard is a map that I don't like at all. Even though it's called Scrapyard, there's only a few beat up planes in the middle with a few buildings around the edges. You can pretty much be shot from any angle and doesn't mark off any type of sides. Underpass is also a horrible map. It's just a rainy, broken down underpass map with a few buildings and a lot of areas to camp and hide out. It's also one of my least favorite. I don't think I missed any, but that's a quick overview of the maps and what I think of each one.
Weapons
In MW2 there are different weapons with different attributes then the first MW, but there are a few that remained the same, but also had different attributes than MW. Because I mostly play Hardcore Team Deathmatch it really doesn't matter which gun you choose because they all do the same thing pretty much. I usually run with the Scar-H or the ACR for regular maps and a sniper rifle for the long range maps. Besides the different weapons in MW2, there's not much else different from the first one. There still is the BS of having to unload a full clip and the enemy still living in the regular Team Deathmatch modes as was in the the first MW, but I take care of that by playing Hard Core TD.
Well, that's just a summary of the good and bad of MW2 and many players probably know all about everything I mentioned from playing the game, but it's good to write down somewhere to figure it all out.
Since I enjoy and play many other games, I don't think that this was the greatest game, but I definitely think it was one of the better ones.
My Rating: 8/10
GameSpot Rating: 9.0/10 (Editor's Choice Nominee); Critic Score: 9.3/10 (74 Reviews); User Score: 9.0/10 (9,115 Votes)
Happy Gaming!
GeNiO
