When you're one of the first in the world to be shown what'll likely be the most successful shooter of recent history, it's bad form to repeatedly point at the game and excitedly bark which movies you've seen its setpieces in before. And, indeed, for flecks of your spittle to land in the eyes of its designers.
After 45 minutes in front of Modern Warfare 2 I'd stopped to excitedly bite my fist no less than seven times to stare with strange intensity at Infinity Ward's studio head Vincent Zampella and community manager Robert Bowling, and yell things like: Goldeneye! Police Story! Vertical Limit! Die Hard 2! To this Infinity Ward return a shrug.
Modern Warfare 2
Official trailer
2:01Reveal trailer
Modern Warfare 2
Official trailer
2:01Reveal trailer
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"I don't know that it's intentional... though we watch a lot of movies," offers Zampella by way of explanation, with perhaps an underlying glimmer of alarm that the feverish individual sweating into his leather couch is listing increasingly bad '90s actioners rather than marvelling at the updated graphics, remarkable motion capture and breathless innovations in level design on show.
Yet this isn't a criticism on my part; it's the recognition that more than any other game Call of Duty - or what was once Call of Duty - has increasingly pitted you as the star of the most visceral, imaginative and adrenalin-ripped set-pieces ever committed to 3D engine, or indeed celluloid.
That it occasionally stoops to cherry-pick the very best moments of violent popular culture is an affirmation that Modern Warfare 2 is aimed squarely at fulfilling the Action Man fantasies of a generation. The fact that I'm dribbling as I type this is proof enough that it will hit its target.
This stance is solidified as I watch the Infinity Ward twosome play a co-op mission in Modern Warfare 2's Special Ops mode. As Robert places an explosive charge on a dank brick wall, and they both charge, co-op style, through the flying rubble, accompanied by a beautifully animated slow-motion Russian soldier cartwheeling away, my animated burbling is proved correct. This mission-slice, cut and pasted from the main game for ramped-up difficulty and co-op jollities, is a dingy prison shower-block - a concrete basin full of grey shower fittings and crumbling cover points. Above this, two raised guard gantries on either side provide cover for a barrage of snipers.
"This," I delicately proffer, "is taken out of The Rock." I'm met with friendly affirmatives all round; we pause for a moment and hold each other in a testosterone-charged, yet powerfully emotional, embrace.
Modern Warfare 2's storyline picks up directly after Call of Duty 4's bridge finale, with villain Zakhaev dead by your (well, Soap McTavish's) hand, and everyone else apparently dead bar the oddly-monikered Soap and the heavily-bulleted Price. But what with international foreign policy being what it is, the slaying of Zakhaev has prompted an even more desperate state of affairs.
"Killing Zakhaev has allowed Makerov - one of his main guys - to take power, and use his death as a martyr situation," explains Zampella. With Makerov pointing the finger at the Allies and screaming blue murder, Soap and his boys in Task Force 141 - an international elite military unit dedicated to hunting down terror targets are on the case.
Thing is, this time around you're not playing Soap - in the snowy mountain-top level I was shown he's become an NPC on the battlefield, ordering you around as you both get up to stealthy mischief in the manner of Price's COD4 Chernobyl adventures.
This level begins in a blizzard and halfway up a mountain, with you edging around a tiny ledge with your back to a sheet of solid ice and your front to countless fathoms of fresh high-altitude air. What follows is a remarkable set of stunts, climbs and perilous dangling as you follow Soap up the ice sheet - a subtle mix of player-controlled movement, predetermined slips and acrobatics.
You'll slam ice axes into the glacier with your left and right hands through alternate mouse clicks, hauling yourself up and watching the ice crack as you put your weight on it. You'll watch Soap heroically leap a massive gap with ice axes flailing (in the manner of the only good bit of Vertical Limit), then do so yourself before the ice breaks beneath you and Soap dashes to grab your arm.
This is all far removed from what you'd expect, and an example of the way Infinity Ward are manhandling a multitude of different experiences, peaks and troughs into each and every level. Always ensuring that you'll never know what to expect. What you should expect next is a two-man stealth assault on an enemy airbase. A blanket of fog rolls in and out, while flurries of snow covers all so you can just about see the silhouettes of patrolling guards, beautifully animated and hunched against the elements, and the red glow of their cigarette butts.
What pans out is similar to the early stages of the assault on Chernobyl in COD4, moments such as the memorable "You take the one on the left on the count of three" trick are elegantly woven into the level's gameplay and are no longer stand-out moments. You're even equipped with a heart-beat sensor, and can make out where your prey are patrolling - and soon Soap retreats to a sniping position to help you take out the periphery soldiers.
Again, this leads to semi-scripted moments of utter genius - such as Soap lining up a kill and saying "I've got this one..." the second before you launch into a melee attack, taking out his target and leaving him to mutter, "Oh... never mind." Small details like this pepper the game, even more so than in the original, and the result is a smooth and organic experience where you simply can't see the joins.
Eventually, having perched explosives on the required targets, you meet up with Soap and venture inside one of the airfield's hangars. It's at this point that the ever-evolving gameplay of the level turns from sneaking and stealth, and enters the familiar Call of Duty phase in which the shit hits the fan and you find yourself involuntarily hiding behind the scenery just to catch your breath. You run up to the hangar gantry, and look over the building's floor to see Soap with his arms raised and around 20 Russians at the, now open, hangar doors aiming their guns at him (GoldenEye comparisons begin here).
At first you assume he's a goner, but then the game casually reminds you that you've got a detonator in your hand and Soap soon makes his escape alongside billowing smoke and flame. "These moments of peak gameplay are more punctuated, they stand out more, when you have quiet moments that lead up to them," Zampella says, standing on the now mist-free runway and watching soldiers flood in from every direction towards him; MIGs and fuel tanks exploding nearby in the crisp mountain air. "We go for peaks and valleys in the gameplay. We make the whole game that way, but within a single level we do the same thing."
As Soap and the player leg it over the runway with every available evil-minded Russian on their tail the distant reedy engines of enemy snowmobiles can be heard: "It's not our game unless there's eight different games inside of it..." explains Bowling, as three Ski-Doos leap over the crest of a hill towards the player.
Soap, meanwhile, hides behind the corner of a rustic outhouse and hooks a passing enemy snowmobile driver off his steed with an ice axe (in a move that will cause grown men to whimper with admiration) and in no time at all you're both bombing down the mountain on stolen snow-motors. Turning pursuing enemies into snow-melting balls of fire, giggling to yourself more than is healthy and doing spectacular jumps over what can only be described as the thinnest of air. (Die Hard 2). So ends, having reached your waiting helicopter, a frankly stunning Call of Duty mission - a perfectly structured mixture of tension and exhilaration, prevailing weather conditions and a brilliant bit I forgot to mention in which Soap runs up behind an enemy and bodyslams him into a set of lockers. Probably the best example of stunt motion-capturing I've ever seen.
Infinity Ward won't be drawn out on storyline particulars or the character(s) you'll play, but it seems they feel as if they've already done the tale of the war on two fronts and the red herring twist. They will, however, talk with a great deal of enthusiasm about the chaps of Task Force 141, recruited to go after high-value targets around the globe. "It's like the task forces that went after Saddam Hussein [Task Force 20] and Osama [Task Force 121]," says studio head Zampella.
"It's international. It's SAS, it's special forces, and it's linked with Delta Force a lot - with CIA implants... so you have at your disposal the best of all the best armed forces of the world. The task force, in real life, are the elite soldiers of the elite soldiers." What's more, so badass is this cosmopolitan brew of casual murder and bodily odour, that they get a fair amount of leeway in the manner they conduct themselves.
"The cool thing about Task Force 141 is that they're the guys that have earned the right to customise their own gear," picks up Bowling. "If you're infantry you have the standard load-outs, but if you're in the Task Force they'll use what's most useful."
As such, when you look at the heavily detailed character models of your allies you'll notice self-customised things like shoulder antennas bent in two, duct tape hanging between their legs and battery packs tucked on the back of their necks.
Such is the Infinity Ward dedication to the feeling, if not practice, of accuracy that soldiers are regularly drafted into their studio to advise on, for example, the gloves Task Force 141 should be wearing. Typically a soldier would choose to wear pilot gloves, apparently, since they're thinner and that means that fingers are closer to the triggers. "They'll take a standard piece of gear, and they'll say - you know what? That thing's shit. As soon as it gets sand in it, it stops working," confirms Bowling, himself a former military type who'd wrap the aforementioned duct tape around his handguards (whatever they are) when out in the field. "And we use the cage for something else... or we use the belt for this. We do a lot of work to make sure the gear is what the soldiers in the field are using."
This added emphasis on character detail doesn't begin and end with Task Force 141 either, since now whatever weapons an enemy is carrying will have a direct implication for the gear, ammo and outfit you see on his body. So in both single-player and online play you'll face a variety of differently equipped enemies, but also be able to instantly tell what weaponry your foe is packing and thinking about the best way to deal with them.
But how do you balance this obsession with reality with a game that, with the best will in the world, hardly replicates what you see on Channel 4 news? After all, the COD series has never claimed to be another ArmA or OpFlash. "We call it authenticity, not realism," trots out Zampella. "We don't want to make a sim-shooter. But it has to be authentic. Like when you see a guy in an action movie. If it all looks real and legitimate you think 'Hey, that guy looks like a soldier', but what he does can be over the top - part of an entertainment experience. This is like that - an interactive action movie."
Back to the interactive action then, this time in Brazil (Rio De Janeiro to be precise) where the Task Force are hot on the trail of an arms dealer by the name of Faust. A trail that turns bloody when a bullet from one of Faust's men kills the driver of the Task Force vehicle tailing him. With the car's interior decked out in glass and glistening droplets of blood your character leaps out and chases the hoodlum through the colourful and crowded streets.
That's right: non-scripted civilians have finally entered Call of Duty, their role seemingly being to run around while screaming, and occasionally to be clipped by passing gunfire. One non-lethal takedown later (a shot to the leg) and the miscreant is strongly encouraged to give up the shanty town location of his diabolic leader.
I haven't seen the gameplay that follows, but I've been on a fly-past of where the action takes places - and it's beautiful. It's an uphill fight and a downhill escape through the said favela with the backdrop of Rio's famous Christ the Redeemer statue towering above, and presumably disapproving of what he's watching.
Here multiple paths will lead you through armed locals and petrified bystanders to a confrontation with Faust at the top of the shantytown - with enemies dashing over rooftops, popping out of side-streets and more fruit, bricks and random furniture to blast past than has previously been imaginable. It'll be good in single-player, but you can't help but think that when it appears as a multiplayer map it'll be an utter marvel.
Elsewhere on planet Modern Warfare 2 I'm shown a snowy Russian pine forest with distant cable cars crossing a valley and beautifully rendered churned up mud on the roads. Here, I'm told, enemy APCs will storm over a nearby ridge and slide down the icy incline - firing as they slip and forcing you into the woods with shell-rocked snow falling from the trees around you. Beyond this, a snowdrift-packed village emerges beyond the misty forest, and beyond that again a full-on military installation - complete with tanks, submarines and various combat paraphernalia. This, combined with your forays into Afghanistan, proves that Modern Warfare 2 will be a truly globe-trotting action adventure.
All that's left to ask then is, when you've got the world's most recognisable military game name in the palm of your hand, why dump the Call of Duty tag? "We're just trying to get across that this is Modern Warfare 2, not Call of Duty 6," deadpans Zampella. "It's important that people know that. That's the only reason."
Nothing to do with the dilution of the franchise by other, lesser, developers then? Then again, frankly, who cares? Modern Warfare 2 is going to be an utter barnstormer of a game that I'd buy, even if it had Medal of Honor in the title.
Surprised to see a preview so early on in the runup to release of MW2, However further surprised for the review to be on the PC Plat. :o
Nice review nontheless, This is what I expected from Infinity Ward to be honest, and what I played of MW2 at E3, it only feels even more agreeable in everything CVG has stated in this review. It is solid, and I cannot wait to play the full version in the future.
PC FTW where it concerns FPS games, and MW2 looks and reads like it could be one of the finest action packed games (with a touch of stealth,) ever released.
On a side-note: The military adviser is right, it is preferable to have pilot gloves on since your hands are more dexterous and it's no longer an exercise in frustration loading/unloading a rifle, flipping the safety switch "On", "Off" or to "Single" vs. "Semi-automatic" fire mode. The pilot gloves aren't as rugged though and are worn down faster, plus the thick leather gloves are preferable during winter weather and when crawling through brush and woodlands thick with poison ivy and stinging nestles. I'm pleased to read that IW has paid a good deal of attention to detail.
Considering that Call of Duty has been more favored for the Console spectrum rather then PC, And that its first call of duty was indeed on the console first, and then the PC, and it has followed that same tradition until Call of Duty 3 which was no PC Launch at all, I don't agree with you, The multiplayer action is far more hot and involving than it is on the PC to date, 13 Million players that have live and call of duty 4, and that is not including the amount of Playstation 3, so its pretty much making your comment null. I certainly don't think IW make MW2 on the PC and then port it, that's for sure. I believe a console is first.
The first call of duty was on PC, as was Call of Duty 2. Long before the 360 port of CoD 2. I still have CoD 2 on my PC and it's still just as good as I remember. :D
The first CoD was on PC, and it was AWESOME. I still hold that the United Offensive expansion for it is one of the top 10/5 multiplayer experiences ever. Dem consolers owe me for buying it and supporting it so they could get their CoD4 (and mine too). As much as I hate TreyArch I still love you IW.
I must be one of the few people who didn't really like COD 4 - too linear, too scripted - yes, great graphics and set-pieces, but a distinct lack of freedom. I'm talking about the single-player campaign, as I'm not interested in online play!
Name one action FPS game that isn't linear, scipted and lacking in freedom? In fact, name one FPS that has better acting and set pieces? Lastly, how can you truly judge a game if you only play part of it? COD4's online play is it's greatest asset, without playing it your missing out on the best FPS game experiance ever made.
Yawwwn another phony war, COD4 was good but this holds no interest whatsoever. Its sad that they have tried to make themselves fresh by dropping the call of duty label, modern warefare 2 looks newer than call of duty 6. Can't infinity ward try something different? I for one am bored of made up conflicts in former soviet countries/middle east. I wish money would be spent on more interesting original IPs instead of flogging a dead cashcow.
Exactly. The 'Action Bubble' gameplay of Crysis gives you complete freedom in a level, and there is an incredible amount of depth in how you can tackle an objective.
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All I'm going to say is FF7 and Twilight Princess both had snowboarding levels, and I didn't see anyone make a trailer out of them...
The developer said it, the games are 'interactive action movies', which millions clearly enjoy. The core gameplay (which is almost the same as what came before) in my opinion is very shallow though, kinda on-rails minus the rails. A good game to be sure, but hardly the zenith of the FPS world.
I was in the army for 7 years, left just after christmas 08, I used to wear boxing gloves and a hat made out of dried up horse sh*t, I did some bad sh*t out in Afgranystan, can't sleep at night cause of it.
Main reason why I wont go into the army, and stick to actually helping build the games i help,
Because i dislike the way people are treat sometimes in barracks, and also how little help the people get who have been in war. All those things in your head, and little help to get em out.
1. CoD started on PC, it began with CoD 1, and also CoD 2, both were out before connsoles Consoles got lame ports, which everyone said were rubbish and paled in comparison to the PC version
CoD 3 sucked
2. CoD 4 was played MASSIVELY on PC, so dont go saying that it was bigger in MP on 360, PC CoD 4 had and still has a vast following online
3. "THIS GAME WILL HAVE THE BEST VERSIOON ON XBOX 360 EVRYONE KNOWS THAT DEFINATELY COS IT HAS GREAT GRAPHICS BETTER THAN PS-CRAP"
Erm, trust me, the PC will have the best graphics, if you really ratchet up the res and settings, it will blow the PS3 and the 360 versions out of the water in terms of looks, just like all moderon PC versions do If yuo can find me a game which is out on concole and PC, where the console version looks better than the PC version, I'll give ya a tenner
Except that even a medium PC smokes any of the consoles tech wise and the control system - which is especially important for a fast-paced FPS - is almost infinitely superior with the PC's keyboard & mouse combination. I like my Xbox 360 but there is no way in hell I'm going to buy MW2 for it; my gaming PC is still king and easily outpaces my console in terms of what it's capabilities are. Furthermore, as others have pointed out, the CoD franchise was born on the PC; perhaps you should go back to the history books then if you chastise that other fellow with "go back to WoW, etc."?
You have your opinion on which platform it should be played on and so does he. What's the problem? If you want it on console with far worse accuracy then it's all yours my man.
Are you really comparing a 1997 game (FF7,) with one slated for 2009? A game that's a JRPG and not a FPS and which time has *not* been kind to? Really?! If so perhaps we should consider just how much has changed in the gaming industry in those 12 years....
Fair enough. Having served in the military I am curious as to what third-hand experiences you base your impression of barracks life on though? Granted, it varies to some extent depending on which regiment you are in, which branch of the armed forces, which country's military you are in, what sort of NCOs and officers you have, and last but not least, what sort of squad/platoon mates you have. Personally I didn't find living in the barracks that bad at the time; sure it was cramped and there wasn't much personal space but I knew it was temporary and so you just suck it up and keep on chugging along.
Anyone who played the first Modern Warfare will no doubt be looking forward to the release of MW2, regardless of platform.
I enjoyed the Campaign from the first but didnt get into the MP as much as others, it seems like the story this time is going to be a bit more open and expansive and you know that the MP will be as good if not better than the last one, everyone should be happy (obviously never going to happen :wink: ).
The PC is for porn, work, porn, looking at sports and game websites, and porn in that order. It is not for playing video games, hence the video games console, note, not a PC!
I really hope that most of these comments are piss-takes, otherwise the future of the world as we know it is in serious trouble.
I don't care what system you have, as long as you enjoy playing your games on it. As far as genuine copies go, I'm pretty sure the 360 will outnumber both the PS3 and PC versions of CoD4. But that doesn't mean nobody plays it on those platforms. And what difference does it make if they do?
The only reason I got the 360 version is because my PC won't run it (as is the story with most new games). But I might get MW2 on PS3 just to upset any fanboys watching :)
Ok gramps. While you're busy striking rocks together in some dank cave in the hopes of lighting a fire, some of us will be playing games on *both* our PCs and our consoles. I know: It's a revolutionary concept... :roll:
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