Modern Warfare 2, the most anticipated game of the year, is out and has already broken the sales records. And it’s already showered in rave reviews, so let’s be clear from the get go: this is not one of those reviews. In fact, we were quite disappointed by Modern Warfare 2. Even though we were fans of the first game, the sequel feels a lot like going from a great movie to its sequel: nothing new and much of the same.

Modern Warfare 2 is the Transformers 2 of the video games. A huge blockbuster with plenty of thrills and action, but a confused to no plot, and, for the PC version which we’re reviewing, a crippled multiplayer part. It feels like a genuine overhyped piece of entertainment, which will be swallowed up by fans no matter what, still with all the great ingredients of Modern Warfare 1, but with not much new, not chances are taken by the developer, in fact, it’s far too much like its predecessor, in almost every aspect.

Modern Warfare features the same style campaign as the previous game: short, confused and on steroids. In the campaign, you’re more or less thrown in the action — there’s no act 1 here — and the levels are short, and likewise, feature no formal introduction or ending, and are extremely linear in design and gameplay. If you’ve played Crysis, or Far Cry 2 or Battlefield Bad Company, where you had a ton of options and could take on a level the way you wanted, Modern Warfare is nothing like that, and keeps the strict linear gameplay, forcing you through a set route, with planted enemies every few yards. You reach the end, you win. Big deal. There is little to no new things in the campaign, it feels the same way, plays the same way, looks and sounds the same — the changes are microscopic. The visuals are lacking as well, as the engine is showing its age, no matter how high they can crank up the textures and lighting effects, while better than Modern warfare 1, it’s still years behind the likes of Crysis and Battlefield Bad Company. Destructive environments should be standard now, especially for a game of this caliber.

The campaign is not only short — you’ll be done with it in less than 5 hours — it’s also filled with cliches and seems like an interactive Micheal Bay movie. There is no connection between the levels and it feels like the designers merely had a few great idea for some levels which were completely disconnected, then wrote a show-string hack story to somehow hold it together. It doesn’t hold it together, there is no decent narrative, no structure, just a bunch of action filled levels. We’re not buying it, Infinity Ward. Having said that, the campaign and overall single player experience is great fun and feels polished, but the strict linear gameplay takes away a lot of said fun. There’s also the Special Ops mode, which consists of 23 small missions which you can play alone or in co-op, which is great fun, especially if you’re playing with a friend.

Multiplayer wise, the gameplay feels a bit more varied and fair than previously, and there are a ton of upgrades and perks available. Sadly, there are no dedicated servers on the PC, and if you feared that it was going to be an issue, you were right, it is. In addition, matches are limited to 18 players only, which is another great disappointment, as 32 players have been standard for years, and even Modern Warfare 1 supported 32 players, with some dedicated servers running 64 player modes. While the multiplayer is more balanced and fast pace than before, it feels like a port from the console version, and when it comes to ports from consoles to PCs, they’re always worse on the PC. This is the case with Modern Warfare 2 as well.

Overall, fans of Modern Warfare will have no issues with the sequel — they probably already have the game. And general FPS games will enjoy the short single player campaign and deep multiplayer, but with so much hype surrounding the game, it leaves us wanting something more, a decent campaign for one.

The Good:
Fun gameplay
Polished
Deep multiplayer

The Bad:
Campaign story narrative is non-existent
Very linear gameplay
Aging visuals are beginning to show
PC multiplayer is severely crippled

Overall score: 7/10