A Post-Veteran Reviewby Irving_Washington

Reader Rating:
See Detailed Ratings

November 13, 2009: After the initial midnight release multiplayer madness, and a little Special Ops fun, I decided to give the campaign a try. And I also decided to go ahead and try it on Veteran, to get all the solo trophies at once. A little less than 8 hours later, I'd beaten the game on veteran. The ending is badass. The veteran mode of MW2 isn't nearly as unforgiving as the other COD games. Enemies don't infinitely respawn until you pass a certain point anymore, and they don't throw endless grenades. The campaign is intense and fun, and there are more than a few parts that plain just haven't been done in a FPS, as far as story content leading to gameplay. Enough of the story. People buy MW games for the online multiplayer, and with MW2, Infinity Ward delivers in spades. The levels are much more varied and multi-leveled. Everything seems brighter. The variety of the levels also calls for the player to make weapon loadouts / classes specific to certain level types. Like levels where visibility is limited, or enemies can easily blend into the background, the player should probably bring along a weapon with a thermal scope. New perks such as Cold-Blooded, Commando, and Scavenger are all brilliant and add so much more depth and decision-making to the game's perk system. Every level is enjoyable to play, even if you get blown away. Maybe you play in Quarry and hate it. Then, the next time you go there, you notice little secret places nobody seems to be paying attention to. Now you kinda like Quarry. This kept happening to me. All the levels I was "meh" about have all grown on me. All the weapons are fun and the gunplay is all-around better, sharper, and deadlier. A new Accolades, Title, and Emblem system has been put into place for more personalization for the player. Different tasks earn different rewards, such as getting so many knife kills in a match, or calling in airstrikes, choppers, Predator missiles...on and on and on. There are tons of things to do in MW2. And lastly the Special Ops mode. It's a blast. You can do most of the missions solo, but it can be difficult. With a friend, online or offline, it's even more fun. You have to use actual teamwork, because most of the time running and gunning will have you calling for your buddy to revive you. The Spec Ops missions have you defending positions, surviving the Russian Gulag, one player in a chopper blasting enemies on the ground while the other player, who is on foot, has to make his way to the evac point for the chopper to pick him up. Snowmobile racing. Training course time trials. Sniper shootouts in radiation zone. I could go on and on. But I'm out of time.