Modern Warfare 2—Multiplayer Moments

Treit and True

18 Nov 2009 12:06 PM

Comments 131

I crouched behind a stack of crates with my FAMAS in hand. The air shattered around me as bullets popped every which way, spelling joy or defeat for my team, written in showers of blood. I rolled my flare along the tarmac and I waited.

With both teams deadlocked and the countdown approaching zero, the crate crash landed a few feet away just as an enemy leaped through a broken window and made a bee line for my reward. No sir. A three round burst to the melon thwarted his boldness, and I collected my prize, a locked and loaded AC130 gunship.

The score was 7200-7300, our advantage, when I took my shot; a victory missile that pierced the glass ceiling of the airport terminal, decimating a pair of enemies and the opposing team’s chance at snatching victory away.

These are the types of multiplayer moments that are peculiar to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and they’re a large part of the reason that I anticipate many a marathon session with Infinity Ward’s latest gem.

The oodles of multiplayer improvements MW 2 brings to the table are numerous, but here are just a few I’ve grown particularly fond of after a week of dedicated play.

Upgraded Perks: It’s already nice to sport the Commando Perk, which lets me lunge an extra few feet when I ply my melee attack, but it’s even sweeter that by dedicating myself to the melee strike I can earn an upgraded version of that perk. In the case of the Commando Perk (all Perks are upgradeable), it allows me to fall any amount of distance without taking damage.
Unlockable Killstreaks: The original Modern Warfare sported three Killstreak rewards: UAV, Air Strike, and Gunship. MW 2 on the other hand offers fifteen ways with which to reward yourself and your team for top-flight performance. These include such noteworthy items as Counter UAVs, a Pave Low, a Harrier Strike, and of course the mother of them all, a Tactical Nuke, which, incidentally, fries the entire battlefield and ends the match in your favor. No questions asked. Of course, you’ll have to pony up twenty-five consecutive kills to earn it.
New Equipment: The introduction of such items as throwing knives, tactical insertion (use it to generate your next spawn point), and semtex, to name a few, really help spice up your load out. More importantly for me though, they come at the cost of frag grenades, so there’s less grenade spamming in general. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good grenade kill, but it’s a nice change of pace not to have to dodge them at every turn.
Tactical Maps: The maps on display in MW 2 are, in a word, more sophisticated than the original game. Consequently, greater care must be taken in each section of nearly every map. While the game-speed remains as fast and fluid as ever, the need to be more careful really helps MW 2 feel more tactical. This I like.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has done itself proud, and I think it’s high time I stop chattering about it and fire it up for a few more rounds of MP goodness. See you online!