Here’s what you need to know about Modern Warfare 2 : It’s a magnificent multiplayer game.
Yes, the incredibly popular new shooter for the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 (reviewed) comes bundled with an entertaining and substantial single-player storyline, one that has already stirred up a little controversy.
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But it’s not this string of missions that will cause millions of gamers to stay glued to their machines through Thanksgiving and beyond. It’s the addictive and robust player-versus-player online combat.
There’s serious voodoo in Modern Warfare 2 ’s multiplayer mode. The game integrates the character progression and user customization of role-playing games into its death-matches. Every kill earns you experience points. Even if you lose, you earn upgrades at the end of every ass-whooping. And with those points, you earn access to new weapons, customized avatars and new challenges that — you guessed it — unlock more goodies.
At first, I felt like it was a cheat, as if developer Infinity Ward was fooling me into playing the same old vanilla multiplayer shooter all over again by dangling carrots in my face. But I soon found that the bonuses you earn are meaningful and alluring. I entered my first multiplayer match as a Grenadier equipped with the standard FAMAS assault rifle. As I racked up kills with the French bullpup, I started leveling up my proficiency with the weapon, unlocking upgrades.
Many of the rewards were superficial, like ammo patterns, but the “heartbeat sensor” upgrade was a game-changer.
This requires a bit of setup. As with many games, Modern Warfare 2 has a radar in the corner of the screen that shows enemy positions. But your team has to earn that intel. Players will occasionally be able to summon a friendly drone that will fly in and point out enemy positions. The enemy can try to jam that drone’s signal, or call in their own aerial vehicle to find you.
It’s a complex game of technological cat-and-mouse that relies heavily on each team’s ballistic prowess. And that’s just the fight over the radar screens.
So where did my new heartbeat sensor come in? Mounted on my gun, it showed me the position of every living, breathing entity on the map. Just like the space marines in Aliens, I could look down at my weapon and see where my enemies were, even if my team didn’t have a drone in the air.
My heartbeat sensor upgrade gave me a slight edge in combat, because I’d grown to rely on radar intel to hunt down enemy stragglers and keep myself from accidentally wandering into a hornets’ nest.
There are dozens of similar paths that players can explore, be they snipers, explosives experts or run-and-gun grunts. Modern Warfare 2 ‘s tweaks, upgrades and perks are the reason to play — not the “been there, done that” combat.
Modern Warfare 2 also features a series of special-ops missions that you can play cooperatively with friends. Some of the scenarios play out like time trials, urging players to hone their tactical techniques. Others are about survival, with waves of enemies pushing in on the players’ position. These tasks are no replacement for a true cooperative campaign mode, but there’s so much to do in Modern Warfare 2 ‘s multiplayer they don’t feel like a gyp.
Played solo, the game seems like a string of action-movie set-pieces sewn together with the flimsiest of plot. Big things happen: A terrorist organization fools Russia, under the sway of ultranationalists, into invading America. Players hop in and out of the boots of a handful of soldiers in a broad variety of missions.
A large-scale battle goes down in the National Mall. Amidst the wreckage of a stately building, the player takes potshots at enemy tanks and copters with a rocket launcher, with the Washington Monument looming in the smoke-darkened sky. On foot in Rio de Janeiro, the player finds himself running for his life, attacked from all sides by militia men in the claustrophobic shanty town.
The logic that draws us from one gunfight to the next isn’t terribly sound. The plot delivers some contrived reason as to why you find yourself in Brazil, but the real reasons your boots are in this particular dirt is clear to anybody who saw The Hulk : The intricate favela is a killer place for an action scene.
Trying to puzzle meaning out of Modern Warfare 2 ‘s plot is a foolish endeavor. The game cribs its morality from post-Vietnam Hollywood: War is bad, except when it’s not. Soldiers who fight for freedom are good, except when they’re not.
The moments when Modern Warfare 2 isn’t good are few and far between. That’s about all you can ask from a hero.
WIRED Mesmerizing, meaningful multiplayer.
TIRED Patchwork single-player story hemmed together with quick cut scenes.
$60, Activision
Rating: 
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