I'm sure this timely review is going to blow your mind, but I'd like to get into a few things that caught my eye after being in game for approximately 10 days worth of rounds. I'm not a huge fan of this game, but it does have its place and its intentions make a lot of sense.
Here's where I make assumptions about the developers
First and foremost I feel that MW2 was not designed for lasting appeal. Now, I know you're thinking that there are 10 prestige levels and all sorts of unlocks, challenges, and achievements that are there to make it last a long long time. What I see is a game that was designed to grab the attention of every single player right off the bat and hold it as long as it can without turning anyone away. "Yeah. And?" I get it, I'm not making a ton of sense, but it will make sense in a second.
There are a number of mechanics in the game that I'm going to talk about that I feel are in place so that a player that buys the game at any time can jump in with anyone else and have the time of his life while he's getting the hang of the game without being hampered by things like a learning curve.
1. Laser cannons and army pants - The weapons in this game share every characteristic of the weapons in any fantasy arcade shooter (read: halo). Bullets fire in a direct line and hit the second they are fired without a delay, drop etc. This is all fine and good, but when someone is as far as he can be and you can put a dozen shots on him with a pistol because every shot will go perfectly straight forever and hit immediately it takes away from the experience for me personally, but makes it more fun for the inexperienced before they realize what they are dealing with.
2. Magic Bullets - If someone is shooting at you and you duck behind cover, lay down behind cover, etc you will die. The worst thing you can do is try to avoid being shredded by bullets when someone has you from a superior position. You have a better chance standing there and trying to shoot back every single time. If you don't believe me, try it. Even if they aren't hitting you before you turn the corner or they are barely grazing you, the second you turn the corner you'll be a corpse.
3. Killer's Protection - Something I noticed in Modern Warfare but didn't really wrap my mind around until MW2 is that every time you engage an enemy you are protected from damage coming from anyone else until one of you dies. For instance, you turn a corner and see someone spraying at a teammate of yours and open fire at him from behind. You are aiming perfectly, he's standing still... at this point in MW1 your teammate would die and then his killer would die. I can't say this is a perfect science, but it happened so often that there's no way that it's not the norm. Now in MW2 it comes down to the roll of a die. Similar to an RPG where the damage you do per "round" depends on your weapon, class, gear bonuses, and a die (die is the singular version of dice... jackass) roll that is a multiplier. That's why every strike isn't the same. The same happens here in MW2. If you "win" the roll then you get a savior kill and your teammate can go hide somewhere and regen his health. If you "lose" the roll then your teammate dies and you get an avenger kill... but it has NOTHING to do with your weapon, aim, etc. It's just a die roll... as long as you would have killed him anyway.
4. Streak breakers - This game is designed to have many ways for inferior players to stop better players in their tracks while still having inferior scores. This may be a personal preference thing again, but the fact that so many weapons come down to who shoots first or have such effective splash (area of effect) damage... or come out of freaken nowhere (commando pro/lightweight anyone?)it just screams that they don't want anyone to dominate a round by strategy and personal ability alone. I've never seen a lightweight/commando pro player go positive if all they do is knife people all round, but they sure as hell are hard to counter when they are running at you like Usain Bolt with a clicky insta murder that can be activated from 10 yards away. Or how much do you enjoy when you've got 10 kills in a row and a chopper gunner on tap and some dude fires a thumper at you, missing by 20 yards but killing you anyway? How about dual wielding? What the hell is this? Halo? Come on now... You can't call this a tactical shooter and then have some dude with two p90s spray you with 100 bullets from a mile and a half away while jumping and laying down repeatedly. Also, what's the counter strategy for a dude who sits in a corner with two shotguns? Flash and clear? How many flashbangs do you get before you have to clear rooms without them?
What it comes down to is that a lot of the additions to this game are not balanced in a way that you can avoid being dominated by them consistently, but they don't give such an advantage that the person using them will come up with a monster score. It's just a way to lower the barriers to entry and make the game more fun for the rookie. The not turning people away thing is that your scores will improve, you'll get better, but the advantages you receive from weapon upgrades, unlocks, leveling, and personal in game experience will never put you so far and above the average that you'll be able to counter everything with practice. Some things are random chance and others are flat out designed to be impossible to counter.
One thing that stands out about MW2 in my mind is that the game wasn't shined up nice and buttoned up properly before being shipped. Holes were left in the programming and it was only a matter of time before people figured them out, posted them on youtube, and ruined the gaming experience for weeks at a time while Infinity Ward figured out how they were going to handle them.
I also feel whole heartedly that the game is being sabotaged.
I put that in bold and by itself to make sure it stands out in your mind. The game is being sabotaged. There is no way that some random person figured out the care package glitch. I had it explained to me the other day and it goes something like you have to pull a grenade, jump off something switch to your care package marker, back to your grenade, back to the marker and throw it before you hit the ground and you get a care package every time you get a kill instead of every 3 kills. I'm sure I screwed that order up, but you get the idea... I believe whole heartily that a competing developer who has an xbox 360 dev kit broke the game down and figured that one out, shared it, and laughed as everyone exploited it until the game was unplayable. I just don't see how anyone would have realized what they did if they accidentally figured out the care package glitch. I don't even feel like professional game testers could have found that one with the quickness it came out and was spread.
Why wouldn't someone who is trying to dethrone Call of Duty and has the programming know how go in and figure out endless glitches and share them online until Call of Duty looks like garbage?
Why I like Call of Duty
The fast paced nature and non stop action makes MW2 a fun "two punch" to another more tactical game. I used to play the original on the PC as a diversion from Rainbow Six 3 and loved it. When I really think about MW2 I see a game that allows millions of players to compete and have fun together in a beautiful and well designed game with exciting and enjoyable game types.
The only real problem I have with Call of Duty is that it's making all the stone cold killers I knew 10 years ago fat and lazy. They'd rather play something they can do well at by themselves and keep hitting prestige over and over for validation of a job well done than move onto some other game that requires a higher level of focus and teamwork. I don't begrudge anyone what they enjoy, but it saddens me greatly when I hear people who used to stand shoulder to shoulder with me and take on the best and brightest of the FPS world say things like "I suck at this game so I don't have fun" instead of "I have a long way to go, but the challenge of this game is refreshing."
I just feel like the risk/reward of Call of Duty is very low. You'll be pretty close to as good as you'll ever be a few hours into the game. From that point you're just playing rock paper scissors with the other group of individuals and hoping that you get the first shot off.
Does any of this mean if you love it that you should stop playing it? No. What I'm trying to get at here is that the Call of Duty and Halo series are the Sirens of the gaming world. They are beautiful and exciting, but they draw you into a situation you should not be excited about. Teamwork, communication, and strategy are thrown out in favor of a game that lets everyone be mediocre.
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