War never changes.
What They Say:
Welcome to the new era of Call of Duty® Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® II is the sequel to 2019’s blockbuster Modern Warfare®. Featuring the return of the iconic, team leader Captain John Price, the fearless John “Soap” MacTavish, the seasoned Sergeant Kyle “Gaz” Garrick, and the lone wolf himself, fan-favorite Simon “Ghost” Riley, players will witness what makes Task Force 141 the legendary squad it is today. From small-scale, high-stakes infiltration tactics to highly classified missions, players will need to leverage new weapons, vehicles, and cutting-edge equipment to take on their enemies. Gear up and take the fight offshore as you siege enemies underwater, breach a highly fortified enemy base, infil along the canals, and liberate much-needed allies at a black site hidden within the mountains. Infinity Ward will immerse fans in heart-pounding next-gen, state-of-the-art gameplay. Fight alongside friends in a truly immersive experience with stunningly realistic sound, lighting, and graphics that produce the most advanced Call of Duty in history.
Content:
Following up on the much-maligned Call of Duty: Vanguard wasn’t too hard for Infinity Ward to do. Though Modern Warfare II suffers from its own fair share of issues, it is a marked improvement over both predecessors, including the 2021 Call of Duty title and Modern Warfare 2019.
Infinity Ward dropped Modern Warfare II, the first premium COD title for not one but two years, with several different game modes. While Zombies is, unfortunately, not part of it and Ranked Play is sorely missing at launch, there is still quite a bit to sink your teeth into.
For starters, there is the bombastic campaign that directly follows up on the events of 2019’s Modern Warfare. The story of Price, Ghost, Farah, and the other main character is another welcome experience full of cinematic moments and varied missions.
The more open environments help to differentiate each mission from one another, and provide some truly breath-taking visuals. If there’s one thing that can be said about Infinity Ward, it’s that it knows production value and that is on full display throughout the campaign and even multiplayer to an extent.
The main story is a bit weaker than 2019’s version but still an intriguing combo of gameplay styles and missions that serve as a solid introduction for players to the gunplay they’ll use in the core multiplayer experience.
At launch, Modern Warfare II’s multiplayer is a bit barebones, at least in the 6v6 experience but that isn’t awful. Unlike Vanguard in 2021, it has much more focus and is built with this smaller set of players in mind, rather than having to deal with massive amounts of players on a tiny map.
As such, the smaller map pool in multiplayer feels tighter and more solid than we’ve seen in several years for a COD game at launch. There are some duds here and there, such as Sena Border Crossing, but there are also more standouts on display such as Crown Raceway and Mercado.
While it is a shame that there is so much turmoil and controversial issues with the multiplayer maps possibly copying real world locations, it can’t be denied that many of them work well for classic game modes like Domination, Search & Destroy, and the excellent new Prisoner Rescue mode.
SnD in particular has one of the strongest iterations in recent memory on Modern Warfare II, rivaling the greats in the past like Black Ops 3 and Cold War. It could even go higher if issues with Dead Silence and red dots on the minimap were fixed, though. This is all before bringing the extra multiplayer modes on offer like Ground War and cooperative experiences.
Ground War feels intriguing and necessary at this point, given the still sorry state of the Battlefield series. The massive maps with many different points to capture and up to 64 players to take on is a nice change of pace from the traditional multiplayer.
Though I am more of a Ranked Play/traditional multiplayer player, so it is reassuring that the progression system and guns feel generally good this time around. ARs feel overpowered in all the right ways while SMGs might be a bit weaker than in recent years, but there are still some standouts like the PDSW and turning the Kastov 74u into an SMG.
The progression, though, is crazy but I kinda liked it. You have the usual 55 base levels where you unlock most perks, equipment, and some guns, but there are new areas to enjoy, too. This includes leveling up specific guns like in the Lachmann family to unlock further guns there.
It encouraged me to play guns that I normally wouldn’t check out, including playing a shotgun for the first time ever in a Call of Duty game just to unlock an optic attachment that was my favorite. That said, the attachments and actually customizing guns is where Modern Warfare II struggles under the weight of choice.
There are far too many attachments and ways to unlock them, plus the new weapon tuning that is bonkers, letting you literally customize the length of a particular attachment. This is a bit of an overkill, for sure, leading me to run most guns without any attachments at all. That said, this is the most fun I’ve had in multiplayer in a Call of Duty game in a long time, so that is worth it for me.
In Summary:
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II is the most fun I’ve had with a game at launch in the series since Black Ops 3 and Infinite Warfare. The Search & Destroy mode is the best it’s been at launch in a long time and the multiplayer maps feel tighter and mostly good when real-world issues with them aren’t involved.
On the campaign side, it might not be as strong as 2019’s Modern Warfare, but it still features the exhilarating action and cinematic moments Infinity Ward is known for. While there is no Zombies or Ranked Play right now, there is still some fun Battlefield-like Ground War to enjoy when tired with the usual (but quite good) 6v6 multiplayer. Here’s hoping red dots make it back, though.
Grade: B
Developer: Infinity Ward
Publisher: Activision
Age Rating: 17+
Release Date: October 28, 2022
MSRP: $69.99 (base version, newer platforms)
Platform: PS5 (reviewed), PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PC
This review was done with a review copy provided by the publisher. We are grateful for their continued support.
