They sure took a 'chunk' out of it.

Luckily for the game, the actual experience and gameplay make up for those inconveniences. The game is filled with cinematic moments, balls-to-the-wall combat and crazy ass stunts that would put Hollywood to shame. The game didn’t lack the sniper-moments and the “SNAP WE HAVE TO MAKE A RUN FOR IT!” experiences which made the first Modern Warfare so damned good. Overall it makes for good gameplay and for a lot of “wow!” ’s, totally making those 4-6 hours playing a great time. Yes, the campaign is that short, but for the amount of details to surroundings and the action going on per second on screen you can be sure that those hours are filled with finely-crafted work.

Having music done by one of Hollywood’s best musicians, Hans Zimmer, that did the soundtracks for movies like Pirates of the Caribbean, Gladiator, The Lion King, The Da Vinci Code and The Dark Knight, surely does help. It does a great job of pulling you into the atmosphere of the game and managing those moments where you’re literally holding your breath. Add some good voice actors that really do their jobs right to the mix and you’ll end up with a top quality sound-score worthy of some kind of an award. The graphics are also beautiful and do the job just right. It’s the same engine as CoD4, just updated and improved, but the actual art in the game is fantastic. With that in mind, it will run as well as CoD4 did, to be said, it runs perfect on even medium-rigs. Great performance optimizing and great use of assets.

Snipe'd.

This wouldn’t be a review of the single-player if i didn’t stop on one of the main sticking points for the media around the game… the “No Russian” mission. This is a mission that you can choose to skip when you start the game mentioning that it is uncomfortable. And for some people, it might be. The mission has you playing an undercover agent of Task Force 141 trying to get close to a criminal mastermind called Makarov, and in which has to attend a mass slaughter of civilians in an airport. If this was a cut-scene, i doubt it would raise much concern, but actually having players in the shooter’s seat is seen as unacceptable. Many said that they choose initially to see and play the ‘uncomfortable’ not knowing the airport scene would affect them and then ragged on the game. I call this up to user error rather then the game’s fault. People think they are usually strong enough to witness and see acts of cruelty and aggression but most rarely are. The scene, while not exactly needed, was a good story-telling element and it was a good use of the medium. In the end we’re talking pixels on a screen, soulless and meaningless outside the game world in which they are created. Anyone that does not share this opinion, should not be playing these kinds of video games. Period.

It was a rainy night, the stars shimme --- wow, awesome gun.

The best thing about its predecessor was undoubtedly the multiplayer aspect. The first Modern Warfare featured a good deal of game modes catered to every type of gamer, a level-up-system mixed with a lot of challenges to complete and overall a great gameplay experience. Its successor not only passes and improves on these aspects, but blows them out of the water.. and somehow, manages to sort of drown in the same water.

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