One challenge down, some hundred to go.

Also another problem is the fact that in a game right now is that if a good host leaves, and the server migrates, which usually works really well by the way,  and another player gets chosen as host, but he has frequent lag-spikes and such making play close to impossible, there is no way to force a vote to change the host. And if that guy does not leave, you are stuck with either leaving the server, or team killing him until he gets pissed and leaves the server forcing a migrate again. This is extremely bad design and i see absolutely nothing wrong with IW re-instating votekick/votemigrate.

Speaking of clans, they can still make clan-matches via private games, games which are invite-only, with the host making the rules. There is really no problem with this, but it really makes all the socialization go on outside the game, on clan-sites or various boards rather then in-game. And again, this is a bad design choice.

More frags for me!

All that aside, i had very few really pressing problems related to multiplayer. If you don’t go in sobbing and raging for no ded servers and just give it a chance, you’ll find out it’s quite a pleasant experience. I have poured over 40 hours in the game at the moment and i think i’ll play it for atleast a few months. If we were to judge the multiplayer as it was presented to us, i say it’s pretty well made and implemented, and the only features i miss are vote-kick/vote-migrate, Hardcore Headquarters and maybe leaning. Yes, the ability to ‘lean’ around corners has disappeared from both the single player and the multiplayer. In single-player you barely used or noticed it but in multiplayer leaning was very used. In retrospect, i think this is a good gameplay choice since i eventually got tired of ‘pixel-campers’, people that via leaning and various stances, could snipe/shoot away from very small cracks and gaps making you need to learn them and shoot at them every time just to be sure. Also, leaning favored camping around rather then keep moving which slowed the pace down a bit. While i do miss it a bit, i understand why it was taken out.

Artistic genius.

Overall, the game experience is rather fun, both single-player and multi-player. You will probably see  a LOT of negative remarks about the game and low user scores, half of them from people that did not even try the game, and the other half from people that tried it, but went in with the mindset that the game sucks and seeing what they already knew was there, had their opinion reinforced. This is a review of how the game IS and NOT how the game ’should be’. This is the final product that you are going to pay for and play, and in that regard, i think this game is worth it. Would the game be better if it had dedicated server support, modding support and the other features people curse the game for not having? Most likely, but the very fact that the game is very good even without those features should prove something.

So in the end, base-lining everything,  is the game worthy of your 60$? Yes, yes it is. The game has a nice single-player campaign, though short and convoluted, and the multiplayer is up to spec ensuring you a ton of fun throwing knives at people and sneaking around with Cold Blooded and Ninja Pro. Don’t give into the rage and bad feedback, i had fun, i’m enjoying my copy of Modern Warfare 2, and you should too.