Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 Battle Mode Experience: Good Times, Only Yesterday

In 2009, the original Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 was released. This work continues the excellent performance of the first generation Modern Warfare and can be said to be one of the most impressive milestone works in the entire Call of Duty series and even the entire FPS category.

Now the reboot version of Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 has been released in anticipation of many fans, but it has lost its former glory. This work failed to capture the high tone set by the 2019 reboot of Modern Warfare, and the overall quality is far from the original 2009 version of Modern Warfare 2.

New films from IW Film Studio

Over the years, IW has become familiar with the art of making movies. Whether in terms of visuals, performances, or shooting feedback, the performance of Modern Warfare 2 can be considered top-notch in similar games.

Modern Warfare 2 is set in 2022, and in addition to the classic conflicts between the United States, Russia, and Iran, the story also extensively involves the drug war between the United States and Mexico. When I crossed the Mexican neighborhood with my teammates, the game showcased how difficult the local drug problem was to deal with with with just a few lines and a few shots.

Although most of the time, I feel that the visual performance of Modern Warfare 2 is not much more outstanding than its predecessor, a few scenes such as Amsterdam and drilling platforms are quite amazing, as if the overall texture looks different.

Taking Amsterdam as an example in the level "Spy Game". There are almost no conflict battles in this level, and players can choose not to follow the guidance to advance missions. Instead, they can wander and explore in a corner of the city, watching the reflections of passersby on damp ground, and then see the waves of water caused by small boats passing through the canal.

Of course, Modern Warfare 2 has to some extent taken advantage of linear small-scale levels, allowing for resources and the possibility of carefully polishing environmental details to enhance immersion. But in my impression, it seems that in recent years, I have never seen any other game that can make the realistic style of urban scenery so great.

While depicting the harsh environment of the battlefield, Modern Warfare 2 also attempts to deepen the portrayal of the personalities of the protagonist group. In this game, many dialogue options have been added, allowing players to get to know their teammates a little bit by chatting with them while doing tasks. For example, we can see Price bullying Gates in the workplace, and we can also hear ghosts using sexy bass to gently encourage soap. However, the transformation of ghosts like chatterboxes or Sheffield becoming fools in the reboot version will depend on different opinions.

Having emotions, having patterns, not having fun

In fact, we can see from the 2019 Modern Warfare that one of IW's current ideas is to mash up the classic scenes from the three old Modern Warfare movies and create a new level that looks quite emotional.

This approach has also been continued in Modern Warfare 2, which includes several tribute levels and scenes such as Double Sniper, AC-130 air strikes, cargo ships, and slums.

But Modern Warfare 2 is not just about emotions, this game also attempts to introduce different gameplay in each level to create a sense of freshness for players. For example, in Modern Warfare 2, the CQB attack and the use of surveillance perspectives to guide teammates to complete stealth, as well as the infiltration into enemy headquarters in Cold War, have all been inherited and evolved.

This game also introduces the gameplay of survival creation for the first time, where players need to dodge enemies while collecting various materials and combining weapons and props in the scene. I never really thought that one day I would play environmental puzzles in Call of Duty and try to open a safe that even the password UI is exactly the same as that of The Last Survivor.

I certainly hope to see rich gameplay, and I can also accept that more than one-fifth of the processes in Call of Duty involve players stealth or survival rather than shooting, but I cannot understand why the AI behavior and level rhythm in Modern Warfare 2 are so boring and repetitive.

Perhaps to keep up with the times, the two restarted Modern Warfare movies will no longer allow players to use the entire city as a battlefield, bumping on the streets or in buildings like they did a decade ago. Players now have to enter small buildings and engage in close combat with terrorists.

Although the AI behavior in the previous game was able to strike a good balance between tactics and fun, Modern Warfare 2 went into reverse. In this game, teammates often stand still and demand that players enter the room alone to face several enemies, forcing them to engage in direct confrontation, leaving tactical actions without any tactical sense. The enemy's tendency to play tricks in the game further diminishes my tactical sense - I once hid on a skylight and detonated a door downstairs, trying to catch the enemies off guard while they were investigating the noise inside. However, their first reaction was to look up and hit me through the wall.

The rhythm design of the levels in Modern Warfare 2 made me feel even more uncomfortable. It's hard to say if IW is too confident or not confident in what they do, but in this game, they often double the length of certain gameplay, allowing players to do the same thing again. After clearing one house, go ahead and clear the next one. If you kill five waves of enemies, then kill another five waves. After just half an hour of stealth, make up an hour... This approach really makes me feel very tired.

In this game, there is a segment of chasing a convoy, requiring players to drive while shooting, while constantly jumping off and hijacking enemy new cars before the vehicle explodes. It sounds exciting, right? Seeing this, players who haven't played Modern Warfare 2 may have started brainstorming the car chase scenes in Mysterious Sea 4. But in reality, this convoy wished it were tens of kilometers long, and during this period, the enemy's attack mode and what players could do were very limited. I was already exhausted halfway through the game.

Even in the frontal combat phase, Modern Warfare 2 arranged for a large number of heavily armored enemies to appear simultaneously in the mid to late stages. In high difficulty, I almost had to empty my magazine to kill them, but when they walked over, I saw the famous quote. These various intricate designs are stacked together, and the pleasure brought by emotions, performances, and gameplay will be quickly consumed.

epilogue

Modern Warfare 2 has powerful visual effects, emotional levels that make veteran players laugh, and bold new gameplay changes... I can see that IW does have ideas. Unfortunately, when these ideas are truly implemented, the results presented are not ideal.

The weak story and boring level design of this game have exhausted me both physically and mentally, but I still have to endure its frequent flashbacks. During the gameplay, I once felt that continuing to play this game was a torture.

The campaign mode of Modern Warfare 2 has incorporated a large number of elements that were split from multiplayer mode, making it too cumbersome and cumbersome. It has become like a teaching tool paving the way for Theater 2.0 or DMZ mode, and can only be played with casually. I think this is a waste of the theme and the title of "modern war" itself.

Times have developed, games have evolved, and players have grown. I don't know what kind of work IW needs to produce in 2022 to regain its former glory, and I'm not sure if they know it themselves. However, the reboot of Modern Warfare 2 cannot bear this heavy responsibility. It can only remind me over and over again: beautiful times, only yesterday.