So, Modern Warfare 2. (That's not the inevitable sequel to 2019's Modern Warfare but the 2009 sequel to 2007's Modern Warfare. Jesus.) Now you've probably heard about it by now but Activision recently stealth released a full remaster of Modern Warfare 2's campaign and let me tell you; I, for one, am honestly more tempted in Call of Duty then I have been since... well, 2009 when the original Modern Warfare 2 dropped. (Was that seriously the last Call of Duty game that I owned? Damn.) And my reasoning for this is simple; whilst everyone will chew your ear off until the end days about how Modern Warfare was the be-all end-all, for me it was MW2, all the way to hell and back. Oh, and that isn't taking into account the multiplayer of either title because A. I never played the multiplayer for the original MW2 (Yes, only 11 years after the fact do I feel safe to finally admit that) and B. this remaster didn't actually launch with a multiplayer component. (Likely because Activision are already juggling the attention span of their audience over two active games already, no need to poach their own players anymore.)
So when I say that Modern Warfare 2 was my jam back in the day, I mean that. I literally lived this game back on my Xbox 360. Every now and then I go through these peculiar phases when I'll just latch onto a game to be my goto whenever I've nothing else to do aside from sit around and slowly get overwhelmed by the dawning realisation that I'll both never be unconditionally happy and that I'll never live up to anyone's expectations, let alone my own. Why let all that melodramatic tosh take up my freetime when I could be escaping reality with my 'goto'? Back in those days it was Modern Warfare 2, before that it was Red Dead Redemption, and right now it's DOOM. (I've played the campaign start to finish twice within the past week. I'm starting to see demons in my sleep. Someone send help.) So whenever I got the slightest tinge for some escapism, off I went to the favelas in order to run through that one spec-ops mission for the fortieth time. (Needless to say, I had it down to a fine art.)
This was a very special title to me for another reason, being that it was one of the only games (or things in general) that I could manage to get my Dad along to enjoy with me. Yeah, many gamers have touching stories of themselves being introduced to their favourite time-killer by a parent who wanted to share their hobby, but for me it was very much the other way around. Every single game my father's ever played after the NES had to be hammered into his skull by me, desperate for someone to play with. For Modern Warfare 2, however, I like to think that my obsession was shared alongside him. (I like to think that, I cannot prove it.) Some days I would get back from school and jump onto co-op Spec ops with him during which we'd test ourselves to our utmost limits. I still remember us bashing our heads against the forest lodge siege defence mission, working out the exact perfect positions to place our claymores between rounds and taking turn to rush out of cover for... now I think about it literally no reason at all. (Why did we use to do that? That was weird...)
But as fun as my Co-op days with the game were, that wasn't what kept me up into the late hours peeking around corners in Realistic. That was the campaign and I just have to throw up my hands and say that MW2 had one of the best campaigns of any FPS ever just for pure variety. The first Modern Warfare may have been developed at a time when Infinity Ward were still toying around with the idea of keeping things vaguely grounded, but for MW2 they went completely balls-to-the-wall and I love them for that! At one point in the campaign you'll be doing the typical wargame fair by charging through a combat zone, whilst at another point you'll be performing a Bond-esque snowmobile escape down a mountain, and then in another mission you'll be trading gun fire through the favelas in a high-octane chase scene. For a lonely, gaming obsessed teen in his room, this game had the perfect amount of set-piece nonsense to be fodder for my imagination. If I wanted to feel like a secret agent I'd play 'Cliffhanger'; If I want to drip myself in atmosphere it'd be 'Whisky Hotel'; and if I want to play one of the best gaming set-peices of the entire FPS genre I'd slap on 'The Gulag'. (That scene in the control tower is out of this world, even now.)
All this fun I manged to wrangle out of playing and replaying the campaign of this game despite the plain fact that the narrative is kinda insanely all over the place. I mean think about it; nothing really makes any amount of sense. The main story is kicked off after 'No Russian', (Which is an emotionally shocking high that the series has tried, but ultimately failed, to top many times) when Makarov (Who shares his name with a gun for some reason) butchers a Russian civilian airport before killing an American double agent who helped the terrorist attack and leaving him to be found by the Russian authorities. In terms of action movie set-ups, this is all actually pretty badass, but under scrutiny it really doesn't hold up. Firstly, it's never explained how Makarov knew that the player was a secret agent, he just did so the plot could happen. (I know it's a cool reveal and all, but I feel we missed a really good potential plot-line about a mole in the CIA.) Secondly, Makarov just leaves the body behind and nothing else, how did the Russian police figure out the guy was CIA in order to assume it was an orchestrated attack by the Americans? Did our man just happen to bring a bevy of incriminating documents on him to the mission? Did Makarov tip them off? Because he's a known mercenary gunrunning extremist so I doubt his word would fly with the Russian government. Or are you telling me that the American government were dumb enough to literally claim the body? In Metal Gear Solid the CIA go out of their way to enlist an entire special branch of their body to literally assassinate everyone involved in a botched infiltration mission for the sole purpose of avoiding World War 3, that makes a lot more sense then the dumb stuff they do in this game. (Which ends up leading to World War 3, by-the-by)
But the beautiful thing about Modern Warfare 2? None of it matters. Not in the sense that the game takes itself in such a silly matter that nothing has consequence, à la the later Saints Rows, but in the way that every single story development in the game is so ludicrous that you cannot help but laugh along with the writers. Like the scene where Roach, Soap and Price (top tier names by-the-way) end up launching a nuke at the United States in order to blow the wind out of an ongoing Russian invasion. All this happens completely unbeknownst to the player and his superior officer, who merely stand around gobsmacked whilst Price launches the nuke and responds to people's worried cries with nothing more than "Good." So what is this then: The moment where the good guy is revealed to be a secret villain? Nope, (that comes later) this is just an incredibly stupid off-the-cuff plan that Price (A recently recovered Russian prisoner who has inexplicably been deployed back on the field, probably after years of psychological torture ) came up with on the spot and decided to inform nobody until it was done. I mean, in the end it sort of works out as he was only using the missile EMP to knock out the electronics of the invading army so that both sides would be on the same playing field under the assumption that this would give the defending Americans the upperhand; but that is a lot of freakin' 'Ifs' to rely on at a whim. What happens if word gets back to America that a British task force launched that nuke before they learn it was part of some convoluted plan? Heck, even they do hear about it through Price's plan, do you think they'd be happy? He launches the EMP on DC, for god's sake, that's where the Pentagon is; imagine how many top-secret nationally secure hardrives he just scrubbed with that little stunt! (After World War 3, Price just laid the groundworks for World War 4)
But I poke all of these holes in the story with the utmost love and respect for a game I simply adore. (Not enough to say it's one of my favourites, but enough for me to call it the best COD entry. That I've played.) In terms of actual tension, gameplay, moment-to-moment fun, and all the elements that really matter in a action FPS game; this was a title that excelled in every department, easily making up for wonky narrative points. I can't be the only old COD soul who gets all gooey when they think about that lovely ping from their heartbeat attachment or who agonised over the best silenced sniper. Those are the sorts of memories and emotions that can only be evoked by absolute classics, and if it wasn't for another Remake that dropped recently I would have absolutely jumped at the chance to relieve them all in remastered glory.
This has just been a little selfish moment of me indulging my old memories with a game, but there's nothing wrong with remembering a time you loved; especially during hard days. That being said, I will cut myself off short of going through a full narrative analysis (which I call a 'review' for some reason) because then I will end up buying this remaster and I already have enough on my plate right now. (I still haven't completed DOOM on Ultra-Nightmare. Because I guess I'm doing that now.) But hey, maybe this sparked a few memories of your own that give you something to smile about whilst you sit by yourself at 3:00 AM in the morning slowly growing numb from the night air chill, wondering exactly how much blunt head trauma it'll take to finally- Oh is that just me? Right...
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