Modern Warfare 2, hype and well.... thats about it
The plot of MW2 takes place five years after the events of CoD4 where ultra nationalists have taken over Russia and have declared Imran Zakhaev, the antagonist of Call of Duty 4 a hero. In this game Russia is at war with the United States because the Russians believe the U.S. committed an act of terrorism by killing innocent civilians at an airport in Moscow. That isn't really the case though.
For the majority of this game you play as Gary "Roach" Sanderson, a sergeant who is a member of Task Force 141, an elite counter terrorism unit. Alternatively you also play as private James Ramirez of the army rangers. As Roach you are lead by Soap Mactavish, the main character from Call of duty 4 whos appearance you finally get to see in person. When playing as Ramirez you are lead by his squad leader Foley.
As an effort to try and be as spoiler free as possible, I won't go into details of the what happens in this game and leave you with the background information. One of the most noticeable things when playing the campaign if you've played Call of duty 4 or World at War is the much easier veteran difficulty. In Cod4, there would be an infinite amount of enemies who respawn until you passed a certain point of the game making it very frustrating at times to progress forward. In World at War, the enemies wouldn't respawn but there the enemies would throw a seemingly infinite amount of grenades at you. Modern Warfare 2 fixes both of these problems making the campaign much more enjoyable and less frustrating when playing on veteran. For people who've never played a Call of duty before, veteran may seem difficult for you but for those who have beaten an entire campaign on veteran in other older CoD games, the campaign will seem like walk in the park. The campaign features some action packed moments like being on a snowmobile or a boat and also a plot twist that many people probably didnt see coming but overall it was too short. Even in veteran it only takes perhaps 6-8 hours to complete depending on the player and the storys ending leaves much more to be desired, almost as if you reached a half way point in the game.
The new game mode introduced into modern warfare 2 is special ops. In this gametype you essentially go through various missions with objectives such as eliminating all the people in the mission or fighting your way to a certain point on the map. You are then awarded three stars if you complete the mission on veteran difficulty, 2 for hardened and one star for regular. Other missions such as racing require you to finish the race in a certain time in order to get three stars. Spec ops is most fun when done with a partner and is actually essential in some of the missions. The game mode is very fun when done with a friend but provides about 5-8 hours of game play when done on veteran. And five to eight hours isn't rushing through the mission either, it's methodically trying to finish the mission taking enemies out one by one and moving ahead only when its absolutely clear that no one will kill you from behind. There really isn't a point in replaying any of the spec ops missions though unless you want to be Infinity Ward's best time on the mission which seems to be done on the easiest difficulty judging from their times.
The core of this game like most shooters though is the multiplayer. Reading the features of this game makes this multiplayer seem absolutely great and a definite upgrade from Call of duty 4's with features like customizable killstreaks, new perks, some new guns, new game types, host migration, more attachments, and fixing some of the problems from the first game like the overpowered grenades. But the keyword here is SEEM, as much as the multiplayer appears to be promising it really fails to deliver.
The maps to begin with in this game are much different from Call of Duty 4's. Maps are much less flat in this game as there are many different roof tops and buildings you can reach and is designed so you're exposed in many different areas when navigating throughout each map. The maps are also much bigger than the ones in Call of Duty 4's. Well one of the problems with CoD4 was that the respawns weren't that great, well guess what> Modern Warfare 2 magnifies this problem even more. Both games use essentially the same respawn system in team games where you spawn a certain proximity from one of your teammates but these maps make it so that you're constantly being killed by these respawning players. How? Well the maps in MW2 are made so that it is much easier to play defensively and do well rather than flank and rush the enemy and kill them all. So it's very likely that if you flanked the enemy because you were being bored waiting for them to come to you, you could kill one person and somehow since you are near most of that persons teammates, he will respawn behind you, to your side or very near to you because that is where of his teammates are. The respawns aren't usually a problem if you kill a lone player but really is annoying when trying to take on groups of them. The spawn system is even worse in gametypes like free for all because if you watched half your killcams in the game, you'd find you probably got killed by the same guy you just killed a few seconds ago because he spawned in such a near vicinity as you.
Other than the maps that promote a more defensive approach to the game, there is also the killstreaks. With new additions such as AC-130 or chopper gunner which are both acquired at 11 killls, many people are more likely to not run and gun the other team because of an increased chance to die but instead sit back, get their killstreak and let those do the work for them.
Modern Warfare 2 also lessened the gap between those who are good and those are bad. The guns in Call of Duty 4 already had considerable low recoil compared to other games but in Modern Warfare 2, it's lessened even more. Most guns in the game seemingly possess no recoil whatsoever and even the noobiest of people can hold down the trigger from miles away and kill you, this already could be done in call of duty 4 but its even EASIER in this game. Assault rifles are the most obvious when it comes to guns with no recoil. As I said before the maps encourage more defensive playing, so SMGS which are primarily close quarters flanking guns are much less useful. Add that onto the fact that you actually have to burst fire for medium to long range kills, the average player would prefer to just use something like their ACR and hold the trigger down.
Online experience is also hampered by the number of glitchers in this game. Many glitches run rampant on this game but the most annoying as of right now is the infinite care package. It's extremely easy to do and essentially once you get a four kill streak, you can continue to test your luck until you get a powerful killstreak like pavelow or chopper gunner through infinite care packages. But first you have to get into a game in the first place. If playing by yourself it takes no time at all but the drawback in that is playing with very braindead teammates who seem to lack complete awareness at times or playing free for all where you succumb to the flaw of bad spawning. When playing with 3 or more friends though, you'll have to wait for a much longer time just waiting for everyone in your party to get into the game because usually theres one person kicked out or couldn't connect to the host.
Overall I give this game an 8.0. The campaign was too short and despite the fact that the multiplayer provided even more customization than before, the game play overall features an array of glitchers, bad maps and horrible spawning. It's still addictive to an extent but playing by yourself usually leaves you wanting to snap the disc in half either because the people on your team finish with games like 3 kills 14 deaths or simply because you were killed by a person who spawned 5 feet to your right. The game is still Call of Duty but compared to the Modern Warfare 1, this game doesn't deliver that addictive quality that Call of Duty 4 did. I've played Modern Warfare 2 for a considerable amount of time, I'm third prestige with around 7 days played so I'm about average when it comes to how fast my pace is in reaching tenth prestige. But unlike CoD4 , it's usually a rare occasion where I could say I had a fun day rather than a frustrating one playing Call of Duty. The only reason I still play this game? Because its more tolerable if you have 3 or more friends who know what they're doing to help you watch your back or tell you where the enemies are.