Not as good as it's predecessor...
Now COD4 is not only one of my favorite games, it's one of the best shooter story lines and best shooters in general. So just out of the gate it's hard for a sequel to THAT game truly measure up. And honestly for like 80% of the game I was completely sold on MW2... I remember walking through the streets of Northern Virginia and assaulting the white house thinking how awesome the game was...
However, once I finished the game I realized a few things. A few things that ultimately led me to feel so negatively about this game. First and foremost, the ending... if you can call it that was contrived, pithy, and lackluster. I'm sorry but the whole "General's gone mad and now HE'S the bad guy. Forget about the MAIN bad guy"... I mean come on. Not to mention the fact that even on the second hardest mode it only took me like 7 hours to beat or so... I felt robbed, like I got only HALF a COD game. And that's what's so upsetting, it was developed for the specific intention of making a third so they stretched the story out. The only problem is they could have made 3 or 4 more levels, FINISHED this story and could still have made a third game. COD4 had a unique story with a beginning and an end without having to splice it into two games. I'm sorry but that's just blind robbing us of a whole game.
Lastly, the shocker moments. What were there like 4 or something? I know the whole NUKE in the first game was a complete and total awe moment where most players thought at least once if what they were seeing was real and that was awesome. This game felt like the developers sat back and said "well that moment worked really well the first time around so lets do it again... 4 times!" I'm sorry but it gets old just as fast as it was new.
So in the end I gave it a 7.5 for a few reasons... Mostly because I don't think it actually deserved a low grade seeing as how it was a very fun game and I really only had a small number of issues with it. However, the reason I made sure not to go too high was because it was quite disappointing and I do not feel that it properly lived up to the status of it's predecessor. Again just my opinion. More power to those of you who loved it, I'm really glad you did.