By Sam Coles:
Hard to think in three years (at time of writing) that the
Call of Duty series will be two decades old, and like a tree you can cut the
series in half and the evolution of the series like rings symbolising its age.
So here we are in 2020 playing a remaster of Modern Warfare 2, which I’m in two
minds where I’m thrilled to go through the campaign with beefed up visuals. On
the other hand I am rather confused, as they have omitted the Spec Ops and Multiplayer
as they are what made the game special. Anyway let’s take a look at the
campaign remastered, and see if it is worth your time and money.
The story is the same as the original game; it takes place 5
years after the events of Call of Duty 4 where the world is once again plunged
into chaos. After the joint efforts of the SAS and USMC to stop the ultra-nationalist
Russian party led by Imran Zakhaev all is well, until one of his lieutenants
Vladimir Makarov takes over and tries to start a third World War. Makarov
starts a war between Russia and US, where the Russians end up invading American
soil. General Shepard puts together Task Force 141, consisting of Soap Mactavish,
Simon “Ghost” Riley, Gary “Roach” Sanderson and of course the man who embodies
facial hair Captain John Price. The story holds up really well with its twists
and turns, with excellent performances throughout from the cast. You really
feel the weight of the situation throughout the battles, as well as Captain
Price’s cynical outlook on things.
Gameplay has been mostly left unchanged from the original,
although there have been some tweaks to the formula to give weight to the
controls giving you a sense of presence throughout. You no longer feel like a
floating camera on a stick, don’t get me wrong the gameplay is still fast and
slick but the added weight makes it feel more grounded. The shooting is still
tight, satisfying and responsive as you snap onto each enemy. Guns really pack
a punch in this game, which is elevated by the enhanced sound design which I
will get into during the presentation section. There are usual moments where
you will take control of vehicles, turrets and unmanned drones these range from
UAVs loaded with predator missiles, Jeeps miniguns as well as utilising mounted
high calibre sniper rifles.
Presentation has been given a huge makeover; it stimulates
your nostalgia senses as it looks like what you thought it looked like in 2009.
The game has more detail in all departments from the gun models, character
models, environments as well as subtle details added for immersion. For example
during the Cliffhanger mission your player character will put on a set of
protective goggles when the storm intensifies, it’s not needed but it makes sense
thematically, and there are so many instances of these new subtle details
throughout this remaster.
As I have said before sound design has been given a huge
boost, not only that audio quality in general is much better. The problem in
the old version of the game is that sound layering wasn’t the best, certain
sounds would either be too quiet or too loud fortunately that is fixed in this
remaster. Guns sound terrifying in this game in a good way, the shotguns shake
my floorboards with my subwoofer and the LMGs have a thunderous chatter as you cut
down legions of soldiers.
Now let’s address the elephant in the room, there is no
multiplayer and now I have played this remaster I kind of feel like something
is missing. As many issues I have with Modern Warfare 2’s multiplayer with its
problems and imbalances, I still had a lot of fun with it and formed many
memories with it. That’s why I find the current asking price of £20 a bit
steep, unless you want to do a Veteran run or get all of the trophies then you
aren’t going to get much value out of it.
Overall I enjoyed my time revisiting this game campaign with
a fresh coat of paint, but my question is why? Why did they just release it like
this? It was fun, but I think I could not recommend it just yet at the current
price, wait for a sale I would recommend.
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