Terrabyte20xx
Junior Wrestlemania XXX Champion
I've never been the biggest Call of Duty fan and I have never played the original Modern Warfare. I don't know if the former is the reason for the latter or vice versa. I played a lot of CoD 2 before the game came out but never touched CoD 4. Probably because Modern Warfare was the first in a surprisingly long line of sequels I could not play at release due to being under 17. (I'm looking at you Bad Company 2!) Regardless, it is ten years later and it just so happens that the latest Call of Duty's special edition comes packed in with a remastered version of the game that I have been told time and time again changed the FPS genre forever. I had already been planning on picking up Infinite Warfare (Something I will want to talk about later when I get around to beating it) when it dropped in price so I figured Hey, why not pick up the "Legacy Edition". One after Christmas sale later and here we are!
Before I begin I will state for perspective's sake that I have played and beaten Black Ops 1 and 2, as well as played through a few levels of Advanced Warfare and other FPS Single-player campaigns such as Battlefield 3 and 4 before playing this game. With that out of the way, let's start with the Single-player.
Modern Warfare's single-player experience to me can best be summed up as "Man, I wish I went into this game blind." It's set pieces have been talked about, shown, and ripped off to death so most of them failed to shock me. However, that does not mean that they were ineffective In fact, as you will see, I found it to be quite the opposite.. Before I get into the actual levels and game play, I need to briefly touch upon the graphics. I played through the Remastered version as stated and as such can not talk about how they have aged. What I will say, however, is the following:
They're good. Moving on.
The tutorial is an intuitive way to both teach the player how to play and select difficulty and I wish more games would steal this bit. Sure it probably gets old after a few times through but it lasts like a minute tops and is perfect the first time through.
The tanker is a great first level showcasing the difference in tone from CoD 2, while also allowing the player to get a feel for the new pacing the game has. Speaking of pacing, something I noticed after playing through CoD 2 for the umpteenth time via Xbone BC, was how at some point the game devolved into "Walk into area, get behind cover, wait for enemies to pop heads out of cover, kill, walk to next area, repeat." Modern Warfare, at least in it's initial levels, does not have this problem. No, as the tanker shows, MW takes CoD in a more tactical direction. I'll let you get your chuckles out now. The tanker, as well as most of MW's levels, is a small constricting environment with many side rooms. As there are few large areas, enemies are spread out and rarely are together in more than groups of four. Playing the game effectively means methodically getting into a room, taking out enemies quickly and moving on to the next room. You know, like how highly trained and specialized soldiers actually act. This is the main pace of the game, although it does eventually devolve to the same pattern as 2 in the final stretch. The crashing taker set piece must of been spectacular on the first play through for many. For me, however, all I thought was "Oh hey, it's that trailer shot they kept advertising." But it was cool so I won't bash on it.
The loading screens being mission briefings was an excellent choice by Infinity Ward. It keeps the action going even when the player isn't doing anything. It gives plot exposition as well as tells me who I am actually playing as, giving me a name to identify with. I especially love how the map zooms in right on the character as the level stars giving that sense moving right into the mission. The US Marine levels in the middle east were not as fun as the SAS levels in Russia to me. This and the next point I want to make probably explains how I've heard of Sargent "Soap" MacTavish and not Sargent Paul Jackson.
So while the levels are fun and keeps that good pace of the tanker, nothing of note really happens until THAT level. You know which one. The one everyone talks about. "Shock and Awe". This level is hi-pace frantic action and it really gets the adrenaline pumping. It is probably the best set piece of the entire game. You start off as a helicopter gunner, land, fight your way to a group of marines, extract them, shoot some more, land to rescue a shot down pilot, grab them, and then as you all know by now, boom, Nuclear bomb explodes. This was crazy. This was intense. This was... Kinda underwhelming. If people hadn't talked to death about the fact that MW blows up a nuke in your face, it probably would've had more impact. But because I knew that going in, I had expected the nuke to go off by then as the game kept screaming in my ear "LIVE NUKE! LIVE NUKE!" Watching myself and my squad slowly die via radiation did still do the moment justice though. In fact, despite all that Shock and Awe is still one of my favorite levels. But it's only my third. My favorite levels came shortly afterwords.
Something I noticed around this time is that my favorite parts about this game were not in the loud action that it became famous for, but it's moments of quiet. The stealth tanker, the slow dying nuke aftermath, and my favorite level: All Ghillied Up. It's a short linear mission where you play as Captain Price back when he was a Lieutenant and stealthily get into sniping position. Running around in the shade, dropping to prone at the sight of a helicopter, and waiting for enemies to walk just past were some of the best parts for me. It's a quiet level with brilliant atmosphere that leads to probably the best set piece in the entire game in the next level: One Shot, One Kill. Shooting down helicopters with just sniper rifles as well as carrying your commanding officer to the extraction zone was just awesome. It felt like just me versus the world in a no win situation, yet it didn't feel too unrealistic. The fact that I succeed in the end and my CO survives made it all the more sweeter. It also helps that I was able to snipe out a whole helicopters worth of rappelling reinforcements while waiting to be rescued.
The rest of the game is still good, but around the second Joint Operation mission the game falls into the previously mentioned "wait for heads to pop out and kill" rut. But by that point the game was full speed to the end so it didn't feel like a chore. The ending was probably the thing that got hit the most by ripoffs. It was cool to be shooting at trucks driving behind me. It was cool escaping from a falling bridge. It was cool waiting for help to arrive while fighting off impossible odds. It was cool how my squad mate dragged my unmovable body to safety while shooting down baddies. It was cool for Captain Price to slid the pistol into my hands. But when it came time to take the shot, it felt surprisingly unsatisfying. Ten years later and the slow pistol headshot has been overused so much that even parodies don't even use it anymore. When the credits rolled, I found myself saying. Well that was kinda lame. Back in the day the idea of actually getting to take the shot instead of watching a cutscene was novel. Now it's just trite.
So imagine my glee when another loading screen started and I realized I hadn't played one of the most famous levels this game had to offer: Mile High Club. This is as popcorn as Call of Duty gets. 2 minutes long, nothing but corridors and stairwells, and it even has the slow mo pistol shot again to boot. But it had an energy and intensity that made it all worth while.
Now multiplayer was an interesting thing. I don't know if that was always how it was played, if it's part of modern sensibilities, or I am just extremely unlucky, but there is a lot, and I mean A LOT, of sniper rifles being used. In fact, the majority of people use them. It was rather annoying in the beginning because I kept looking for people only to be killed by someone halfway across the map. In fact it made the game more like a chore and I actually considered stopping. The only reason I didn't was because I just unlocked create a class and decided to press on. Turns out the answer was to change up my playstyle. You see, when it comes to Call of Duty I'm more of a run and gun guy. My fav. MP was the original Black Ops, to the point that I actually prestiged in it. I kept that playstyle in the beginning and was failing spectacularly. It was during yet another close quarters sniper-heavy map that I made a shocking discovery that rocked my CoD world. The best way to play CoD MW MP... is to play like it's CoD MW SP. Be smart, use cover, don't run unless it's to cover. Don't reload unless you are behind cover (or have Slight of Hand)/. Suddenly I start averaging above 1.0 KDR and the game goes from a chore to a masterpiece. Who know the best way to play CoD was to be tactical. (If you didn't laugh the first time, you're definitely laughing now.) I've only made it to level 8 in the MP right now, but I am definitely going to keep at it. The fact that two people can play online on the same box helps a lot too.
Overall, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is great game. It's one of the few game that has been hyped to the moon before I played it and still delivers. That is saying a lot when you consider that the only games on that list are Halo, MGS 1 and 2, Half Life and Zelda: ALTTP. I'm looking forward to playing more multiplayer one day hitting level 50. I'm playing through the IW single player and will probably make a thread about that when I finish it. So look forward to that when it comes around... eventually.
TL;DR: CoD: MW is a great game despite being hyped to hell, ripped off, and spoiled like no tomorrow. It deserves it's reputation by far. IW thread eventually happening in the (hopefully) not too distant future.
Before I begin I will state for perspective's sake that I have played and beaten Black Ops 1 and 2, as well as played through a few levels of Advanced Warfare and other FPS Single-player campaigns such as Battlefield 3 and 4 before playing this game. With that out of the way, let's start with the Single-player.
Modern Warfare's single-player experience to me can best be summed up as "Man, I wish I went into this game blind." It's set pieces have been talked about, shown, and ripped off to death so most of them failed to shock me. However, that does not mean that they were ineffective In fact, as you will see, I found it to be quite the opposite.. Before I get into the actual levels and game play, I need to briefly touch upon the graphics. I played through the Remastered version as stated and as such can not talk about how they have aged. What I will say, however, is the following:
They're good. Moving on.
The tutorial is an intuitive way to both teach the player how to play and select difficulty and I wish more games would steal this bit. Sure it probably gets old after a few times through but it lasts like a minute tops and is perfect the first time through.
The tanker is a great first level showcasing the difference in tone from CoD 2, while also allowing the player to get a feel for the new pacing the game has. Speaking of pacing, something I noticed after playing through CoD 2 for the umpteenth time via Xbone BC, was how at some point the game devolved into "Walk into area, get behind cover, wait for enemies to pop heads out of cover, kill, walk to next area, repeat." Modern Warfare, at least in it's initial levels, does not have this problem. No, as the tanker shows, MW takes CoD in a more tactical direction. I'll let you get your chuckles out now. The tanker, as well as most of MW's levels, is a small constricting environment with many side rooms. As there are few large areas, enemies are spread out and rarely are together in more than groups of four. Playing the game effectively means methodically getting into a room, taking out enemies quickly and moving on to the next room. You know, like how highly trained and specialized soldiers actually act. This is the main pace of the game, although it does eventually devolve to the same pattern as 2 in the final stretch. The crashing taker set piece must of been spectacular on the first play through for many. For me, however, all I thought was "Oh hey, it's that trailer shot they kept advertising." But it was cool so I won't bash on it.
The loading screens being mission briefings was an excellent choice by Infinity Ward. It keeps the action going even when the player isn't doing anything. It gives plot exposition as well as tells me who I am actually playing as, giving me a name to identify with. I especially love how the map zooms in right on the character as the level stars giving that sense moving right into the mission. The US Marine levels in the middle east were not as fun as the SAS levels in Russia to me. This and the next point I want to make probably explains how I've heard of Sargent "Soap" MacTavish and not Sargent Paul Jackson.
So while the levels are fun and keeps that good pace of the tanker, nothing of note really happens until THAT level. You know which one. The one everyone talks about. "Shock and Awe". This level is hi-pace frantic action and it really gets the adrenaline pumping. It is probably the best set piece of the entire game. You start off as a helicopter gunner, land, fight your way to a group of marines, extract them, shoot some more, land to rescue a shot down pilot, grab them, and then as you all know by now, boom, Nuclear bomb explodes. This was crazy. This was intense. This was... Kinda underwhelming. If people hadn't talked to death about the fact that MW blows up a nuke in your face, it probably would've had more impact. But because I knew that going in, I had expected the nuke to go off by then as the game kept screaming in my ear "LIVE NUKE! LIVE NUKE!" Watching myself and my squad slowly die via radiation did still do the moment justice though. In fact, despite all that Shock and Awe is still one of my favorite levels. But it's only my third. My favorite levels came shortly afterwords.
Something I noticed around this time is that my favorite parts about this game were not in the loud action that it became famous for, but it's moments of quiet. The stealth tanker, the slow dying nuke aftermath, and my favorite level: All Ghillied Up. It's a short linear mission where you play as Captain Price back when he was a Lieutenant and stealthily get into sniping position. Running around in the shade, dropping to prone at the sight of a helicopter, and waiting for enemies to walk just past were some of the best parts for me. It's a quiet level with brilliant atmosphere that leads to probably the best set piece in the entire game in the next level: One Shot, One Kill. Shooting down helicopters with just sniper rifles as well as carrying your commanding officer to the extraction zone was just awesome. It felt like just me versus the world in a no win situation, yet it didn't feel too unrealistic. The fact that I succeed in the end and my CO survives made it all the more sweeter. It also helps that I was able to snipe out a whole helicopters worth of rappelling reinforcements while waiting to be rescued.
The rest of the game is still good, but around the second Joint Operation mission the game falls into the previously mentioned "wait for heads to pop out and kill" rut. But by that point the game was full speed to the end so it didn't feel like a chore. The ending was probably the thing that got hit the most by ripoffs. It was cool to be shooting at trucks driving behind me. It was cool escaping from a falling bridge. It was cool waiting for help to arrive while fighting off impossible odds. It was cool how my squad mate dragged my unmovable body to safety while shooting down baddies. It was cool for Captain Price to slid the pistol into my hands. But when it came time to take the shot, it felt surprisingly unsatisfying. Ten years later and the slow pistol headshot has been overused so much that even parodies don't even use it anymore. When the credits rolled, I found myself saying. Well that was kinda lame. Back in the day the idea of actually getting to take the shot instead of watching a cutscene was novel. Now it's just trite.
So imagine my glee when another loading screen started and I realized I hadn't played one of the most famous levels this game had to offer: Mile High Club. This is as popcorn as Call of Duty gets. 2 minutes long, nothing but corridors and stairwells, and it even has the slow mo pistol shot again to boot. But it had an energy and intensity that made it all worth while.
Now multiplayer was an interesting thing. I don't know if that was always how it was played, if it's part of modern sensibilities, or I am just extremely unlucky, but there is a lot, and I mean A LOT, of sniper rifles being used. In fact, the majority of people use them. It was rather annoying in the beginning because I kept looking for people only to be killed by someone halfway across the map. In fact it made the game more like a chore and I actually considered stopping. The only reason I didn't was because I just unlocked create a class and decided to press on. Turns out the answer was to change up my playstyle. You see, when it comes to Call of Duty I'm more of a run and gun guy. My fav. MP was the original Black Ops, to the point that I actually prestiged in it. I kept that playstyle in the beginning and was failing spectacularly. It was during yet another close quarters sniper-heavy map that I made a shocking discovery that rocked my CoD world. The best way to play CoD MW MP... is to play like it's CoD MW SP. Be smart, use cover, don't run unless it's to cover. Don't reload unless you are behind cover (or have Slight of Hand)/. Suddenly I start averaging above 1.0 KDR and the game goes from a chore to a masterpiece. Who know the best way to play CoD was to be tactical. (If you didn't laugh the first time, you're definitely laughing now.) I've only made it to level 8 in the MP right now, but I am definitely going to keep at it. The fact that two people can play online on the same box helps a lot too.
Overall, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is great game. It's one of the few game that has been hyped to the moon before I played it and still delivers. That is saying a lot when you consider that the only games on that list are Halo, MGS 1 and 2, Half Life and Zelda: ALTTP. I'm looking forward to playing more multiplayer one day hitting level 50. I'm playing through the IW single player and will probably make a thread about that when I finish it. So look forward to that when it comes around... eventually.
TL;DR: CoD: MW is a great game despite being hyped to hell, ripped off, and spoiled like no tomorrow. It deserves it's reputation by far. IW thread eventually happening in the (hopefully) not too distant future.
