Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (REVIEW) - Going ghost..

"Time to go dark in style, Ghost style."

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Note before reading: This is just an opinion, so please don’t let this or anything stop you from wanting to buy, play or purchase this title. This review is entirely an opinion on how I feel about the game. If it will affect what you think or see from reviews, please don’t hesitate to read further here if you want, but please have an open mind or read elsewhere if you like.

Title: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2022)
Developer: Infinity Ward, 
Publisher: Activision
Release Date: October 28th, 2022
Prices (may vary where you live) : Standard: $69.99 USD
 Vault Edition: $99.99 USD
Platform: PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S|X, PC (Battle.net/Steam)
Review Copy Provided: Yes (was provided around end of October)
Date of Review: November 7th, 2022 

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So, since the dawn of time, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) released on the main platforms, curiosity led to the next title being maybe a big opening shot of an introduction to properly rebooting the series. Or was it?
Now with time being over held with the wait for a sequel to the Modern Warfare series, having many feeling unsure about the Multiplayer and the not-so-big amount of content in Black Ops: Cold War and Vanguard upon its release. They’ve tried their best to bring something unique though they still lead with big stepbacks. About sometime later, Modern Warfare (2019) was announced with a sequel in February that later with the gameplay reveal in June to provide a for-on quote on “New Era” to the Call of Duty franchise. 
Funny enough, with some things they’ve mentioned, Boots on Ground is quite...
Well, you get the drift, like a billion times.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (2022) brings a boots-on-ground-based combat shooter in Multiplayer and the Campaign to give us a feel for it, even having the characters such as Ghost involved in the main Story and Main Cover for the game.
With much-said overtime, with Modern Warfare II being the next big time for the Call of Duty series, we look into what they have to offer in a Campaign, Multiplayer.
Of course, I am excited to look into Co-Op: Special Ops and Campaign as they oddly released the Story before the Co-Op and Multiplayer release date on the 28th of October, so let’s dig right in, shall we?

Campaign

"War. War never changes.."
Warning: This section may have spoilers but not a lot. If satisfactory, let’s continue ahead (Spoiler here is only the "Introduction", so scroll past if you do not want to be spoiled but it's not a lot so don't fret).

Introduction (SPOILER WARNING)

I mostly won't say much but only the beginning in a short summary:
We begin in a location around Al-Mazarah to intercept an ongoing deal with the armed weapons with the Russians and the General of the Iranian Quds Force, General Ghorbrani.
Having the Task required us to have a missile launch strike to eliminate Ghorbrani with the supplies.
Then with some cutscenes, we enter a mission with Ghost and Soap, with you playing as the Soap through the task of a chopper that crashed down during the night in the middle of Al-Mizrah, U.R.A.
​Stuff goes down, and keep moving forward to find clues and such to stop the missiles or how we gained US missiles and Hassan.

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The Nitty Gritty..
​ (All Modes and Controls Talk, etc)

So far, the story is good, taking an indirect continuation of the Modern Warfare (2019) story as usual, even with you swapping both areas and continuing forward with the stuff provided in the objectives like an ordinary game should do in a report. Still, over time, the story lacks in some areas and likely leaves the player bored with some goals; something to note is that they’ve guttered the entire Modern Warfare II original campaign, sadly.
Besides, the original story changed; it’s about the same as the first game in 2019 with a new Campaign, making them sound more like a reboot of a series more and more or just prequels.
Now the story is something else due to events and political problems in the world, despite keeping it set in a modern time in 2022 (wow, shocking, it doesn’t surprise me).
It can be fun to least play as Soap and Gaz, etc., throughout your campaign to get some angles or personal views on what to expect in locations or areas of the world; sure, the narrative from cutscenes and the plans of the objective is what heavily drove the story in spots. 
However, trying to give you other ways to play was quite enjoyable by providing some other stuff instead of regular boots-on-ground shooting missions. Still, they did not necessarily need other tasks like being on a plane shooting within a camera or using a camera to call out strategic move call-outs to plant bombs, which bored me a little. Still, it was nice to have a change-up, only for two missions that played with it.

The downsides so far is just having a lack of content on Co-Op and Multiplayer in some areas is sad, but here’s to hoping they add more overtime in updates to improve these things, as I miss the days of playing a game and having the content all then and there on launch beside the Multiplayer maps.
Controls are about the same as Modern Warfare (2019) but with some fixes in areas in jumping, etc.
I can say the Dualsense, its adaptive triggers, and haptic feedback are incredible; honestly, a better improvement from Cold War and Vanguard, bringing a better experience in how it feels using specific weapons when aiming and shooting.

This game is still not worth its price range being sold for, especially the $100 version (depending on where you live in the world); my goodness, can it be worse?

Paying $70 for the game on console is a little too much, especially since it’s nice to get it for Next Gen, too, but like, come on, there has to be more to gain that attention besides the modes it offers, and if you asked about the $100 “Vault Edition” that’s like insanely a big no to grab for what it’s sold for like holy moly and this sometimes bothers me when a game costs this much, as they don’t really justify it worth the price.
The game also has a frame rate issue on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox Series S, and Xbox One systems struggling with the 60FPS range; even the PC version works the 120FPS criteria but can be fixed by messing with the settings even though some stutters in the matchmaking, custom games, etc. is annoying and that it feels better on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X than anything else in the frame rate.

​Now, let’s discuss the co-op missions known as “Spec-Ops.”.
This game mode ultimately feels different from the previous titles (obviously),  but does bring in a cooperative objective in a way with challenges and classes to play with in the operator you choose from in Multiplayer.
Earning the fastest time in the Co-Op missions leads to you making three stars or just one, depending on how you’re playstyle varies.
The “Spec-Ops” missions are a nice change. However, they caused some problems for me; being required to gain multiple stars weekly in the same three missions on launch and playing three different classes to achieve almost the same amount for a max tier on repeat is very agitating. 
The class customizations are neat, with options to provide shield packs to users, heal or revive faster, or be more resourceful in strategising things, depending on your tier, the better it can be when starting.
At least it gives me something to enjoy if there is nothing else to play besides Multiplayer. 
Still, just a lot of things can be lacking besides an objective to spice things up feels like something needs more spark of what needs to be more rewarding than simplistic tasks. The third mission is my favorite and ideal for the co-op mode.
That gives me the awesome vibes of Modern Warfare 3’s cooperative mode: using the money you used when surviving or fighting enemies and using things to build up your defenses with a twist in objectives.
Defending and protecting your perimeter was needed in the third mission compared to the previous two instead of landing in finding something, planting bombs in locations, etc.
They should take this mission with other locations in their twist to create a horde mode with it, as I see the potential compared to the first two feeling like a strike mission time trial was a simple objective to gain stars instantly (sadly, the same for the third mission too).
The cooperative had so much potential of being something unique for players to do a PvE mode. Still, it led it to a development crunch and rush looking at it, making them create simplified runs of time trials and completing the objectives in the time required to gain stars to upgrade the class you choose.
Even a chance to have a reward system to get things for completing the most challenging things or gaining three stars should provide a camo or a specific weapon secret to the mode, just something worth the time and effort doing this minuscule amount of stuff.

With all of that nonsense out of the picture, it's time for the big boy of it all..
Multiplayer.

The multiplayer itself, and man, isn’t it interesting to be here now?
Multiplayer sure has an extraordinary amount of modes and maps; mainly, the creativity of your weapons was something I loved a lot. Having the gunsmith section is something you can use to create a gun you like, design it to something that fits your playstyle while levelling up, etc.
Multiplayer can be pretty interesting in the maps, even how the modes feel a little empty, and most of the stuff to play is walled to Quick Play except the new ones, but nice to have the filter option to select the way you like to play primarily. Although the controls feel nice and sprinting is excellent, I believe the hitting of sprint twice can become abused to cause some insane amount of game-breaking stuff to gun-hoe with a Submachine Gun in a map designed to take slow in every corner, and that’s in all maps. There are even new modes, such as Knockout, where you are limited in lives but stop teams from capturing a package (I wish it were Capturing a Flag and taking to your Base with respawns, but this is a nifty experimental mode).
The other new mode is Prisoner Rescue, where the attacking team attempts to extract a hostage. In contrast, the defending team prevents them from capturing by fortifying and defending from the attackers using the same limited lives mechanically. These modes are okay but couldn’t we’ve got something like Halo called Oddball instead of Prisoner Rescue cause? I think that would’ve been more fun, as it’s just Knockout but taking a hostage to extraction instead of a care package to capture. I think what stood out in the playlists to give me the most innovative gunplay out of all ways were Ground War and Invasion modes.
Ground War and Invasion ultimately gave me that Battlefield and War experience, enjoying every moment of the mode. I'm sure Ground War could be more and probably almost top the Battlefield’s mode doing this identical thing. Infinity Ward didn’t push its limits beyond creating something unique here, as there is much potential to make these top shooters today with it as it’s there. I see it happening over time in updates or patches to go beyond what it has if they wanted. Invasion is a fun mode all around, giving me that same feeling of Ground War.
Still, instead, it takes its route to where you take place on large-scale maps like Sariff Bay and Sa’id in a whole battleground in a four-player team sent in to eliminate the others with even AI Enemies and Allies. Specifically, I won’t talk about all the other modes as they feel the same as they are, but what mainly stood out to me more than them, sadly, except the maps, was creative to be an innovative experience.
The gunplay feels a little lacking in the innovative area, but it’s definitively ten times better than Destiny 2’s modes maps right now, being an excellent refresher from playing that a lot.
Multiplayer in the third person is an excellent experiment gone wrong,
 and that's probably me being bias, but third-person feels odd in Call of Duty.
Third Person feels better off in Co-Op and Story Mode instead of this as the third-person mode feels strange.
Even the shoulder swap can be tedious when trying to sprint twice as it would click yourself to swap the should to the other side to manually choose the side you like for aiming and shooting in the third person mode.
Although, it does take time to get used to, but I think it’s better just not to play it and stay in the first-person playlist instead though, except  that’s just me.

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Verdict

"The conqueror is the one who can conquer themselves."

With how Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (2022) holds, it has some good and bad moments that still bring something that is Call of Duty at the end of the day.
The developers did a nice job still trying to make something interesting to the so-called “New Era” as a new welcome opening to the series despite the lack of some areas on launch.
​Recommend?:
Yes and no due to the price it is placed for, but if it's on sale for less the amount provided it's really too hard to not pick up the game and enjoy what it offers.
But an easy no for the Vault Edition only if around the standard edition price or lower.

Quote and Rating:

​“Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II brings an interesting new change to the series through its innovative campaign, multiplayer, etc.”

Rating: 8/10

Until then.. GAME ON!

-Timothy Stambaugh (Tim/Timothy) / TimTheGamer12