Like the last game I played, Mass Effect 2, Modern Warfare 2 received critical acclaim from both industry critics and fans alike. Rather than my thoughts about the game becoming one more drop in the bucket of praise I’ll attempt to use my them as a support for my video gaming hobby.
I get asked about my video gaming hobby from time to time. After all, I am a full grown man — 30 years old, wife, two children, mortgage, minivan, 9-5 job, the works — shouldn’t I have put this childish hobby to rest by now? Modern Warfare 2 helps me answer that question.
My fascination with this game, as well as other games that share it’s caliber, lies in it’s story telling. It crafts a narrative so involving I begin to see the next level as I would the next chapter of a brilliantly written book, or the next episode of a favorite television show. All these forms of storytelling follow the same basic structure, character development and interaction, plot development, conflict and resolution, but there is something to be said for being part of the process and not a mere observer. In this respect I enjoy the video game medium more than others.
As an example, in one level of Modern Warfare 2, it cast me as an special forces operative who’s deep undercover in a Russian terrorist ring. These guys are gearing up for a brutal strike on a civilian airport. As part of a group of six men, armed to the teeth, I entered the airport lobby and watched as the other five opened fire on the crowd. (Side Note: Modern Warfare 2 is not for kids, though it is to Infinity Ward’s credit they present the option to skip this level.) Now this left me with a choice, either stay my weapon and risk blowing my cover in the terrorist ring, or pull the trigger and cross into some seriously moral gray area. And that is what I loved; the game forced me to make an active decision in the role of the narrative. Having this level of involvement with the characters brings you closer to the story than merely watching or reading can.
If you were wondering; I couldn’t bring myself to take innocent lives, even non-existent digital ones. I found that walking around and shooting over the people and at the windows and shops in the airport satisfied my fellow terrorists curiosity about my commitment to their cause.
Adding to the praise of the game, I don’t normally enjoy the first person shooter genera of games as much as I used too. The idea of running around and shooting anything that moves would work to keep me gaming while I waited for next A list title to be released — but this only worked when the time I had to dedicate to my hobby was abundant. Now that the time I have to invest is somewhat sparse (see my grown up list above), I tend to focus my attention on games that actually have a story to tell.
Modern Warfare 2 tells a engaging and well thought out story. The story is presented beautifully and the game excels at placing you in the middle of the action. In every aspect that’s important, it’s perfect. So in turn I’ve giving it a perfect score. Every gamer should play: 10/10.
Now I also have a great response for the next time someone asks me when I’m going to stop playing videos games: “When you stop reading books, and watching movies.”
Could you pull the trigger? I couldn't...
August 9, 2010 at 8:20 pm
Gotta disagree a lot on the story. It didn’t flow well for me at all, felt very rushed and poorly written, just like Transformers 2! You rescue Price, only to disobey your General under Price’s command to acquire the nuke sub, only to have Price happily fire the nuke at the US, which in turn was actually part of the General’s plan for everyone to be excited about the military? Oh, and the nuke was supposed to act as an EMP and not a nuke and was instead purposely detonated above Washington DC in order to immobilize the Russian forces who are invading America because of a now dead American spy in their camp? How as Price locked up anyway? And why? The icing on the cake was crawling to the gun with a knife in your chest at the end.
The action was great, though sometimes it seemed to try too hard to top CoD4. I liked the first and World at War more than this installment, and I would have enjoyed it more if the story actually made sense.
The Russian airport level was a pretty dark. I did exactly what you did.
August 10, 2010 at 8:10 pm
Hey Matt,
I think one of us might have missed something in the story. I didn’t think that Shepherd had anything to do with the nuke missile launch. I think that was Price going rouge in an effort to help America defend against the Russian invaders. (Wolverines!)
Are you implying that you couldn’t craw a ways while being stabbed in the chest?
I did wish that they explained more about why Price was incarcerated. They did seems to leave a pretty open end about his relationship to the Russian terrorist ring. Maybe they’ll answer this in Modern Warfare 3?
August 10, 2010 at 10:42 pm
The general may or may not have had something to do with the nuke, it’s been a while since I played it so I could be wrong on that point. However, I found it hard to accept that Price could concoct the plan that unfolded in virtually an instant with hardly any intel or full appreciation of the circumstances in the US.
I expect MW3, and Black Ops, and future iterations to be an annual copy-n-paste job like EA sports games, of course with slight improvements and obviously a different story. Activision’s head honcho knows that he can churn out rehashed games and millions of the dumb masses will blindly spend $60 on the game or nearly double that for limited editions, and then another $20 for each map pack update, one of which would likely contain previously released maps in older games (ie: Stimulus pack). The arrogance of Activision in misdirecting MW2 caused a huge departure of Infinity Ward developers (some fired, most quitting, around 20 or so), so keep a look out for something great from Respawn Entertainment (where most if not all went). My impression on a forum I frequent is that MW2 is generally considered a step down from CoD4, possibly worse than WaW, and the optimism for future versions isn’t bright. Will I play them? Sure, not initially because I’m so cheap, but I don’t see why they wouldn’t be entertaining at the very least. Will they blow me away like CoD4 did? I don’t believe so.
And the knife part, maybe some people could, but if it’s in my chest, well, I doubt I’d have to strength to crawl much less aim a gun at someone. Insurmountable feats of strength have occurred though, so who knows.