Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® II

Review

Call of Duty used to be one of my favourite game series, from Call of Duty: World at War, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare to Call of Duty: Black Ops. I played hundreds of hours of each of these three games, but then I was no longer attracted to the franchise.  That is, until Call of Duty: WWII came out. As I am one of these people who is really interested in the history of WWII, I had to try this game. But initially, my attraction to Call of Duty games was the intense battles held on small maps, and the Killstreaks perks, which are a couple of the significant differences between Call of Duty and other FPS game series (Battlefield) that I also enjoy playing. The original Call of Duty: Modern Warfare was one of the best FPS games I’ve ever played, so I had to try the 2022 Call the Duty®: Modern Warfare® II.

Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® II is a First Person Shooter game developed by Infinity Ward, Raven Software and published by Activision on the 28^th of October 2022 on the Steam platform. The game is available on PS4/PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.

The game consists of a singleplayer campaign and multiple online game modes. I thoroughly enjoyed the campaign, which has 17 missions throughout the world, stunning cutscenes, and a well-structured story with great voiceovers. You even take control of one of the Killstreaks perks in one of the missions, the devastating Gunship. Regarding the difficulty, you can select from 5 levels, from Recruit to Realism. I chose the Hardened difficulty for my first playthrough, which is right in the middle of Recruit to Realism. It took me a good 7 hours to finish the campaign, which is not bad at all. It's also very good training before jumping online and facing the music against other players.

The replayability comes from the game's multiplayer aspect, which is probably why you would purchase the game in the first place. If you’re like me and enjoy playing Capture the Flags or Team Deathmatch, both modes in Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® II are pretty good, but they are named differently. You'll be playing Ground War (Capture the Flags) and Invasions (Team Deathmatch) in this game, which are a 32 against 32 and 20 against 20 players, respectively. Unfortunately, there are only about 5 maps for each of these modes and they are pretty much the same maps. However, there is a mode called Shoot House (domination), which has 12 maps, with each team having a maximum of 6 players. For me, this is probably the best mode of this game. It's fast, furious and super fun. There is a Battle Royale mode with a certain number of teams competing with each other. I think the maximum number of players is 132 for this mode. As I'm not too fond of Battle Royale, I didn't bother. The other mode is DMZ, but I haven't tried it.

I like the gameplay's fluidity, whether on large or small maps. In the Ground War mode, you can use vehicles too, which is cool. This mode is a fest for campers and to be honest, there are plenty of spots on these maps to hide and take shots. The only predicament for the shooter is that he/she will be shown where he or she is located after the kill. So, even having a good spot to hide, they or you will have to move to another location if you are the shooter. It is a bit chaotic but still fun, and if you have enough to die, jump in an APC or a tank to have your revenge.

The loadout customisation (weapons, perks and killstreaks) is fabulous. As you play the game and gain general and weapons experience, you'll start to unlock new add-ons for weapons, perks and killstreaks, and other gizmos. Each weapon can have up to five upgrades, and you can swap these upgrades as much as you want as long as you have them unlocked, of course. You can also create up to 10 loadout and customise everything from weapons, perks and killstreaks. Remember that you can only have 3 killstreaks active at any given time. And, of course, to activate the selected killstreaks, you must kill the set number of enemies required to do so. Not so easy, let me tell you.

The gameplay is fluid, with great animations, and the maps are well-designed. The issue I have is again with this cross-play multiplayer input. I am not a big fan of it at all.  Don't get me wrong, it will get better, but at the moment, it is not the greatest. And to be honest, the leniency the console players have over the PC players is just phenomenal. It's crazy when you see the replay of your fall. The console player can shoot at you, 5 centimetres in any direction away from you, whether you move or not, and can still register a kill. What makes it even worse for PC players is that they can't disable the cross-play multiplayer input because they are not allowed. Playstation players can, but why would they? They can register a kill even by shooting at 35 degrees off their targets. To me, this is nuts! If any developer wants to do cross-play, go for it, but give the options for PC players as well. On top of that, I had several crashes to the desktop in the multiplayer and singleplayer modes.

Great graphics, and the game offers plenty of replayability with multiplayer modes. The campaign is well-structured with fabulous cutscenes, and the voiceovers are just great! But the cross-play experience is not adequate at this stage if you are a PC gamer.

Review written by THE CPT FROGGY for Zeepond.com

Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® II Steam Store Page