CoD: MW2

[Aleister Black]

I may rewrite this later, but this is the first version of my CoD6 review, copied from my clan forums:

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Multiplayer


I'll start with the multiplayer, since that's what every probably wants to know most about. The gameplay itself is very CoD-like, as it should be. Most of it is real good old-fashioned shooting like we knew in CoD4. The weapons are nice and feel good (much better than CoD5) and the normal TDM multiplayer gameplay (that's the only one I've checked) is as well balanced as it was in CoD4.

One thing that I'm not too happy about is the killstreak awards. In CoD4, I cuold live with the chopper and airstrike because, well, they were there and I got used to them. I didn't like them though and would rather have seen them patched out of the game. CoD6, however, goes takes this further and increased the number of killstreak awards but also their strength, making them far more overpowered than they were in CoD4. Now you have Apaches and AC130s that you can control (as a gunner). This would have been fine, if only the entire enemy team wasn't designated with red squares on the map. There's no fucking hiding from it (not even in a building) so you have to find the guy with the killstreak fast (he's on the ground with a laptop, so that kinda offsets the OP-ness of it) before he dominates the map.

So I'm pretty disappointed with the killstreak awards unbalancing the game as much as they do. Now in a balanced game (where the opponents are of equal skill) killstreaks won't happen as often. But when there is a greater skill difference people will rack up the kills and start getting more and more with these monsters.

I do like the perks and how you upgrade your perks. If you use a perk enough, you can get a pro-version, which gives you and increased effectiveness or another perk effect or something like that. That means you can specialise which is pretty cool. I'm going to see if I can get my sneaky bastard kit together again maybe.

The maps are also pretty good. Enough eyecandy but from what I've seen they're also more balanced than the CoD5 maps. I do wish there were some bigger maps, but that's CoD for you anyway, it's meant for smaller run&gun games.


The gameplay itself just wants to make me play it, because it's got the same level of addictive fun that CoD4 had and even more, only tempered by the annoying killstreak awards that I really wish should be cut out of the game asap.


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So gameplay-wise the game is pretty good. But we all know the biggest problem we've all been talking about; the absence of dedicated servers. And I'm sorry to say I do miss them. I just want to go through a list of available servers and pick one out. Maybe I'm just old-fashioned. Playing on your own is easy as cake and no hassle at all. You press play, jump in, frag some, and go off again.

Playing with a group requires you to Party up. There are obviously some issues with this system. When Porky tried to invite me, we would be thrown into different games (which was exactly what was NOT supposed to happen). Surprisingly it did work when I 'hosted' the party. When you host the party, you start looking for a game. Then either people join you or you are merged with an existing lobby. Then the game looks for a suitable hoster and sorts you into teams. Parties stay in one team. When autobalancing teams, this also means that in some instances the lobby won't be able to find a good amount of people for proper balance. Today there's been one moment where I was waiting for about 5 minutes before any new lobby could be made.

Unless I missed something very obvious, I don't think there's an option to change team. In my opinion, thats fucked. Especially if the autobalance makes you play 6vs3, which happened today. Games seem pretty lag-free on the whole, although sometimes there are some lag-related issues. Also, whenever the host leaves, it has to migrate to someone else. The means a 5 second disruption in gameplay when you're waiting for the data and stuff to be moved to the next best hoster. I have also encountered one or two instances where we could not migrate to host, causing us to drop from the server.

So far, pros and cons are:

Pros
Gameplay is old-fashioned fun
Guns and movement feels good
Maps are balanced and have great atmosphere
New perks, weapons and equipment are nice
Graphics are ace
Deathstreak awards give you some edge to not be completely frustrated when it's going badly

Cons
Party system not completely free of bugs
Killstreak awards are even more overpowered
Migrating to another host pauses gameplay
Migrating to another host may cause player or server to crash
Games not entirely lag-free (although on the whole they are)
Autobalance may screw up
Unable to switch teams or even pick team


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I also played some SpecOps (coop missions) with Porky. Though they're fun to play once or twice, only a few of them actually have some replay value (most notably the AC130 mission and the sniper ones). Playing them can be hard sometimes because they're hosted directly from one of the participants, causing major lag at some points. In our games we had lagspikes ever minute or so. Also, while the missions are pretty fun, I would have liked some longer campaign missions with checkpoints (like in CoD5) instead of these quick missions.

Hosting and connecting to these games seems a lot harder, although we didn't run into many problems today.

Pros
Missions are fun
Some are funner

Cons
They won't stay fun for long
They're too short, or too hard. Seems to be no middle ground
Lag is atrocious

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I haven't tried a private match yet, but if the hosting process is anything near as bad as the SpecOps one, it's probably not going to be worth playing. I can't give you any definite info about this though.


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Singleplayer [Possible spoilers]

 

The singleplayer campaign is typically CoD. And I'm not sure if that's a good thing right now. Sure, it's cinematic action and pretty epic, but they also upended a fucking truckload of clichés. They must have heard we liked the 'fadin out, oh no, we're dead, oh wait, someone puls us back on our feet, sound and vision fade back in again'- moments, because there's like 10 in every fucking mission. Some gameplay things like breaching are cool though, and the slowmotion is pretty epic in those situations.

I didn't like the complete absence of any kind of realism. Yes, I know it's CoD. But at least keep the game slightly within the believable spectrum. It's the difference between Bruce Willis and some cops clearing out a building of bad guys, and Bruce Willis taking down a jet fighter on his own, with his bare hands. Know when to fucking stop, PLEASE.

Also, don't get too attached to ANY of the game characters. They're all going to die. They must have heard we liked the emotional scenes in CoD4 wheer people died, and how special it was, because they went over the bloody top on this one, oh man! I wouldn't have minded, but this actually took away my sense of accomplishment. I was like 'is THIS what I went through for?' Not to mention the parts where you get these cinematics, you're on your way to an epic ending, and then the guy fucking knocks you down again, in a cinematic. Part of the story maybe, but they just went over the top.

The airport mission made me feel more uncomfortable than I thought it would.

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Well, this kinda wraps it up. The SP is cool but I have some serious issues with it. It's just too over the top for me. The MP is also cool but that, too, has some serious issues. The fact we can't play on our own server kind of pisses me off but beyond that and the bugs (which MIGHT get patched) the MP gameplay itself is pretty enjoyable. I just don't see it taking the same place as CoD4 did for us.



My end grade is going to be about a 7.7 out of 10 points for me.

It's fun to play but it has some serious issues that make it less enjoyable. Dedicated server support would have pushed this grade right up to 8.2 or even an 8.4.




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If you have any more questions, please ask them here. I hope this cleared things up somewhat.

Source: http://nakedfanatics.com/forums/view...hp?f=36&t=3585

[Casanova]

It's an amazing game, no doubt. I actually applauded it when I finished the campaign, and that's something that I usually only reserve for certain movies. Seriously though, this game will blow you away. True it's the same as any other CoD game, but it's also a lot different. And let's be honest with ourselves here... HOW are they going to make this one stand out from the rest? It's a FPS series of games, of course they're all going to be alike.

The thing that sets this one apart from the rest of the CoD games, though, is the story in my opinion. I mean, Russia invading America? You won't get that in ANY WWII shooter.

In short: This game rocks socks, as we all knew it would, you should try it, etc.

[Aleister Black]

Oh, and obviously my review is for the PC version. Forgot to mention that.


Well, it's true that I did enjoy the campaign and your points are all completely valid, of course. But still, it seems as if they're trying too hard. It didn't grab me as CoD4 did. CoD4's campaign seems to be a bit more balanced and thought out, while this one is just climax upon climax, which after some time leaves you rather numb for it.I finished it in about 4 or 5 hours too.

Again, this isn't to say it's bad, but it's just not as engaging as CoD4 in my opinion.

[Darkside]

I been playing this since launch day and this is seriously the best FPS I have ever played well next to cod4 which started it all.So for me the whole multiplayer is the best i have ever seen and expirenced besides the matchmaking and party system.Although haven't been able to use the party system again since when i last tried,the party system for the ps3 version sucks ass.Can't really say anything about the singleplayer since I haven't finished it yet I been getting real caught up on the multiplayer.

[Aleister Black]

Gampleay-wise I have to admit that everything's a doozy. It's as satisfying as ever and it just feels good. Really my only annoyance with MP gameplay is the killstreak awards that have gone slightly over the top in the Overpowered department. Other than that I have really enjoyed the multiplayer so far.

The connection issues are really the biggest issues right now. Maybe that's less so on the consoles (or maybe the consoles just aren't used to anything better like we PC gamers are ), but on the PC the decrease in quality is rather noticable.

Several things like not being able to switch sides, the MP maps being capped at 18 players (9vs9), the host migration and related lag issues (one bad host can lag everyone up) and an inefficient party system make the experience less epic than it might have been, unfortunately. I really want to like this game but there are some issues that have to be resolved before I can push up the grade from the current 7.7 for me.

[Darkside]

So far in the time that I have played it I haven't expirenced any lag issues on the console and sometimes I get the "server timed out" message which results from a failed Host Migration.The problem as you say is the not being able to switch sides I don't even think they added the "balancing teams" to MW:2.As for the killstreaks some are overpowered but that can just be solved if you have a "stringer" to take it out so that was kinda fun.I have yet to see anyone get the 25 killstreak.

[Happy Sumo]

I like CoD series, especially Modern Warfare. But to me it seems when I played CoD:MW2, it was like an upgraded expansion to CoD:MW with a few tweaks. Was not as impress as I hoped it to be =(

This is definitely a arcade fps for me, which is fun, but I think I enjoy Battlefield series more with their variety of things they have to offer.

Still though, CoD:MW2 a good game.

[Casanova]

The teams are unblanced most of the time, yes. Earlier I was watching my cousin play Domination against seven other people.

I also agree to an extent with the fact that the killstreak awards are a little over powered. Earlier I watched a video where a guy got 72 kills in less than 10 minutes whilst playing Domination. Needless to say he ended the game with a Tactical Nuke...

[Fuyumine]

You know, I actually got to play a little bit of it today and...

It still doesn't have any key features that a lot of modern shooters have. But then, a lot of the shooters I play are third person shooters, so they have things like "Roadie Runs" and wall cover, et cetera. It just felt... last generation LOL.

That aside, I bet the multiplayer is where the game really shines, and the only thing that gamers buying this game will really give a fuck about.