(Spoilers of course.)

It was all over far too soon. With barely a moment to rest or let your guard down to admire the amazing environments and graphical details of the year’s biggest release, the campaign mode of Modern Warfare 2 – whilst inarguably exhilarating from start to finish – wasn’t quite what I was hoping it would be, nor was I as profoundly affected by the controversial airport level as I was building myself up for. The emotional resonance of the original story in the first Modern Warfare, set in current times and grounded (somewhat) in reality, has given way to fantasy in the sequel. By way of comparison, MW2 has pretty much turned into Metal Gear Solid 4.

Not to say it’s not a good game – it is, but only in a purely aesthetic manner. But in very much the same way the original MGS changed the industry as we knew it by introducing blockbuster film productions to gaming before taking a ridiculously confusing turn for the worse as  the plot descended into madness as the series progressed, I fear that, this time round, Infinity Ward “did a Kojima” and opted more for the spectacular rather than the subtle and meaningful surprises; great gameplay masking gaping plot holes.

My gripe is with how inadequately explained it all was.  The airport level was still shocking, yes, but any real meaning or conscientious questioning to be derived from it was overshadowed by the sheer unbelievability of the story, particularly with this vital aspect of it upon which the game’s plot hinged entirely – the process of becoming an undercover agent:

So, an American soldier gets hand-picked by the CIA to infiltrate the Russian ultra-nationalist terrorist group, and presumably he’s learned how to speak Russian fluently (the mission is named No Russian, after all) and been trained in Russian culture so as to make it all the way up close and personal to the world’s most dangerous man, Vladimir Makarov, in the space of, what, a few months? Half a year? It seemed as if the airport stage had been designed beforehand for the shock value with the plot as a mere afterthought, particularly given that the objective of that level was to “earn Makarov’s trust” – which just doesn’t make any consistent sense given that you were already in his posse. Worse still, the rest of the game’s story charges you with finding Makarov and killing him, and yet if you shoot at him during the airport stage you fail the mission (!). To make it even more exorbitant the next stage is set in Brazil. Why? Because shell casings from the bullets used to kill those civilians are tracked to somebody in Rio; in other words, how can we find a link between a massacre in Moscow and a cool looking place to put in the game for action purposes which we haven’t used before, like somewhere in South America? A flimsy plot device, that’s how!

So by the beginning of Act II, I had simply turned my brain off. Arguably it shouldn’t have been on in the first place for Modern Warfare 2, perhaps, but why have mature and controversial content in the first place if the rest of the story plays out like James Bond directed by Michael Bay? By the end of the game, with twists and turns and, sadly, the odd predictable moment or two of corniness, the brain was well and truly comatose. Having said that though, I did enjoy it greatly in the same way I would a cheesy action movie from the early to mid 90’s: playing through the gulag level not only reminds you of The Rock but also contained a somewhat appropriate self-referential Hollywood-style payoff with the Sean Connery character turning out to be Captain Price. And that’s simultaneously the problem I have with MW2 and the thing I miss from MW1: the original had the tragedy as well as the commentary on war – particularly with the nuclear explosion seen from your perspective. MW2 tried to capture that same level of “thought” but is let down by going for the overly  spectacular extreme. It definitely still succeeds as a pure action game and a guilty pleasure – I would have just preferred something deeper as hinted at with MW1 and the Cain & Abel voiceover from the MW2 trailer.

Overall MW2 deserves its praise for extremely high production values, marvellous technical and visual achievements, great pacing and action setpieces. In particular I greatly enjoyed the focus on the connection with that great cast of supporting characters – particularly with Captain Price taking on the role of his former mentor Captain MacMillan from the first game, as well as seeing Soap MacTavish from the third person perspective for much of the game before finally “being him” at the end –  again quite reminiscent of techniques used in the Metal Gear series. Shame about the story and the poor use of the airport level, though, because I think Infinity Ward missed a really good opportunity here to do something in the name of videogames. Something special. Maybe I was just hoping for a bit too much. So while I contemplate the future of COD, no doubt still playing through the campaign again a few more times, my mind falling asleep amidst the explosive excitement and developing an ever-increasing addiction to the even less meaningful but totally spectacular multiplayer, I will still grasp onto that hopeful notion that games can truly promote an important message through its medium. But oh what might have been…

*Originally posted here.

A serenade to Captain MacMillan from COD4 (a spoken word companion to weird Yoko Ono music):

Those times you spoke were like a dream

Sean Connery and Trainspotting altogether it seemed

Dressed in our ghillie suits and crawling through marsh

You stayed calm under pressure, no matter how harsh

~

You loved the wild dogs. Oh how you loved them.

~

“Oi, Suzy” you muttered as you stealth-killed the guard

And entrusted to me a task: the hardest of hard

Variable humidity and wind speed you reminded me not to neglect

As well as taking into account the Coriolis effect

~

When the chopper crashed and rendered you prone

You covered my back and got on the phone

Backup was coming but it was such a long wait

Camping I was, behind the bumper car gates

As I planted my claymores like a scared little wuss

There you were, shooting, an invincible bush

~

I salute you Captain MacMillan: the best NPC ever.