A lot like the Star Trek films, every odd numbered Call of Duty game sucks. Actually that theory doesn’t entirely work, some of the earlier Star Trek films are pretty bad regardless of release order. But the theory stands for the Call of Duty series, so bear with me. It’s pretty much fact that CoD2 and CoD4 are far better than their odd numbered brothers, and part of this is because the even numbered games are developed by the original developer of the series, Infinity Ward, who created the game for the PC. Well, it’s their turn again, so let’s take a look at Modern Warfare 2.As the title suggests, MW2 follows on directly from CoD4: Modern Warfare. When you load up the single player for the first time you get treated to a short recap of the original game (which was actually pretty badly put together, and if you’re coming into this game with no prior knowledge of the story, it won’t make sense) before informing you that five years have passed and throwing you into Afghanistan. From here on it’s a roller coaster ride that twists and turns like a crazy person in their sleep. Personally, I found the story to be one of the strongest points of the game, so I won’t give anything away, but trust me, it’s worth it.

If you played any of the other Call of Duty games you’ll know what to expect from the gameplay of MW2. It’s your standard first person shooter, where you go from one point to another in order to complete objectives, taking out enemies as you go. I believe the annoying infinite enemies from the original Modern Warfare are now gone, so that makes the game slightly easier, and far less frustrating on the harder difficulties. That said, Veteran still kicks your ass if you’re not giving it your full attention. Also, sometimes, instead of having a clear objective, an NPC will have a marker over their head saying “Follow” or “Cover”, which adds a tiny amount of variety to the mission, but it’s nothing to write home about really.

The story takes a good five hours to complete on the Regular difficulty, which is just enough to be a good length of time, but leaves you wanting just a little bit more. Thankfully, the game throws you almost immediately into the Spec Ops mode when you’re done, which is actually quite nice. Spec Ops is described as being like the bonus Mile High Club mission of Modern Warfare, but with lots of different scenarios, and just taking the short and sweet element of that mission. This mode is actually a lot more fun in two-player, particularly over Xbox Live, as the split-screen uses the bizarre screen split present in the co-op of World at War. Xbox Live play also gives you a sense of co-ordinating attacks over a radio, which is way cool. Actually it doesn’t matter how you play it, but I enjoy little things like that. Either way, two-player is the way to go, as most of the challenges are damned tough without another guy backing you up.

And once that reservoir has dried up, there’s a huge multiplayer to sink your teeth into. Not much has changed since the heavily praised multiplayer of the original, but new perks have been thrown into the mix, along with new equipment to replace grenades, and attachments for your weapons. There’s also the new callsigns that show up when you kill an enemy, or when an enemy kills you, that can be customised to your hearts content. There’s even the option to create your own killstreak rewards, as well as new deathstreaks to give you a boost when you hit a bad time. Add into this a plethora of new maps and you’re left with something that looks and feels a lot like it’s been done before, but made better in just a few subtle different ways.

Graphically you’re looking at Call of Duty 4, but given that CoD4 looked pretty amazing, that’s no bad thing. Seriously, there’s almost no change in the graphics. The HUD has been changed slightly to make the ammo count and suchlike less intrusive, and the screen now shows blood when you take damage rather than just going red, but aside from that there’s nothing else that’s new.

Sound is the same story as graphics; there are no major changes. ‘Soap’ gets a voice, which manages to fluctuate between Scottish and American somehow, but you don’t hear him talk much. ‘Ghost’ sounds identical to Gaz, leading to speculation that they’re the same person, but nothing comes of it. Aside from that, the gun noises still sound as good as they should, and random shouting and explosions help to add to the atmosphere, making the game more exciting. Overall, sound is pretty good.

I really don’t want to give this game a perfect 10/10, because of my general belief that there is no game that is totally perfect. But this game is so close to perfection that it’s stunning. It’s taken everything that made the original Modern Warfare great and taken it up a notch, and for that it almost deserves the perfect score. So please take my score with a pinch of salt; I’d probably give it the perfect 10 if I knew that I would never play anything ever again. Everyone should buy this game. Fact.

Score: 9.5/10