Latest installment in famed shooter brings A-game, controversy
Spencer Taylor
Issue date: 11/18/09 Section: Arts & Entertainment
So far in this current console generation, two juggernauts have battled for supremacy of the spotlight and reverence among millions of gamers around the world.
Last month, Bungie released the fourth installment in their renowned Halo franchise with abounding praise.
Last week, developer Infinity Ward responded with their own powerhouse, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
In all fairness, publisher Activision has maintained the Call of Duty franchise, with developers Treyarch and Infinity Ward alternating to produce each sequel.
Treyarch bombed with Call of Duty 3, but later managed to save face with World at War, both titles using World War 2 as their backdrop.
It was Infinity Ward, however, that moved the Call of Duty franchise out of World War 2 and into the modern scene, re-invigorating the single player campaign and multiplayer in the process.
Projected to be the "biggest release of the decade" in terms of pre-orders, Modern Warfare 2 seems to have been hyped more than any other game this decade. From startup, MW2 feels like a five-star game with a Hollywood budget.
Beginning with the single player campaign, the game opens with a pseudo- James Bond sequence with images and audio from the previous game played amidst a futuristic global map. The game is a true-sequel taking place about five years after the events of the previous installment.
As in the previous game from Infinity Ward, the player will go through a timed "kill house" to help determine the difficulty they should play at throughout the game. After this segment, however, the game takes off and doesn't slow down until the end.
What immediately sets the tempo in the opening acts of the game isn't the highly anticipated snowmobile chase sequence ala True Lies; instead, it is the highly controversial segment that has the player gunning down hundreds of innocent civilians in an act of terrorism in a Moscow airport.
Infinity Ward has never backed down from presenting the player with scenarios that may be hard to swallow (their first game had the player experiencing a nuclear attack, with obvious consequences). However, this has set a new standard in terms of graphic and questionable content.
Last month, Bungie released the fourth installment in their renowned Halo franchise with abounding praise.
Last week, developer Infinity Ward responded with their own powerhouse, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
In all fairness, publisher Activision has maintained the Call of Duty franchise, with developers Treyarch and Infinity Ward alternating to produce each sequel.
Treyarch bombed with Call of Duty 3, but later managed to save face with World at War, both titles using World War 2 as their backdrop.
It was Infinity Ward, however, that moved the Call of Duty franchise out of World War 2 and into the modern scene, re-invigorating the single player campaign and multiplayer in the process.
Projected to be the "biggest release of the decade" in terms of pre-orders, Modern Warfare 2 seems to have been hyped more than any other game this decade. From startup, MW2 feels like a five-star game with a Hollywood budget.
Beginning with the single player campaign, the game opens with a pseudo- James Bond sequence with images and audio from the previous game played amidst a futuristic global map. The game is a true-sequel taking place about five years after the events of the previous installment.
As in the previous game from Infinity Ward, the player will go through a timed "kill house" to help determine the difficulty they should play at throughout the game. After this segment, however, the game takes off and doesn't slow down until the end.
What immediately sets the tempo in the opening acts of the game isn't the highly anticipated snowmobile chase sequence ala True Lies; instead, it is the highly controversial segment that has the player gunning down hundreds of innocent civilians in an act of terrorism in a Moscow airport.
Infinity Ward has never backed down from presenting the player with scenarios that may be hard to swallow (their first game had the player experiencing a nuclear attack, with obvious consequences). However, this has set a new standard in terms of graphic and questionable content.
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