mozidesign.com Unorganized Thoughts of a Game Designer

Modern Warfare 2: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly.

Word of warning spoilers ahead if you have not beaten the game stop reading now!

This review is focused on the single player accept of the game. No offense, but if you are waving the flag stating “multiplayer is what MW 2 all about” put it down now.

I believe that games which feature both single and multiplayer gameplay should strike an equal balance of polish across both modes. Favoring one over the other just leads to one of those modes sucking and if by chance you played the mode that got the least attention, as gamer your reaction to the product may differ from those that played the good part of it.

This leads me to my review focused on the single player elements of Modern Warfare 2.

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First off I was not too happy with the decisions made on PC version of the game as some folks already know so I won’t beat that dead horse anymore. Gist of it is MW 2: PC is pretty much boned when it comes to online play.

Nonetheless as a designer it seemed compulsory to play one of the biggest game releases for this year. Thus I borrowed a copy for the 360 and played through the single player campaign. Below are my thoughts about the good, bad, and ugly elements of Modern Warfare 2. I’ll keep this short as I fear that I may over rant about this game.

The Good:

• For some of the short comings which I will talk about later the game did have some interesting sequences. Such as the many chase sequences like the snowmobile, jeep, and raft chases.
• Level design was really cool. My favorite level in terms of visuals and presentation was the Gulag. The geometry, textures, lighting and effects really sold the idea of prison built within an old castle in middle of nowhere.
• Attention to detail was great. In many of the levels I noticed many small elements that belonged in the world. For example in the Rio slums I noticed some crushed soda cans littered in the alleys. Another good example was in the airbase, where in the interior sections there were heaters which had neat “heat wave” effect. It almost felt warm due to that effect.
• I’ll give props to Infinity Ward for making the “controversial” airport level, where you step into the shoes of a terrorist and mow down every unarmed civilian in sight. Was it disturbing? It was, but as I have told people I have done far worse things in GTA or Saints Row, and someone mentioned that the Postal franchise had some sick shit too. Why I give props, is that Infinity Ward could have cut that mission for fear of public backlash, but it seems they had the balls to just do it and push the limits of what can be shown and done in mature video games.
• The UAV missile launcher of doom was awesome.  I had a big smile as I fired a missile at a single enemy AI hiding behind a crate, who happened to be grenade spamming me (more on that in a bit) Basically it was the I win button, just say fuck you AI I am so going to kick your ass right now, how do you like them apples!

The Bad:

• The story was pretty weak; honestly Modern Warfare 1 was more cohesive start to finish. Plus the ending of the game just felt bad ass. MW 2 ending really just made me curse out loud and I’ll explain why in a bit.
• From what I understand the story is basically some old fart wants to be a war hero so he starts a war between Russia and US. Shit goes down, old characters of MW 1 come out of the woodwork, and the truth comes out that the old fart was behind it all along an needs to die. Sounds like a bad season of 24 ( actually someone else mentioned that it was like 24, but I tend to agree)
• There was absolutely no pacing in this game. You start in the training camp and shit hits the fan till near the end of the game. At one point you get breather for a short sniper mission near the end of the game, but that too was short lived as it turned into super high action packed sequence.
• Seriously, anytime there was a cool vista or location, you got slapped on the wrists not to enjoy it and to focus purely on keeping your ass alive.
• Was it to hard to have some pacing to allow players to enjoy the pretty levels, or get a breather from the 20-30 minute long  fire fights?
• Perhaps too much dialog? There were times in a few missions where people would not shut the fuck up. Okay radio chatter is cool and all but seriously some missions had nothing but constant radio chatter. Give it a break and let me focus on the mission at hand.  Perhaps in real war there may be a lot of radio chatter, but this is a game, and realism should stay far away from it.
• So the ending of the game was pretty lame, why? Fucking button masher sequence. I hate button mashing sequences. I have to spam the X button really fast to dislodge a knife stuck in my gut.  Okay God of War did it, and it works for that game but every fucking game does not need that mechanic from God of War!
• Once it is out a cut scene shows me throwing the knife right into face of the old fart (the one that started the war). Sure it was kind of bad ass but the button mashing sequence really killed it.
• Modern Warfare 1 was better, with the whole gun tossing and shot to face to kill the bad guy no button mashing required, just pull the damn trigger.
• Shit, now that I think about it I guess Infinity Ward enjoys killing of the bad guy by some attack to the face.

The Ugly:

• The combat sucked. I hate to say this but the game should have been called Modern Grenade Spamming Warfare.
• If you guys recall the frustration of the silo mission in Modern Warfare 1, that level of frustration and poor combat design was littered through out the entire game of Modern Warfare 2. I find that mission was warranted for the first game as it was the last mission but that kind of difficulty for the second mission and rest of the game of MW 2 was uncalled for.
• Seriously the amount of grenades you need to throw and the amount thrown at you is ridiculous, practically a game of hot potato.
• I played the game on normal and the AI were just brutal. I like to call them AimBots, as they could pick you off with a clean head shot from miles away.
• Technically all FPS AI are AimBots but these things were assholes, like the ones you would find trolling a Counter-Strike server.
• Other times the AI would “magically” be closer to you and fucking melee your ass to the ground before you can find the melee button first.
• Some checkpoints were poorly placed. I have only been doing professional game/level design for about four years now and  I know well enough not to put the save point in the middle of fucking fire fight.
• Countless times I would die in a fire fight, reload the level to find myself in the exact same spot I was in before and die within seconds of reloading.
• Spawn and die, is not a mechanic or a feature, it’s just frustration for the player and I am surprised some of the designers at Infinity Ward, which I assume have more experience than I do in the biz deemed it fitting to have poorly placed save points throughout the game.
• Having a save point not to far form a fire fight is okay, allowing the player a little time to ramp up and try different tactics, but loading right in the middle of it all gives the player no time to react or plan different attacks to get to the next save point.
• Oh the quotes, I don’t want to read some philosophical bullshit when I die. How about some tips on how not to die!

That’s about it in terms of what I have to say about Modern Warfare 2. Was it the greatest game of 2009, for me it was not. I was excited for it before but seeing the mistakes they made on cutting features for PC multilayer and overall presentation of the game along with piss poor combat I really did not enjoy this game. I have no desire to replay it as I do with many of the games in my collection. I am sure my reactions may fall on deaf ears as this game is being hailed as the second coming of Jesus or something getting 100’s and high 90’s across the board. Hopefully people will soon see through the hype machine and see the flaws which inherently exist in this game.

When I saw my co-workers play this game and curse at the screen and having desires to toss the keyboard or controller down the hall, I can agree with them. This game was truly frustrating, a nice middle finger to player. Challenge is one thing in game design, fucking with player is just simply fucking with the player. Brutal game play is not fun, neither is die and try, especially for normal difficulty. Shit like that should be reserved for hardcore levels. I am not going to bother with it but I am sure Veteran mode for MW 2 is just a fancy word for saying we hate the player so let’s kill them when they spawn.

To conclude, I’ll say this. I consider myself to be a hardcore gamer. I enjoy games; I’ll replay games that were fun and bump of the difficulty for the challenge. Most games that I have played have a decent difficulty curve and pacing to give the player a sense of empowerment and joy when they reach the end. For example, Gears of War 1 I beat that on insane, on my own ( I had some help in co-op for the final boss but everything else I did myself). Even though it was hard I had fun, the game was well balanced for insane mode and overall the pacing provided highs and lows to keep me playing. Similarly the Half-Life series, has excellent pacing, even on harder difficulties, it gives you the player a sense of accomplishment at the end. But with all the skill I presume to have as a hardcore gamer Modern Warfare 2 on normal mode was by far the most frustrating game I have ever played.

Will I play Modern Warfare 3 ? (The way part 2 ended and the amount of cash it raked in, it would be stupid of IW not to do it) of course I will. But hopefully the third part will have a better single player game featuring better pacing and improved combat other than just using iron sights and grenades for five hours straight. Or perhaps this is just wishful thinking on my part and MW 3 will be again the “definitive online multiplayer shooter for the 360″