Modern Warfare 2 Review: Bigger, Louder, Stranger and Dumber

It's ghosting time

As a military personnel……the twist being to cover up massive stupidity is actually the most realistic thing about this game’s story.

I thought it was so brave that Activision decided to have your character say it was Ghostin' time.

One tiny thing that got me during Bricky's stream: The game constantly refers to the stolen American missiles as 'ballistic missiles'. When we see them launch, they are all cruise missiles— not one ballistic missile in sight.

"I played 2009 MW2 when it came out, you know what Ghost did in that game? NOTHING" THANK YOU I love ghost but I chalk it all up to nostalgia goggles and cool design, that anyone would say he was 'such a great character' I'm just like "????" thank you for saying what so many are too afraid to

That smile drop when the words “No Russian” was sent is priceless IMO

One thing I’m surprised that Bricky didn’t mention is that no members of the game plays it relatively safe in terms of stakes. By the end of the game, the main roster is Ghost, Gaz, Soap, Price, and Laswell. You can also include Rudolfo,Alejandro and Farah in that. The thing that made Shepherd’s betrayal so affecting in the original MW2 wasn’t that he was revealed to have ulterior motives, it was that he killed Ghost, and ostensibly, you. In nearly every cod game, especially the Modern Warfares, characters die to show how the stakes are elevating which ultimately makes each conclusion have more tension. In this game, the stakes never really feel that high because nobody really feels like they’re in any danger. Nothing reenforces how deadly these missions are because nobody fails at anything.

In regards to the Russians listening to Shadow's comms, something that is taught for radio etiquette is never saying actual names like "John" or "Bill" and only using callsigns like Warrior 2-6 or Husky 1-2. Same with mission objectives/updates, instead of saying "we've passed the hill" or "we've passed checkpoint 2" you'd say "Checkpoint Steel" or simply "Steel" therefore if enemies are listening on comms they wont know your exact progress in your route.

The most infuriating thing about the final mission is that you have to craft a glass knife while Soap has a whole survival knife strapped to his plate carrier you discover in the next cutscene when Ghost shoots Hassan

I loved when Price said “I’m a professional in combat tactics, it’s my Call of Duty. Modern Warfare too.” It really elevated my experience and helped me realize I was playing a reboot of a 13 year old game

"Bigger, Louder, Stranger and Dumber" needs to be the tagline for every Call of Duty. Not just the ones after MW2 2022, but every single game. Cause if that doesn't answer the age old question of "what does call of duty actually stand for", idk what does.

To add on to Of Their Own Accord, your mission isn't something grand like reclaiming the White House, it's literally just to protect the evac site. Your entire purpose from stepping outside the bunker is just to protect the civilians evacuating the war zone. For a Call of Duty game, that just makes the mood so much more dire.

As a former soldier who can understand that comm traffic at the end, the amount of hell they had to be experiencing is on another level. And the broken arrow bit brought a tear. At that point you know your fucked

seeing the 2022 vehicle chase scene with no music instantly threw me back into Arma 3 Convoying, where there was only silence and the occasional guy on Convoy Net clarifying when the next turn was, or someone telling the guy behind them to get some distance

The thing is, all the time they're calling the ordnance "Ballistic Missile" when all of we're seeing are Cruise Missile and that proves just how stretching out this game is.

I'm so glad bricky brought to attention the mw2 2009 DC radio chatter. It's my favorite subtle touch to that game to arguably its best mission. If you're reading this and have the time I highly recommend listening to the subtitled video of the chatter, it provides so much depth and many military professionals have remarked on its accuracy.

Can’t believe they had Ghost say “it’s ghosting time” and then ghost all over everyone. Really bold creative decision there from Activision, but I think it pays off.

The name changes are DEFINITELY supposed to solidify change, cause when Shepard is introduced he’s in blue, when we find out about the missiles and we start questioning he’s a neutral yellow. Then when he starts saying “What are you going to do about it?” The name changes to red. Such a cool way to show who the enemy is.

One cool bit of trivia I noticed is that Shepherd in this game is voiced by the same person who voiced Overlord in the original Modern Warfare 2. I don't think this games version of Shepherd surpasses the original Shepherd by any stretch but I did like that little bit of fanservice since I immediately recognized his voice

The armored enemies took years off my life when I did veteran difficulty. They take way too many rounds to kill and have pin point accuracy while being shot. Which is bad because you die in like 2 shots on veteran.