Hands-on: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Sep 16, 2009

While it ultimately doesn't affect our editorial, in the interest of full disclosure we feel that our audience should know that Activision did pay for press travel and lodging for this event.

Modern Warfare 2 developer Infinity Ward has been silent about what new features are in the multiplayer component of their upcoming game, but we've finally got to check it out ourselves. Our impressions of what we played are on the second page of this piece, while below is a breakdown of the additions to the multiplayer experience.

Customize that Profile

In the original Modern Warfare you didn't really have much in the way of making your profile appear unique to those around you, making a game where no one stood out visually from the crowd. This time around you can customize not only your Call Sign (your title, like Sgt., SSDD, etc), but also the emblem you have that visually represents you in the lobby and during matches. The goal behind this was for players to stand out, for the community to almost develop recognizable heroes who you could pick out thanks to their unique profiles. I'm still not sure how this will work in practice -- when you're playing you're hardly paying attention to the names or symbols of others -- but it gives players some other way to connect on a deeper level with their online profile.

Killer Killstreaks

If you've played CoD 4 online then you're likely intimately familiar with the killstreak system. While in CoD 4 you worked within a set framework of what a killstreak meant (three kills got you a UAV, five an airstrike, seven a chopper), Modern Warfare 2 allows you to unlock new killstreak bonuses and customize it as part of your load out. Players who put in the time to earn enough unlockables can set themselves up to have a new item for each successive kill after the third, with extra special items coming for players who can get eight or 11 kills in a row. In our playtime we didn't unlock any new killstreak items, but we did get to use the UAV, Care Packages (supply drops that will give everything from ammo to attack runs from a helicopter), and the Predator Missile (a player guided bomb that falls from the sky). While this new customizable killstreak system obviously won't alleviate the concerns of players who hated it in the last game, it does mean that you won't fall prey to the same cycle over and over, making for a much less predictable -- and more exciting -- match. And hey, having more things to earn and ways to customize your load out is never a bad thing.

New Perks, Guns, and Equipment

What multiplayer sequel would be complete without the prerequisite addition of new versions of old stuff. Several new weapons are included in Modern Warfare 2, but what's really cool is that they've expanded on the Secondary weapon category. While previously you pretty much had to take a pistol -- unless you took the right perks -- now you can carry guns like a shotgun, automatic pistol, or magnum for your secondary weapon. Your secondary weapons will also be upgradeable with items like silencers and sights, giving you even more chances to unlock new items as you play.

Perks are also returning in Modern Warfare 2, but they've also been expanded upon in some pretty significant ways. Along with new perks like Scavenger (allows you to resupply from dead enemies), and Hardline (killstreaks require one less kill to get each stage), players now have the ability to upgrade their perks to "pro" levels, granting additional benefits at the cost of having to use them enough to level up. Pro level perks aside though, the biggest change comes in the addition of the Death Streak perk. Ok, ok, it's not exactly a perk, but it works a heck of a lot like one; players who die repeatedly can give their load out a special ability that will help them with their subsequent spawn. For instance players who die a lot at the spawn point might choose Painkiller, which allows them to take significantly more damage for a short time when they first appear. Another Death Streak perk on display was Copy Cat, which allowed the player to take the load out of an enemy while they watched the kill cam. These are great additions to the game as far as accessibility goes, and will likely not break the balance thanks to the fact that they're only activated when someone is doing pretty poorly anyways.

Grenade spamming was an annoying part of past Call of Duty games, but the ability to swap out frags for a host of new items could alleviate that to an extent. Now, instead of only being able to switch out your "Special Grenade" type, players can take alternate items in the place of frags, such as throwing knives and sticky bombs. This not only gets rid of the impetus for players to just spawn and throw grenades, but also gives them new items to earn and ways to further customize their load out for their playstyle. For instance players who like to have a stealth weapon might choose throwing knives because it doesn't make you appear on the map when you use it (and it looks bad ass).

What's Old is New Again

Modern Warfare 2 features one entirely new multiplayer mode (Demolition), along with the addition of an online staple: Capture the Flag. Capture the Flag is pretty much exactly what you'd imagine it is like -- with players protecting their flag while seeking out the enemy's -- but Demolition definitely feels at once familiar and also new. Demolition is very similar to the old CoD standby of Search and Destroy, except now there are two bomb points on the level and players are allowed to respawn. One team defends while the other attacks the bomb points, with the match being won or lost based on if a team can manage to blow up both points in the allotted time. A total of two rounds are played, with both teams taking turns being the defenders and the attackers. In our play sessions this mode was a...err...blast, with the two bomb sites providing adequate dispersion of players so no one spot turned into too much of a killing field. And while it certainly isn't going to blow (Ha!) anyone away with its originality, Demolition is already shaping up to be a great change of pace from the standard Team Deathmatch.

Awards for All

Just like its predecessor, Modern Warfare 2 isn't going to include any achievements for multiplayer. That being said, players will find constant rewards just from playing the game online, even more so than in the last Modern Warfare. On top of unlocking new guns and accessories through play, players will be awarded Accolades at the end of each match. These awards cover everything from the player who spends the longest time in prone to who switches weapons the most. Everyone gets a feeling of accomplishment, and players can look at other players awards to see just what type of camping bastard they are. The prestige mode from the last game will also make a return, and will supposedly have actual in game benefits associated with taking the time to level up all over again, but this wasn't on display as of yet. The point is this: anyone and everyone is going to get awards while playing Modern Warfare 2, making it even easier to sink far too many hours of your life into it without feeling like you've accomplished nothing.

Ready for Action

It seems like it was only yesterday that I first saw Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 at E3, and here I was getting ready to hop into the multiplayer mayhem against a field of wide-eyed game journalists. Sure that snowmobile chase and the Ice Climbers single-player stuff was neat, but CoD 4 was a multiplayer gamer's game, and I expect Modern Warfare 2 to be no different. Tonight's session was to be a strange setting for my first taste of Modern Warfare 2. You had to fight for a seat at the game stations, with European press and American journalists going elbow-to-face for the chance to sit down and get some highly-anticipated hands-on time. In the gaming world, Modern Warfare 2 is big news: The guy next to me was shooting a video segment and only half-paying attention to the game, only we could all hear his monologue in our headsets. Where was that mute button again? I was pretty sad that we weren't on opposing teams, because it would have been a lot of fun to get some easy kills from him.

Now, if you've played Call of Duty 4, and shame on you if you haven't, you know what to expect out of Modern Warfare 2's multiplayer. While there was talk of the game being scrapped and rebuilt from the ground up, much of what I knew and loved has remained intact. From what I saw, the lobby interface is nearly identical, the character models bore similar levels of visual fidelity, and everything felt familiar. Sure, there were some new visual effects, like the awkward blood-splattered windshield effect that coats the screen with gobs of red whenever you take fire, but this is unmistakably Modern Warfare.

Can't Catch Me

Knowing that I'd only have time to play a few rounds before giving my seat up, I was pleased to see that the playlist kicked off with one of Modern Warfare 2's new game modes: Capture the Flag. CTF is a classic game mode, one that works in anything from Unreal Tournament to World of Warcraft, and Call of Duty's version is no slouch. Objective games were very well executed in CoD 4, and this one is easier to wrap your head around (and for newbies to hop into) than something like Sabotage or Headquarters. The pace of the game feels like it's been dialed up a notch. Picking up the flag seems to take only a second, and the Marathon perk with its unlimited sprint was a great option for this movement-reliant mode. In a densely cluttered urban map like Modern Warfare 2's Favela, a flag carrier can do very sneaky things, and I was able to use alleyways and rooftops to streak down a path from end of the map to the other that rarely exposed me to enemy fire.

As you'd expect, everyone started out at rank 1, so I wasn't going to get much of a chance to check out the create-a-class options. Thankfully, the preset builds featured a couple of the new perks and weapons, so I tried to cycle through as many different options as I could from spawn to spawn.

Ding!

It didn't take long before I was able to line up an enemy in my sights and shoot him in the face. Oh, Modern Warfare 2: It was love at first headshot. You know that warm and fuzzy feeling of accomplishment that you get when you gain experience? Modern Warfare 2 is heaping on an extra helping of rewards, handing out more gold stars than your favorite teacher. Kill someone, capture something, ruin somebody's day, do anything cool that you can think of, and the game will let you know with the flashy, in-your-face on-screen equivalent of a pat on the back. I vividly recall stabbing this one unfortunate soul in the face with my knife just before he was able to finish me, and getting rewarded not only for the kill, but also for ending his own kill streak and exacting revenge upon him for a previous death.

Call of Duty 4 had all those great challenges to plow through in the barracks, but that whole system has been expanded extensively. Now your actions within the game are measured against the other players more so than they are compared to a static list. From round to round, the game gave me props for capturing the most flags, getting the most long distance kills, and the most stabbings. Stat tracking may sound like a boring feature, but it'll add a lot to Modern Warfare 2's reward system, and ultimately, it was just as much the XP and progression systems as it was the gameplay and graphics that kept players coming back. How you play the game will impact the rewards you earn, and will even mold how you set up your soldier, as you'll need the proper experience in order to earn those pro-level perks.

Smooth Sailing on the S.S. Gunship

When we spoke to Infinity Ward Community Manager Robert Bowling about things to look out for during our hands-on session, he urged us to be on the lookout for the airdropped Care Packages that would grant us access to some of the cooler stuff that would otherwise only be unlocked at higher levels and by much greater kill streaks. I managed to go on one particularly nasty tear by sneaking around the enemy flank and taking up a vantage point at a nearby rooftop and racked up a solid streak of kills, giving me the ability to call in a supply drop. I ran back to our own base in order to play with this ability from relative safety, and dropped some red smoke to call in the package. It didn't take long at all before the tell-tale green case of a military storage unit parachuted down from above, and I raced over to find that I had scored BIG. I was the proud (part-time) owner of an AC-130!

Activating this baby dropped me into the familiar black and white overhead view from the mother of all gunships, and I started raining depleted uranium death down upon the enemy team. Enemy targets were easy to distinguish from friendlies, as the baddies all had red squares around them, highlighting them clear as day. The AC-130 lasted quite a while, easily long enough to rack up a whole new batch of kills and to set the other team running scared. The Predator missile, which I was able to use a couple times during my session, is similarly cool, flying down from above to strike at any enemy target, and powerful enough to get the kill even when they're behind cover. You have to think fast and be quick to pick a target, and you can get the business over with extremely quickly and precisely by kicking in the afterburners and boosting the missile towards its unlucky victim.

I (Don't) Wanna Riot

It's been said time and time again that "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." Knowing that it had the potential to cause the most change, I tried out the riot shield build and instantly hated it. You're defenseless, unable to even use a pistol to fire from around the shield, as you would in the countless other shooters that have utilized a shield option. I had dual machine pistols as my secondary weapon, however, and had fun pulling those out and spraying crazy amounts of bullets around, shield be damned. This akimbo thing might be worth further investigating. I'll say this about the riot shield, though: It kept me alive for quite a while despite a hail of incoming fire. I was eventually taken down, but you can easily use it to lead a charge down an exposed hallway, clearing the way for your team to take up advantageous positions, or providing cover so that your squadmates can maneuver towards the enemy flanks. You're not completely immune, though, and every time I used it, enemy fire eventually penetrated my shield (and my skull). There's some use to this, specifically in objective games, but you'll probably want to forget all about donning a shield in a deathmatch.

I came away from this brief taste of Modern Warfare 2 feeling like the fundamentals remained largely intact, while its new rewards system would give me an even greater incentive to put in those long hours. If Modern Warfare 2's single-player campaign can meet the standard set by CoD 4, then this is going to be one hell of a complete package.