First off, the single player campaign is good. More difficult than Modern Warfare, and a bit harder to pay attention to the narrative. There is a lot going on, even during the screens between missions. The story is a good one and I won't spoil any of it for you.



Now, there are two types of multiplayer, coop and everything else.

The Co-op is called Special Ops and has you completing missions to earn stars. You start off with 5 available mission and can earn a total of 3 stars per mission. The missions very from all out attack, to defense, to hunt and capture, to stealth assassin. When you earn enough stars, you can unlock more missions. Spec Ops can be played alone, but not every mission is available to single players, some require coop. For a decent idea of what the missions are like, think about the Mile High Club epilogue level of Modern Warfare.


Now for the good stuff. This game has crazy amounts of crap packed into it. It, of course, continues the 'level and prestige' tradition of the previous 2 COD games. This time the level cap is 70 and I have no idea how many prestiges there are.

Also, a continuing tradition are the kill streak bonuses. But this has soooooo many more, and you can customize your list. You can choose three from over a dozen for your guy to call in. You have the standard UAV (radar), Attack Chopper, and Air Strike(you can now pick the direction the planes come in from.)Other killstreak bonuses(KSB) are:
-Counter UAV (disables enemy radar)
-Care Package (drops a random kill streak bonus)
-Harrier (Similar to the attack chopper, but it stays in one place)
-Chopper Gunner (You control the gun on the helicopter)
-Emergency Care Package (A C-5 drops multiple kill streak bonuses
-AC130 Gunner (similar to chopper gunner, but you have 2 different types of guns...like the Gunner level on MW1)
-EMP (disables all enemy electronics)
-Nuke (Game over, you win)

There are others, I think, but I can't remember them. The Care packages are crates that drop and you have to run to it and activate it to get the KSB. You can steal the enemies packages too, which is awesome.

The perks are a little different this time. Most unlock as you progress in level, but you can also complete challenges with them to unlock a Pro version. The Pro versions add an additional perk. For instance, Stopping Power (increases bullet damage), the pro version adds additional damage to vehicles.

Along with the regular perks, there are also Deathstreak perks. You get these perks when you die a certain number of times in a row without killing anyone. There is one that lets you take the persons class, one where you start with more health, martyrdom, and Final Stand. Final Stand is like Last Stand, only if no one kills you after a minute you stand back up.

There is more equipment you can use this time too. On top of normal grenades, you can now get semtex (sticky) grenades, insertion flares that allow you to respond on the flare following your next death, throwing knives, a blast shield (explosion resistance), and others. You also still have special grenades of flashbang, stun, and smoke.

Weapons - There are buttloads. And yes, you can still get add-ons for them. Some add-ons you get for normal kills like in MW1. Others, you get by getting kills with the attachments. Some new attachments are the Holographic Sight (Looks like Red Dot sight to me, please tell me if it is different in any way), Heartbeat sensor (lets you know when someone is around you), and Thermal Scope (lets you see people through smoke), and shotgun attachment. There is a perk that lets you attach two things to a gun, which is nice. Also, you can now silence a sniper rifle.

You are no longer limited to pistols as a back up weapon now. You can get machine pistols (automatic glock and others), pistols, shotguns, and artillery (grenade/rocket launchers). You can also get attachments for the back ups (A Silenced Shotgun...no joke.)

Challenges: You still have the weapons challenges (kills, headshots, etc) and attachment challenges. You also have perk challenges (doing certain things while having the perk equipped). And there are still the normal challenges like MW 1 had. This time, there are a lot more...a LOT more.

They have a lot of different game types too. Free-For-All(deathmatch), Team Deathmatch, Domination (hold positions for a certain amount of time) Headquarters (Capture the headquarters and hold it), Sabotage (attack/defend a target), and cage match(1on1). Something that was sorely missing in MW1 was Capture the Flag, thankfully, it is back...and it rocks. There is also Ground War which is Big Team deathmatch and domination. Again, there are more, like Hardcore Ricochet (when you shoot a team mate, you die instead), but I haven't played them all.

Which brings us to the most glaring flaw on MW2 Multiplay...most game types will not allow you to play if you are in a party chat. Seriously, it won't let you. You can't be talking to friends (playing the same game or in different games) while doing most of the game types. Bad move on IW's part. Thank goodness the MUTE function works great, otherwise I would seriously want to hurt some little kids.

All of the weapons seem really balanced, thus far, and the perks are great. I am having fun with most of them and haven't focused on one or two like I did in MW1 (stopping power, deep impact...never needed anything else) Each have major advantages (especially some of the pro version) and it is fun to play with them all. I don't know the point of some weapon attachments (Holographic Sight, how is it different from Normal Red Dot?), but most are extremely useful(Full Metal Jackets rock!).

One more flaw is level design. While interesting, almost every level is cluttered beyond belief. It seems the designers tried to make most levels as vertical as possible. There is all kinds of stuff on the ground that can prevent you from walking forward. Most levels have a maze like feel to it, even after you get used to it. 2 levels, so far, I recognize from COD2. Derailed reminds me of the train yard, and Wasteland reminds me of the one level where pretty much everyone used sniper rifle(can't remember the name, but it is the same level). There is one really tiny level (like Shipment in COD4), but this has a structure in the middle with multiple stories (it is the least cluttered too). I give the level design a 6/10. It was a good try, but many are too maze like and not very fun to run around on.



All in all, I would say that THIS game is what a sequel should be (I am digging on COD5 for the rest of the paragraph). It took what was fun about the first one and added to it. It didn't dumb things down or just call something by a different name. The weapons are balanced, the game types fun. Perks are a blast to use and experiment with. It is not just a rehash with different skins.

If you play FPS online, you probably already have it. If not, you should get this.