Duty calls, should I answer?

"What was it comrade? Latte or espresso?"

Let me start by saying that I was never really into online first person shooters, though I'm a sucker for their single player part. I guess Counter-strike, and later Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare are the ones I've played most online.

The single player part of the game, well, was as expected. Just like it's predecessor, playing the campaign is more or less like watching a movie .Certainly a good movie. Hell, I can't remember when I last saw an action movie this good. Unfortunately, it's length is like a movie too. Considering that the main selling point of the series is multiplayer, thats to be expected, though it certainly wouldn't hurt having a couple of hours worth of gameplay more. The game of course is fully scripted, without any kind of choice involved, as lineal as it gets. Not that this is a bad thing, if executed right. Both Modern Warfare 1 & 2, are outstanding at what they do. Linear gameplay at it's best.

"That damn recruitment officer said nothing about bunny jumping fricking cliffs..."

Multiplayer is more or less -more, actually- the same with the first Modern Warfare. No surprise there. There are some different weapons, more kill streak rewards and more game modes, but the core is the same. Infinity Ward's take on the whole achievement mini-game is interesting, with the accolades, titles and emblems being nice additions overall, but of course completely unrelated to the gameplay. It could certainly use some tweaks here and there, in different perk and weapon effectiveness, but I guess thats a matter of trial and error, and will be sorted out eventually. As I mentioned above, the game is just like the first title, which means it's solid. The lack of dedicated servers on the other hand, for me at least, is a serious blow. All the other reasons aside -and there are plenty of them-, I just plainly hate that form of -automatic- matchmaking. It sucks. Not to mention the lack of kicks, votes, custom rules, etc. A major step back.

"Camper? What, you want me to draw you a map or something?"

Last but not least, Spec Ops, the cooperative part of the game is my favorite. Two person co-op against whatever each mission throws at you, is just cool. There are some missions to keep you busy for a little while, though few of them offer any challenge even on the highest difficulty. It's really a shame Infinity Ward didn't expand this mode any more. A simple mission editor(not a level editor, but an in game editor to set up enemies, objectives etc as seen in other games before) would have been a valuable addition here, but then again, it wouldn't surprise me if IW throwed a Force Unleashed on us...

"Angry Sith Consumer"

To sum it up, I do play some rounds of multiplayer with my fps-freak-on-a-stick buddy quite often, but the supposed advantages of IWNet are kind of missing. Sure, the whole achievemnt system is cool, and I'm sure it already has attracted many "point junkies", but it doesn't really improve your experience. Modern Warfare 2 campaign is great, but overall it's only a good game, as there are issues keeping it from being a great game, mainly the lack of dedicated servers and the half baked co-op. I'll just sit back, wait and see what IW plans to do.

And no, I didn't even comment on the "controversial" level. It's a game. It's rated 18+. End of story.