Over the past weekend, the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2022) has taken the world by storm. Reaching the fastest sales ever by reaching over $800 million in sales in just one weekend. Across all platforms, MW2 has taken the crown for the franchise’s biggest launch. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 in 2011 was the record holder until now with $775 million.
PlayStation even took to Twitter to say that MW2 has seen the biggest launch on the PlayStation Store ever from both Pre-Orders and Day One Sales. Call of Duty is alive and well!
The Good
With a game full of content it’s no wonder why we are seeing this as the biggest launch in the series’ history. Filled with an action-packed campaign, 10 6v6 maps, 5 32v32 maps, 12 different modes to play, and Coop missions to play with a friend. MW2’s launch is massive and will only get bigger in a few weeks when Warzone 2.0 and DMZ launch with Season One. Also Included in Season One will include a fan favorite map, a new special ops missing, Season One Battle Pass, and the Tier 1 mode (formerly known as Hardcore). MW2 has a healthy slew of content and a great road map detailed ahead to keep players engaged in the game.
MW2 does a lot of great things. While this is not a traditional review for me on this game. I’d like to share some of my views on it.
For one the campaign is fantastic! Lots of great set pieces throughout the game and while the game
I also really enjoyed the way that they launched the campaign early to people who preordered the game in advance. This was a nice change-up and allowed me ample time to finish the campaign before the game’s release date. So when the time came for a full launch I was able to jump into multiplayer immediately to start the grind.
The best way that I can describe is the Modern Warfare 2 campaign. That it feels like a Michael Bay action film that you get to play. The campaign provides a variety of mission structures from close quarters clearing out hallways and buildings. To crazy hectic dangling from a helicopter upside down and everything in between. MW2 does a really good job pulling on the nostalgia strings. From a stealthy sniper mission and your typical AC-130 mission. It’s chaos and I love it.
The multiplayer component has taken me by surprise. When the beta came out I was on the fence. After the full release, I am back into COD MP now more than ever. In just the first week I’ve put more time into this multiplayer. Then I did in a whole entire year of Vanguard.
Weapons pack a punch. While at first, it was confusing how to unlock weapons. I liked how it pushes you to try out guns that you might not have originally tried out. Map layouts generally are really good for the most part. Except I’d like to talk to whoever developed an overpass with a bunch of exploding vehicles in it. They were definitely trolling the COD community when they developed it and put it in this game. Also to note Ground War. Which is a big team mode that honestly pulls off Battlefield better than actual Battlefield has done in recent iterations.
The Ugly
Now the game is not without its faults. Most notable is the game’s stability issues when trying to party up with a group of friends. I feel like the developers need to learn that sometimes less is more. The UI is very buggy and causes crashing issues when you try to do anything at all when at a party. Still a week later and we have not seen a full fix for this issue yet. However, the devs have stated that they will be working on it and putting updates out in pieces. Hopefully, these updates resolve all the UI issues.
There is also a number of smaller glitches that have come through as well. From weapon attachment tuning being disabled, bipod mounting being disabled due to a glitch that causes the player to skyrocket into the air (providing great clips mind you), to an invincibility glitch with a riot shield and a VTOL kill streak.
Also, the missing Barracks are puzzling. A franchise that’s been around as long as Call of Duty or as big should have this feature functioning and implemented with little to no problems. While Seeing your stats doesn’t change the gameplay in any way. It takes a bit of the competitive edge off as you can no longer see where you stack up against other players in the world. Or even against your own friends.
Modern Warfare 2 Has Staying Power
I’ve been playing this franchise since the dawn of time. It’s honestly been years since I felt this good about a COD game. It seemed after the debut of Warzone that the traditional MP was set off to the side in favor of it. But with this year’s iteration those reservations I had went away. This is Call of Duty’s biggest debut of all time and it shows. The game is off to a great start with tons of content at the fingertips and more updates to come in just a short manner of a few weeks. I can see myself enjoying this game in the many years to come. If there was ever a time for COD to need a rest and recharge. Modern Warfare 2 would be able to get us through that time!
Surprise me!
