Modern Warfare 2 (Xbox 360) Preview

Posted by Jon Seddon on 08.31.2009

Gamescom provided the first look at the co-op from the year's most anticipated game. How did it play out?



This year it is the return of Infinity Ward to make what many see as the real Call of Duty follow-up game. Expectations are extremely high for this game, but Treyarch did do some things to move the series forward with World of War and one of those things was co-op.



Treyarch let up to 4 players play through the entire campaign in online coop, but Infinity Ward have already told us that co-op in the campaign did not fit their vision. At Gamescom it was all about their take on co-op and how it will fit in with the rest of the game.

Co-op is an entirely separate collection of missions or scenarios under the umbrella of Special Ops and whilst they the number of them wasn't revealed according to other sites there may be as many as 30. Each level can be played by two players, either split screen or online and surprisingly they can also be played single player. This was the way that they demonstrated the chosen level – Breach and Clear, which was an odd choice. Each mission will be available in 3 difficulty levels and there will be an experience system although it's unclear whether this carries through to the full multi-player mode.



As the mission starts you get a little time to choose your weapon load out and then an explosive charge was set against a wall and all crazy hell broke loose. As the wall blew in the screen went to slo-mo and as the dust started to clear the shooting started and with bullets and bodies flying as time seemed to be standing still, the FPS has seldom looked this good. The room you entered resembled a large communal shower block, but with the amount of dust and blood it was hard to focus on anything other than where the muzzle of the SMG was pointing.

The difficulty was clearly pretty high as the level had to be restarted at least 3 times before there was anything like breathing space in that first area. Once a short cessation in gun fire was achieved there was a few seconds to take stock before you were assaulted again. This time, an enemy approached with a bullet proof shield whist another threw a flash bang. The effect that had was really well delivered as the screen first went white and then ghosted spectacularly. The shields once liberated can be used by the player which provided for a slight change in tactic as more ground was gained.

Then after 1 minute 34 seconds of exciting madness it was over. According to the developers, some missions could be a bit longer than this, but it does seem a little too short.

After the theater system had gone quiet and there was time to reflect on what was shown, it was hard to deny that these missions could be intense and fun experiences. However, have Infinity Ward missed a trick here and have they become too focused on their own vision to listen to fans. Co-op in campaign missions add immeasurably to most games and might be missed here. Also, not having an equivalent of Zombie Nazi mode seems like throwing the baby out with the bathwater, given it is one of the mostr popular features of Treyarch's game.

There's little doubt that the single player and multi player will be brilliant and perhaps that is enough, but imagine being the soldier on the ground whilst your mate controls the AC-130. Modern Warfare 3 perhaps?

Screenshots
All 13 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Screenshots