PS3 Review: Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2

I have no hard feelings for this game. It's got a good technical presentation and it's fairly fun to play, with varied mission objectives and well-designed levels. For what more could you ask from a first-person shooter?

There's one problem, though. One big problem. When you look down your scope, for some reason, your targeting reticle automatically snaps onto the nearest target. When you're done pumping one enemy full of lead, you simply zoom out then back in, and the crosshairs automatically snap to the next target. What's a first-person shooter without aiming?

I've never encountered this feature in other FPSs... are all the other kids doing it? What think-tank decided that a shooter would benefit from the removal of aiming? It's like Assassin's Creed; they call it a platformer but there's no jump-button. I don't know if it's what automatically happens when money gets dumped into a popular project, but the games, they start to play themselves. So no matter how fun Modern Warfare 2 is to play, it's still just a lazy Saturday afternoon at best. Even Tetris made your mind feel worked.

I'd be remissed if I didn't mention an optional level in Modern Warfare 2 that the game-designers decided was so controversial, you're given the option of skipping it if you find it too extreme. The level sees your character, deep deep undercover with the Russian mob, walking through a public airport mowing down innocent civilians. I believe the level shouldn't have been included simply because it's boring. You walk through an airport with a tommy-gun from room to room until everyone in the airport is dead. They tried for edgy, they delivered blah.

And then the whole false-solemnity of giving the player the option to play the level or not. Honestly, I don't think killing innocent civilians in a game has anything to do with, you know, reality, so I think the developer should've stuck to its guns (*groan*) and either forced the player to play, or not included the level at all. This false-solemnity nonsense is also in Assassin's Creed, which begins with a message which lets the audience know that the game was developed by a staff of varied ethnic and religious backgrounds. They included this, because, as we all know, whenever someone says the word "Muslim," a kitten dies.

So, yeah. I don't know what all the fuss is over this game. It's technically proficient (though the graphics all have that plastic cartoony look this franchise is known for), but it plays itself. Maybe these problems disappear with multiplayer-- I didn't spend too long in multiplayer, but that was because I couldn't tell any of the teams apart.

Award-Giving Time: Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 gets the "I'll Have Everything on the Dollar Menu To Go" award-- sure, it feels good, but do you really want something so fast, cheap, and easy? ...And yes, I had originally typed the "drunk prom date award," but kids can find this blog, so....

--Serge

PS: Myah! 5 out of 10.