Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

This first-person shooter game is the sequel to one of the best-selling games of this genre. The single-player campaign follows up on the story from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. I played the four following characters: Private 1st Class Joseph Allen, Private James Ramirez, Sergeant Gary "Roach" Sanderson, and John "Soap" MacTavish. Although I did not play the previous game, the story is quite easy to understand. 

The opening shows that Imran Zakhaev has taken control of Russia. But this is just one part of the story. One of his underlings, Vladimir Makarov has begun campaigns of terrorism. Joseph Allen was recruited into Task Force 141 by Lieutenant General Shepherd. He was sent to an undercover mission in Russia as one of Makarov's men. This mission in the game is optional because it's quite sensitive. It shows Makarov's massacre of the people at the airport in Russia. All I had to do was shoot innocent people (I discovered that Makarov would kill me if I didn't). But Makarov knew all along that Allen was an American and he set him up so that it would appear that the U.S. is responsible for the massacre. He shot Allen when they were about to leave the airport. The evidence started a war. Russia invades U.S.

Meanwhile Soap and Roach infiltrate a Russian base to retrieve an ACS module. This is one of my favorite missions in the game. 

Private James Ramirez is under Sergeant Foley's squad. When Russia invaded, they were among those who tried to defend the capital. They had to recapture every building so most of the confrontations occurred room by room. They infiltrated the White House later to avoid it being bombed down.

Without any proof of their innocence, Task Force 141 thought of a different way to trace Makarov. They looked for the man who provided the weapons to Makarov in Rio de Janeiro. I had to battle my way through the favela to find the weapons dealer Alejandro Rojas. People just pop out from nowhere and you have to be careful at every corner. This was an annoying stage in the game. It is easier to fight against organized troops than undisciplined civilians. When they captured Rojas, they found out that Makarov feared Prisoner 627 who is locked up in the Gulag. Task Force 141 goes to Russia to free the prisoner - Captain Price. 

Price decides to help 141. They infiltrated a port and gained control of a submarine. In this mission, I'm in-charge of the ACS module and I had to use it as we took control over every area in the port. In the veteran mission (very hard), this should be accomplished within a specific time. I had to move faster than usual and use the ACS module whenever I can to shoot down targets that will give us more advantage. I repeated this mission several times. The player has to take note of which targets to shoot so that others will keep moving. 

Price later used the submarine's missile to create EMP that will disable the electronic equipment from both sides.

Task Force 141 then splits up to find Makarov. Roach and Ghost went to Makarov's safe house and obtained important information. I played Roach and had to defend the unit while it was downloading. The other soldiers in the mission died at this stage. Roach and Ghost had to fight their way out of the safe house while being pursued by the enemies. Roach almost went down. When they reached the extraction point, Shepherd betrayed them. He shot Roach and Ghost to retrieve the information and burned them later. You can hear from the background that Price and Soap was trying to contact them about Shepherd's betrayal but it was too late. 

After they learned of their comrades' deaths, they escape from the battle between Shepherd's and Makarov's men. Nikolai helped them escape. Later they found Shepherd's base at Afghanistan. By this time I was playing as Soap. They tried to take down the base to make Shepherd pay for his betrayal. Shepherd tried to escape on a helicopter and they had to pursue him in a long boat. Price managed to shoot down the helicopter but both men fell down the waterfall. 

The last part of the game shows Soap waking up in a scene of wreckage. He looks for Shepherd but he was too weak to fight back. Shepherd was about to kill him when Price showed up. The two fought. Soap had to extract the knife embedded in his chest and throw it at Shepherd. The Lieutenant General fell. Nikolai found them both later but Soap was injured. The last scene showed both Price and Nikolai taking Soap to the helicopter.

The game also features Spec Ops (Special Operations). Players get to choose from different missions and try to unlock every stage. It is divided into five stages and players have to earn stars to unlock each. Some of the missions are designed for two players, while some are missions taken from the single player campaign. It can also be played at different difficulty levels. My favorites are the snowmobile race and and Evasion.

I enjoyed the single-player campaign although there is nothing unique to the story. I can also use any weapon at any stage to kill the enemies, which is not really a challenge, but the different settings make up for that lack. 

The "No Russians" mission added a little spice to the game. I was not shocked because I had to kill innocent people but it was still a bit disturbing. When Makarov killed Allen, I felt sorry for him. But when Roach and Ghost died, I was angry. I don't know why Shepherd had to burn them but I'm giving the game extra points for that. Even if all the player has to do most of the time in this game was to point and shoot, they still left room for character development. I was not surprised to see how fans reacted to the deaths of the characters.

The game is not that complicated so anyone can play it. It also has a tutorial at the beginning so those who are new to this genre have some time to prepare. I'm giving Modern Warfare 2 a 9 out of 10 rating because the single-player campaign is fun and replayable.