November 10th 2009 will see the highly anticipated global launch of Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare 2 on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC, in Standard, Hardened, and Prestige Edition. The Prestige edition comes with real night vision goggles, collector’s stand, game, steel book with metallic finish, art book, game manual and token to download the original ‘Call of Duty.’ The most-anticipated game of the year and the sequel to the best-selling first-person action game of all time, Modern Warfare 2 continues the encaptulating and heart-racing action as players face off against a new threat dedicated to bringing the world to the brink of collapse.

Game Features:

- Epic single-player campaign picks up immediately following the thrilling events from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

- The definitive multiplayer experience returns, with a host of new perks and enhancements.

- New cooperative SpecOps mode, the perfect combination of Modern Warfare’s single-player intensity and the addictive replayability of its multiplayer.

Infinity Ward have stated that Modern Warfare 2 would not be longer than the 6-10 hour-long campaign of Call of Duty 4. Mission settings in the game will include Russia, a military base in Kazakhstan, a desert area in Afghanistan, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. New features include the ability to dual wield handguns.

Special Ops:

Modern Warfare 2 will feature a cooperative mode called Special Ops, consisting of independent missions similar in design to the “Mile High Club” epilogue mission from Call of Duty 4. These missions will take place in a variety of locations from the campaign mode. However they are not related to story of the campaign itself. Special Ops mode can be played solo and also supports two player cooperative play, where it can be played with another player split-screen locally, or online. It includes a snowmobile race between the two players, one player providing airsupport from an AC-130 while the other player conducts operations on the ground, capturing an enemy compound and searching areas for and eliminating 40 or more enemies at a time.

Special Ops is divided into four separate groups of missions which are Alpha, Bravo, Charlie and Delta. There are three difficulty levels (regular, hardened  and veteran) that each mission can be played on. Successfully completing a mission earns the players stars (three stars available for each mission): one star for completing the mission on regular difficulty, two for hardened and three for veteran. Once enough stars are earned, more missions can be unlocked. Infinity Ward has stated that the total number of stars is 69 (23 missions in total). At the end of each mission, a statistics screen displays how long the player took to complete the level and how many kills were scored, among other stats.

Online:

The online multiplayer mode of Modern Warfare 2 still has the same experience points and unlockable reward system of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, but also introduces several new features. Apart from new weapons and equipment, 15 different kill streak rewards can be unlocked and selected by the player. These range from the ability to receive a supply drop after four kills, a predator missile strike after five kills, and to call in a strike by an AC-130 gunship after achieving 11 enemy kills in a row! Furthermore it is now possible to upgrade perks to a “pro version”. Another fantastic new addition to online multiplayer is in-game host migration, allowing players to remain in the game (instead of being reset to the game lobby like in Call of Duty 4) when the host leaves the game, while a new host is selected and the game resumes. There has also been the addition of a new 3rd person mode which can be used in certain game types for multiplayer. Game modes include Free-For-All, Search & Destroy, Demolition, Domination, Team Deathmatch, and Capture The Flag. Also, since the multiplayer runs with Steam, the PunkBuster anti-cheat system has been replaced by VAC. It has also been confirmed by two developers at Infinity Ward that the PC version will share the same player cap that the console versions at 18 players (or up to 9 vs. 9 matches).

Characters:

During the single-player campaign, the player will take on the role of Sergeant Gary “Roach” Sanderson, a member of an elite, multinational commando unit known as Task Force 141. The player character in Call of Duty 4, Sergeant “Soap” MacTavish, returns as a non-playable character; promoted to captain in the Special Air Service, MacTavish is now the head of the Task Force and Sanderson’s superior officer. A third member of the Task Force is Ghost, a mysterious character who conceals his face with a skull-imprinted balaclava.

Plot:

Modern Warfare 2 is set immediately after the conclusion of Call of Duty 4. The radical Russian Ultranationalist organization has returned to prominence under the leadership of Vladimir Makarov, a former associate of Imran Zakhaev with his own ambitions. Makarov has publicized Zakhaev’s death as an act of martyrdom to gain support for his cause, enabling him to build a strong power base in Russia over the years. Fearful of Makarov’s growing influence, the global community established Task Force 141 to fight the threat posed by the growing Ultranationalists.
 
An early campaign mission called “Cliffhanger” was demonstrated during E3 2009, following the player character Sergeant Sanderson as he and Captain MacTavish infiltrated a Russian base in the Tian Shan mountain range in Kazakhstan and escaped on snowmobiles.

Game Engine:

The game utilizes the in-house IW 4.0 game engine, which is claimed to be a generation beyond the capabilities of the engine used in Call of Duty 4, so if you thought Call of  Duty 4 was amazing, you will be stunned by Modern Warfare 2, with the new engine capable of accommodating larger worlds, enhanced graphic detail, and more efficient rendering.

Infinity Ward has addressed the issue of enemies that continually respawn at different points of a level. The developer demonstrated that the game engine uses a “dynamic AI,” which has replaced the respawn system and allows enemies to act more independently. These “smarter” enemies are designed to actively seek and drive the player forward through a level, and can break away from set behaviors such as following a designated route in order to attack more quickly. The player cannot depend on an enemy being in the same location because enemies will behave differently each time a level is played.

Map Packs:

Activision announced that two downloadable map packs will be released for Modern Warfare 2. Microsoft stated at E3 2009 that these map packs would be made available for the Xbox 360 via Xbox Live before they would be released for other platforms. The initial responce to the first the first two map packs would be used in designing other potential map packs.

What is certain, is that gamers around the world will be having a field day on November 10th.

By Peter Baumann Posted Sunday, November 8th, 2009 7:48 pm