Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Preview

By Tom Bramwell Published 20 August, 2009

Or whatever it's called.

Modern Warfare 2? Modern Warfare 1 minute and 58 seconds more like. Nobody from Infinity Ward has made the trip to gamescom, the nervous Activision man demoing the biggest game of the year is under orders to refer all questions not on his script to Infinity Ward in spite of this absence, and the hands-off demonstration is a Special Ops level with a par time of 90 seconds. At least we get more than our money's worth.

Spec Ops is a serious undertaking in Modern Warfare land, considered the third key game mode alongside the single-player campaign and the presumably world-conquering multiplayer. It's inspired by the Mile-High Club level at the end of the first Modern Warfare, and basically amounts to a bunch of unlockable time trial levels for one or two players.

There are split-screen and online co-op options, but today we're seeing it in solo and one level - apparently unlocked quite deep into Spec Ops - called Breach & Clear, in which you're expected to tool up, breach through a wall and then clear the area as quickly as possible under heavy, sustained attack from all directions, including elevated positions. Your time will eventually go towards leaderboards, we suspect, since Nervous Activision Man says Infinity Ward hopes you will compete for better times with your friends. But naturally he can't actually confirm whether it has leaderboards or not.

'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2' Screenshot 1

Activision won't allow you to record anything in MW2 sessions, even on a dictaphone. Only Infinity Ward may speak about it.

He can say what the little stars next to each difficulty setting are though - you gather them by completing Spec Ops levels and then use them as currency to buy access to others. In Breach & Clear's case you can play on Regular, Hard or Veteran, with one, two or three stars conferred depending on how much action you can take.

Beginning in a room with a choice of loadouts, Nervous Activision Man picks up a hefty assault rifle and breaches, which also starts the clock. This busts through the wall and slows time so that you can admire the flying corpse of a nearby Russian on the other side, as the explosive spittle of masonry drifts across your vision and you take in the layout - seemingly borrowed from that Alcatraz washroom scene in The Rock, complete with balconies overlooking disused, crumbling communal showers, through which you duck and scamper as the probing red beams of laser sights cross streams all around you.

The goal is simply to escape, but it's easier said than done. Despite Nervous Activision Man's precise bursts of fire, the screen is constantly lashed with blood splatters, whited out by flashbangs, and poked and prodded by incoming fire and grenade damage indicators from what it turns out in the end are 19 rather angry Russian terrorists. One of them marches forward with a riot shield, which makes a nice melee toy once he's dispatched, and is soon stylishly embellished with a scorch mark where it takes a round across the transparent visor.

'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2' Screenshot 2

Special Ops is the first sign of co-op in Modern Warfare. We somehow doubt it will be the last.

Nervous Activision Man is adamant that there are people testing the game who can get the time down to 17 seconds thanks to astonishing precision, which suggests there's a spawn pattern to learn, although he also insists that it feels dynamic enough to survive plenty of repeat play - which of course he's putting in over the course of gamescom. It's certainly difficult to tell whether the enemy placements are fixed from my vantage point, and it's easy to believe his observation that co-operative games play out very strategically, with players breaching at opposing ends of the room and then having to quickly combine to take out the bad guys.

All the same, it's hard to make any judgements based on 1 minute and 58 seconds of gameplay, and even the sight of a crisp €20 note wasn't enough coax the pad out of Nervous Activision Man's hands. Brief impressions? It's clearly a game mode with enormous potential - not just for expanding the game's repertoire, but for extending what we all expected to be huge longevity anyway. It's also lovely to see a videogame running at 60 frames-per-second in these days of 720p30 or worse, and there's no question that it's an astonishingly polished first-person shooter. Infinity Ward may have struggled to make it to Germany, but they don't seem to be struggling with current-generation hardware. Roll on 11.10.09.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Modern Warfare 2 or whatever it's called is due out for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 on 10th November.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (33) Latest comment 7 months ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • the_dudefather #1 3 years ago

    'a crisp €20 note wasn't enough coax the pad out of Nervous Activision Man's hands'

    Need a bit more than that to play MW2 ;)

    looking forward to it though, hope the spec ops mode is good, the scripted-ness of COD may limit repeat plays though
    Edited by 1 at 20/08/09 @ 14:10

  • Burkey123 #2 3 years ago

    Lets be honest, what a pointless preview.
    Can't wait for this though. The multiplayer should be awesome.

  • Fab4 #3 3 years ago

    Indeed, roll on 10th November...the first day of my 2 month trip to Australia :-D

  • liamthemaster #4 3 years ago

    cant wait for this but this mode does seem a bit lacking compared to zombies in waw

  • jellyhead #5 3 years ago

    "Roll on 11.10.09."

    Damn you! Using the yank date format gave my mate a heart attack thinking it was out a month early until he read the italics at the bottom of the article.

  • khaz #6 3 years ago

    Why is euro(!)gamer using the American time format? Unless its a typo?
    Edited by 1 at 20/08/09 @ 14:41

  • coolbritannia #7 3 years ago

    Because it looks cool and is being rammed in your face at the end of every trailer?

  • Derblington #8 3 years ago

    It's not a typo, it's a nod to their advertising campaign. The game is released on eleven ten nine (ten eleven nine doesn't roll off the tongue so well).

  • Olemak #9 3 years ago

    Bah. Giving this game a miss, I think. Had about enough of annualisation and the general a**holery from the a**holes at A**tivistion.

    Maybe I'll get it used som time, but even that is not really all that likely. I am starting to hate on these guys now.

  • RedPanda #10 3 years ago

    Post deleted at 14:31:59 28-01-2012

  • mashk #11 3 years ago

    Please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please,

    LET THERE BE NO RESPAWNING ENEMIES

  • jimbo118 #12 3 years ago

    Doesn't COD:MW2 run at sub 720p native? Like 600p or sumit.
    Edited by 1 at 20/08/09 @ 15:12

  • Darren #13 3 years ago

    @jimbo118 - Yes, the last three Call of Duty games have been sub-720p on the consoles in order to achieve that 60 fps framerate that Infinity Ward prefer. It works well here though because the lower resolution is disguised somewhat by the anti-aliasing (unlike, say, Halo 3 which had no AA).

  • Sharzam #14 3 years ago

    As regards to comments about sub 720, just play on the PC, cod 4 (1) looks so much better on pc anyway.

  • carlitoswagon #15 3 years ago

    An AI director like L4D would be a nice touch. I know its not going to happen, hence the enemies will spawn in exactly the same locations until you can learn and predict locations. Anyway, would be a nice surprise if IW surprised me.

    Veteran would be a real bitch mode if AI popped up in different locations.

  • actionfitz #16 3 years ago

    Nervous Activision Man wouldn't accept your £20 because he knows you'll need it to buy the baked beans and supernoodles you'll be living on for the next year after forking out for multiple 'MW2-priced' Activision games.
    but at least they've been thoughtful enough to include nightvision goggles - so when you default on your electricty bills, you can still see your beans, instead of eating them in the dark.
    ;)

  • MaxHughes #17 3 years ago

    New name for it: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Or whatever it's called.... Seriously MAKE YOU FUCKING MIND UP!!

  • BritishBlue1 #18 3 years ago

    So many great games coming out this christmas, I'm gonna be skint.

  • DocDaneeka #19 3 years ago

    I hope the people planning to buy this game get it second hand, if this is a big success we are going to see more £50 rrp games.

  • Metalfish #20 3 years ago

    Ah, a preview-ette, a nugget of information heavily controlled and drip fed into Eurogamer's investigative veins -a shot that's not even potent enough to get a door mouse high on gaming hype.

    Poor show Acti, you massive teases.

  • gaselite #21 3 years ago

    Roll on 11.10.09.

    None of that please

  • asphaltcowboy #22 3 years ago

    "I hope the people planning to buy this game get it second hand, if this is a big success we are going to see more £50 rrp games."

    Are you fully aware of how stupid that comment is?

  • holloguts #23 3 years ago

    More bunny-hopping twisting snipers. I think this will be MW with a few visual changes only, same engine, same faults and bugs.

    Just recently found out about Operation Flashpoint 2 out October 9th, looks stunnig from the videos. That's where my money will go. May look at MW2 in12 to 18 months, I'm sure it will still be getting played then as cod 4 does now, but it will be a lot cheaper (especaily a used copy). I won't help Activision in their greed.

  • Pro_Gamer #24 3 years ago

    ODST will seriously DESTROY COD. COD has always been inferior, especially when it comes to physics and the DIFFERENTIATION between weapons (something unexcusable in todays day and age). I will admit MW was ok for a bit of a change, BUT, it is targeted towards mainstream gamers who don't need depth (or fear it).

  • wonton #25 3 years ago

    "Roll on HAZE 2!!!!!!!!!!!"

    Be prepared to wait a very, very long time.

    If not forever.

  • skillian #26 3 years ago

    What a massive corporate monster CoD has become.

  • AliRay #27 3 years ago

    WHeReZ da B3tA KeYZOOrrrRZ?

    I jest. I'm eagerly awaiting my delivery on launch day. Exciting!

  • JensonJet #28 3 years ago

    So, do I understand this correctly?... Modern Warfare 2's only co-op gameplay is 2-4 players completing tiny maps (which 4 testers/Infinity Ward employees have finished one in 17 seconds flat), which say, on average may take a few minutes??? And there'll be what, a dozen of these? Two dozen? An hour or two's worth of co-op???

    Wow, well there's my first disappointment with this game. I really don't understand where Inifinity Ward's aversion to co-op comes from.

  • Mashum #29 3 years ago

    ".....please, please, please,

    LET THERE BE NO RESPAWNING ENEMIES "

    :) one of the Operation Flashpoint devs described the COD single player gameplay as 'whack-a-mole' in some article the other day.

  • Quickstick4 #30 3 years ago

    Still not buying it: cept second hand mabey. No way am i giving activision $90 fo a game. Euro brings in that much = shoudl be price drop in the euro zone. What do activision do? Raise price in UK to get even MORE money

  • carlitoswagon #31 3 years ago

    LMFAO........@ Pro_Gamer

    Does that mean ODST is being aimed at serious hardcore gamers?

    ODST is an expansion pack and if it stood beside MW2 in the showers it would be like comparing a nats chuff to a donkeys ding-a-ling!

  • Pro_Gamer #32 3 years ago

    NO FUCK YOU carlitoswagon

    Go be homo with call of doody piece of shit game. Nobody gives a FUCK about that rubbish/.

  • james-mw3-mw3 #33 7 months ago

    MW3, like its predecessors, is a first-person shooter. To give it a competitive edge over other games, Modern Warfare 3 runs at 60FPS! A new Special Ops mode includes one and two player cooperative play with a survival mode and new weapons and perks, so with this Modern Warfare 3 is 100x better than this game.