COD: Modern Warfare 2's single player storyline picks up roughly from where the first instalment left off, casting you as several members of Task Force 141, a squad of heavily armed Rangers tasked with stopping a Russian terrorist named Makarov. Drawing on impressive AI for both allies and enemies as it races from one scripted set-piece to the next, MW2 takes you on a veritable world tour; from stealth based levels in Kazakhstan, to a running battle through Brazilian Favelas to rescuing hostages from a heavily defended oil rig.
Each mission in the three-act campaign presents you with different challenges, abilities and controls, so left and right triggers are used for aiming and firing, swinging ice-picks to climb sheer cliffs, piloting a skidoo for an Endor-style chase through trees or controlling the new Predator droid to take out hostile targets by aerial satnav. Along the way there are twists and turns galore, including one controversial level that sees you joining Makarov to massacre passengers at Moscow airport. Graphically, the tweaked IW4 engine copes with up to 40 onscreen enemies at once – particularly impressive in the Brazilian levels where the Black Hawk Down-style action reaches almost multiplayer levels of intensity.
All in all, MW2 is exactly what fans were expecting. Yes, it carries a hefty price-tag, a shortish single player campaign and only adds a handful of genuinely new elements to the prequel, but you won't find a more polished, intelligent FPS this year. For non-stop action, superior AI and perfectly balanced weapons, it's a worthy chart-topper that hammers a nail into any hope of the COD franchise returning to its WW2 roots anytime short of the next round of console upgrades. And, on this evidence, you won't find too many complaints about that.
