Modern Warfare 2 – Stop Feeding the Hype Machine

Guest poster Julien chimes in on the eve of Modern Warfare 2.  Enjoy!

(Disclaimer – The opinions in this post do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Channel Massive or their sponsors…blah, blah, blah.)

A mere few hours remain until the launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and the hype build-up around this game has been the largest the world may have ever seen… yes, bigger than Halo 3.

In pre-orders alone, Modern Warfare 2 has almost surpassed the total sales of the original Modern Warfare. Infinity Ward’s marketing has been nothing but stellar as they approach launch day, releasing trailers and features at a pace steady enough to whet appetites, but not enough to quench them. Hell, their recent launch trailer is enough for most people to say, “It’s badass, let me go buy it.”

However, I have my reservations about the game. While I’m not Call of Duty hater, and am a proud owner of the other titles in the series, I definitely believe that the game is being over-hyped.

From what I’ve seen and heard of the game, it does not improve that much on its predecessor. Sure, you get a new single player campaign, new multiplayer perks, and Spec Ops as a co-op mode, but nothing terribly new is being added. If you look at the mountains of extra features Ubisoft is adding to Assassin’s Creed II in order to make it a truly triple A sequel, it makes you wonder what Infinity Ward has been doing for the past two years. It doesn’t take a genius to make a co-op mode, in fact Treyarch had two of them in Modern Warfare 2′s predecessor, World at War. And if your main mutliplayer selling point is customizable kill streaks, then you’ve got an issue.

In all honesty, I believe Infinity Ward has been sitting on its laurels. While I’m sure the game itself will be fun and polished, their failure to bring anything truly new to their game development formula is getting to me. There’s only so many times a helicopter can crash while I’m in it before it starts to get old…

When you think of the improvements between IW’s Call of Duty 2 and the first Modern Warfare, there’s a certain feeling of definitive forward movement in terms of the franchise. But the same cannot be said for Modern Warfare 2. Customization in multiplayer is now being offered by almost every first-person shooter out there, co-op “popcorn experiences” are now also a staple of most first-person shooters, and the “international team of badasses” concept for the singleplayer has also been pretty exhaustively used.

Behind the hype and the trailers, it feels like something is missing. The only thing that could pull this game out of the dregs of lamedom, for me, is the insane amount of polish that usually goes into Infinity Ward’s titles. Hopefully, they haven’t half-assed that, too.

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