3/5 ★ – alcoholicgoat's review of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

I used to love this game. Hate to say it but it's a mess. This is a review for the campaign but yeah, tonally and thematically all over the place. To go from Renny Harland/John Woo/Bayhem action to a fucking warcrime is so goddamn jarring it makes me question the intent of the entire experience. I'd rather it picked a lane and stuck with it. There's plenty of moral confusion and greyness in COD 4 (while that game is still really lacking as well, it at least is consistent in what it sets out to do) it's still pretty jarring to have No Russian in the followup game and having that mission be within the first hour or so of gameplay. No Russian would fit MW2019 way better honestly. I'm okay with the game shifting towards action schlock (that's why I prefer the Black Ops games, they veer into Verhoeven-esque self parody) but you need to be consistent with it and not get too stupid. I feel like Activision thinks that COD fans are dumber than they give them credit for. I'd like to think so. I want all the visceral spectacle of something like MW2 or 3, but there's no meat on these bones. MW2019 kinda tried but fell on its face with some weird propaganda and unintended implications, but I prefer that over the original MW trilogy because they at least attempted something in 2019. I think Cold War is the best COD campaign strictly on the basis of storytelling and gameplay synthesis and execution. I was let down by MW2. I remembered the moments of tension and suspense as well as bombast and excess, and until recently I never stopped to question why they were in the same game. There are missions from 2 different games that I adore. I love the Michael Bay spectacle, and I love the tense thriller/tactical/harder edged moments but there's definitely a disconnect between these tones. Also, Price launched a fucking nuke. Are we not going to address that??? My brother in christ, nuclear annihilation is the worst thing you can possibly inflict, and potentially incite global fallout. How the fuck did you know it'd go exactly the way you wanted? You also killed innocent people bro. Fuck me. I'd like it more if it wasn't so self serious.