First-person shooter sequel realistic, visually impressive

Let the fact sink in that last week the entertainment industry’s biggest moneymaker in world history, generating 310 million in the first 24 hours, was released. “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2” broke the record, not just for video games but on any medium that conveys popular entertainment. But what could possibly account for such overwhelming reception?

It doesn’t hurt that the game includes the single most controversial and morally abhorrent scenario of any electronic interactive experience to date, but “Call of Duty” started off as the World War II game that offered the most accessible, fast-paced and cinematic experience. They’ve always been among the top FPSs (first-person shooters, arguably the most popular game genre) because of their playable and unconvoluted single-player and multi-player offerings.

While hardly a war “simulator,” the “Call of Duty” series is no stranger to innovations in immersion, which is the sensation that interactive media is best suited to exploit. While still basically one-man-army gameplay, the goal of “Call of Duty” has always been to fuse fast, cinematically paced, challenging gameplay with an atmospheric feeling of being in war.

The more recent “Modern Warfare” series, while dropping the WWII theme, kept to the same formula but breathed new life into “Call of Duty” and the FPS in general.

“Modern Warfare 2” is basically a refinement of the first installment, yet quite different. The core gameplay is consistent with previous games, but the campaign, while being much shorter, looks incredible. Never has a virtual world been so well rendered and not by raw processing power but by a genius attention to detail and realism. One memorable section has the player fighting through a rich suburb of Washington D.C. with shockingly detailed interiors. House interiors have been done in first person for a long time, but the level of detail slightly overwhelms the senses, in a good way, and fighting terrorists is like icing on the cake. One has to see the entire experience to believe it.

While the narrative fails badly at weaving anything like a satisfying, understandable storyline, this is to be expected. The plot is the most imbalanced and over-the-top yet. There is a stage early on in the game that stands out from “Call of Duty” and all of game history like a sore thumb. Remembering how deadly real this game looks, at an early stage the player assumes the role of an undercover operative in a small group of terrorists. “It will cost you a piece of yourself,” the player’s boss says, “but it will cost nothing compared to everything you’ll save.” The upcoming scenario is so severe that the game gives you the option to skip it altogether. But you won’t.

In this stage, no longer is the player confined to slaughtering your pick of Nazis, aliens or terrorists. The player and his or her cronies stroll into a crowded Moscow airport and shoot everyone. Even if the player doesn’t pull the trigger, the player can’t help them.

As the player walks out of the elevator, the player sees his or her comrades rip into a huge throng of screaming people with their assault weapons. The developers spared no expense in bringing this nightmare to life. The dynamic animations reacting to their surroundings, stumbling over bodies, running for dear life, hanging onto each other, and so much more. The amount of movement on-screen is impressive. It doesn’t matter if you’ve slain a billion virtual people and unconsciously assume yourself hardened to all virtual violence because regardless of the violence we witness in movies and elsewhere, there’s something about this section of “Modern Warfare 2” that morbidly realizes the previously unutilized emotional potential of interactive mediums. The problem lies in the fact that, when the disturbing part is over, the standard soldiers the player fights don’t seem any more realistic and much less so by comparison.

Something that’s always been admirable about “Call of Duty” gameplay is its balanced simplicity. While the multiplayer of “Modern Warfare 2” is mostly unchanged in its core mechanics, there are simply too many new “kill-streak” bonuses, like harrier jets and even a nuke that wins the game for the player’s team, and new items, the worst being a placeable automatic turret. They seem novel at first, but even if they were more balanced, they end up being a major distraction, and the player may end up wishing for a less-convoluted experience.

“Modern Warfare 2” is at least worth a rent. The campaign is a pleasant romp, despite its obtuse and confusing narrative. The other offerings are solid, but the realism and moral complexity of the airport scene are an isolated event.

3 1/2 out of 5