The first Modern Warfare was a hard act to follow as evidenced by the lukewarm reception of World at War. Who better to do it than Infinity Ward? Following a great act doesn't necessarily mean improving upon it however.
The story of MW2 is quite convoluted and outrageously hard to follow, especially if you didn't play the first story. While the first one made good use of the disparate characters to tell one cohesive story, this time it seems that IW tried to tell three different stories at once. Sure they all sort of tie in, but not in any sort of way that's easy to care about. Also there are some scenes that feel as if they were just put there to try and one-up MW which just leaves you wondering why that happened.
The gameplay is far more intense than the predecessor and the scripted events really help to sell the desperation of the various situations. There always seemed to be something going on at which I wanted to look. Control is tight and immediately familiar making providing the double edge of making the game feel like an extension rather than a sequel.
For most though, all the shine is coming from the multiplayer. This stands as the biggest change to the game. CoD4 and World at War vets will find all the modes immediately accessible and familiar while glorying in the new perks and a larger variety of kill everyone, grab the thing modes. A welcome newcomer is the Spec Ops mode where you and a friend cooperatively complete some mission ripped from the game. It's quite fun to go through an area with a friend that you took solo the first time around and see how your friends go about laying waste to everything wearing red.
Overall, I'm a bit disappointed by the heavy-handedness of the story mode and would have preferred a more natural story flow. Also, it seems weird to me that about half-way through the story *MILD SPOILER* a different bad guy pops up and suddenly everyone is no longer mad at the original bad guy. And no one seems interested in him anymore. *SPOILER OVER* Situations like that that are clear sequel setups anger me.
The multiplayer is something that even the most jaded players can enjoy though, providing some decent justification for the rest of the box.
If I had to give it a number, I think I'd say 8.5ish.
Played on Xbox 360. Beat story mode on Hardened difficulty.
