Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is considered to be the cream of the crop for Call of Duty fans since its release in 2009, and it’s regarded so highly for good reason. It’s one of the best games the franchise has to offer with one of the best campaigns and a great multiplayer. It’s among my favorite Call of Duty games. So the second entry in the brand new Modern Warfare series has a lot to live up to, especially since it has the same name. But does it live up? 

The campaign is mediocre. It does not significantly change the classic formula of going to one place, fighting a bunch of enemies, and repeating until they decide to put in something fun. Those parts are really fun but they’re so infrequent that they feel like a breath of fresh air when they do happen. The story is pretty interesting, involving the cartel hiding a terrorist, and it’s up to you to find him. It also suffers many performance issues, occasionally crashing and problems with textures failing loading in.

The multiplayer is why most people buy Call of Duty games, so this should be the best part of the game. At times it can feel slightly slow compared to Modern Warfare from 2019. My main complaint is that the maps are far too big and the size of the teams is too small to keep the gameplay fast-paced and entertaining. The maps are visually unappealing and super empty. There are only a few maps in the base multiplayer so variety is leaving a lot to be desired.

The movement is super good having both the dolphin dive and the slide which is really fun and nice to have. The controversial skill-based matchmaking returns with some enjoying it and some hating it. Personally, I like not getting steamrolled by a guy who plays like his life depends on it but I get why people aren’t a fan. I also really like all the weapons. They feel much more balanced than Modern Warfare 2019 which really suffered from unbalanced weapons.

The system used to level up the weapons is really bad. You have to level up other weapons to unlock attachments for the weapon you actually want to use. I fully leveled up a weapon with gold unlocked and I only have about 3 attachments of each category unlocked because I didn’t want to have to use weapons I didn’t like just so I can use the one I wanted to use in the first place. If you’re a person who enjoys grinding to get the mastery camos, you’ll probably like this game. It’s probably easier to get the camo here than in any other COD. The Ground War mode is boring and could have easily been left out of the game. It’s the worst mode in the game and seems like a half-baked afterthought from the developers.

Overall this year’s Call of Duty is really fun but it’s held down by a bunch of little problems that all together hold the game back from being a really good entry in the franchise. Despite its faults, I would definitely say that it’s worth your time especially if you have friends to play with.