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Its failure is felt most keenly in the part of the game that quickly became the most controversial: "No Russian," a short level in the first third of the game. It's a messy, ugly little game, as mesmerizing as it is infuriating.
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Modern Warfare 2 had the unenviable job of crafting a sequel directly out of that narrative, and, possibly as a result of that choice, it fails to cohere as any sort of narrative.
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It manages to build authentic dread and disempowerment into what could have been straightforward jingoism, and in the process creates a game that reads as a satire of the early War on Terror, with the heroic frenzy of the game's early segments quickly devolving into confusion and disaster. Which showcases how strange a relic of its era Modern Warfare 2 truly is.Īs mired in American military adoration as it is, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is a game deserving of at least a little praise. It's an eminently competent, well-done remaster that makes the game feel like a contemporary release. Recently, it got a fresh coat of paint, with Activision releasing a fully remastered version of the game's campaign on PlayStation 4, and then later on Xbox One and PC. Released 11 years ago, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is the sequel to the original Modern Warfare, which turned the military action series into a juggernaut by shifting its attention from World War II to the present, reconfiguring its play around the technology and concerns of early-2000s American military culture. In a game known for reckless action, it's a brief and convincing stretch of horror. For this brief stretch, you never know who's going to be a friend and who's going to be an enemy. Your commanding officer pauses every time he sees movement ahead, shouting out a code word to try to identify friend from foe. Wrecked aircraft litter the ground, and you creep through the night uneasily.
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