Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Remastered Review

"It Hits Home Again"

Campaign

May 3, 2020 at 12:46am
By Jason Stettner

The well loved action packed campaign returns, as a standalone release. This is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, back and better than ever before while being by its lonesome. This remaster leaves behind the multiplayer and Spec Ops for just the single player content. Jump into the shoes of Task Force 141 along with other perspectives in this global campaign. The conflict has never been larger as various situations lead to mounting tensions between The United States and Russia leading way to a full scale conflict.

You’re running in the background working against this for the most part, while engaging in various smaller slices of conflict. The title certainly has aged a bit, and that’s very present within the missions. They’re definitely grand in scale, yet very linear and straight forward. Going back to slices they seem like little set pieces out of an action movie. There’s not necessarily a whole lot of meat to them, and they go by fairly quickly.

It’s still a grand time, but not at the level we’re used to today, that’s for sure. You do get some difficulty choices, and intel to hunt for as collectibles. When you do finish the game there are some extras, but that’s really all there is to this one and it wasn’t as long as I recall it being back in the day. It’s definitely still a deep tale, but not one that has the same impact at this point in time.

Gameplay

This is very much your typical Call of Duty experience when it comes to movement. It’s not quite as in-depth as it is today in how you interact, and more about constant running while gunning. It’s a series of quick segments and then pushing forward. There are some nifty extras to take advantage of such as akimbo weapons and heartbeat monitors. There are neat breach points where everything goes slow which is interesting, and many cutscene-like moments of intense action.

The levels are linear, but the style of play is constantly changing as you progress. Go from shooting, to driving snowmobiles or even rappelling down. You’ll witness massive backdrop areas from iconic global locations, and a sense of depth within those very environments. When it comes to the visuals the overhaul is stunning. It’s a great upgrade, backed by excellent fluidity.

Other boosts aside from improved textures include touched up animations and physically based rendering. The inclusion of HDR support is also welcomed, with each scene feeling livelier than ever. Those darkly lit segments with brightened skies stand out even more now. It’s seriously a step up, taking what I considered to be largely clean and bright colors initially.

To take that, and make them have a nice gritty edge, while retaining that unique palette. It works beautifully, and it’s very impressive to take in. Every moment is insane in terms of quality, and depth to that style as well. The character models are also seriously a step up from their original versions.

The Conclusion

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Remastered is a great upgrade to the campaign, at the same time this does come across as limited with it missing two huge components of what the game so unique upon its initial release. That of course being the multiplayer and Spec Ops.

I’m reviewing this as is being an individual campaign, at the same time it would have been more compelling to get it all or at least the Spec Ops as I imagine that content will now just be lost to time. This is still an excellent narrative driven action game, with many stand out moments. It features some grand surprises, and I will mention that No Russian wasn’t quite as shocking this time around.

Almost felt cartoonish in its delivery, and that’s some of the game. It hasn’t necessarily aged as well as the other entries in terms of level design and presentation. It was still an easy to play time in terms of being enjoyable. It has some difficulty options, and collectible intel to gather if you’re looking for more out of the experience.

Read our Modern Warfare Review
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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Remastered Review on Xbox One X
Review Code Provided by Activision

Rating Overall: 7.5