Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Single-Player Review - IGN

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’s campaign is a lackluster follow-up to its refined predecessor, saved by its best-in-class shooting.

[FallenAngel1984]

Campaigns are the only reason I play any Call of Duty

Such a shame to hear this has an underwhelming one

[Jin_Sakai]

I play for the multiplayer but having a good campaign is a nice addition. GameSpot give it an 8/10.

Edit: After reading the IGN comments nearly everyone disagrees with the review and most say they’d give it and 8 to 8.5.

[RaidenBlack]

Its a 7.5 ~ 8 campaign

[SyntheticForm]

I really enjoyed this campaign and couldn't disagree more with his assessment of Alone. That mission was extremely tense and the mic banter was also great.

[senorfartcushion]

I’d give it a 7.5. It’s long for a cod campaign, which is good, but a large chunk of that is bumming about. Walking and talking or on computer screens. Hardly any mission consists of uninterrupted gunplay. That’s why it’s a 7.5 and not an 8.

[OptimusDK]

I guess they are deducting the XBOX tax now

[qazitam67]

I will go with a 7.49876 out of 10

[Profchaos]

Check out the comments and competing sites the cast majority disagree with the score and points raised in the review.

[Newmanator]

Don’t listen to this. This is the first campaign I’ve finished in ages. Loved it.

[EvertonFC]

The campaign is fine fella, I've played it, a solid 7/10

[MaximusTKG]

Have you played it yet? Ive played every campaign since the original in 2000. This is definitely one of the better campaigns. I would take this review and throw it out the window and try for yourself. I agree there may be no ringer of a level, but the whole body of work is much better than it has been in years.

[ARESWARLORD]

play it Fallen it's great

[gamer9]

I typically hate cod campaigns and don't play them, but thanks to the 1 week early i gave this a try. It was good. Everyone except IGN is giving it an 8/10 or 9/10.

[z2g]

I just played the campaign all weekend (pre-order early access) and honestly I was surprised by this review. I felt the campaign was actually pretty good, the presentation is excellent (played on series x for ref) and the voice acting and story are good imo. The weapons and gunplay also feel as great as ever.

It doesn’t do anything groundbreaking but I too usually just play th campaigns, and if you like COD campaigns in general, this one fits right in.

[Noxxicity]

It's not underwhelming. It was really fun. I don't even play CoD for the campaigns and this one was super cool. Really interesting, good graphics, satisfying gunfire. I give it an 8.5 at least!

[vallencer]

Save yourself the money this time around for sure. I'm almost done with the campaign myself and it hasn't been an enjoyable one. The mission they've shown off in the trailers with the car jumping was probably the biggest slog of a mission that was seemingly designed to be fast pace. I think most people in comments of places give it such a high rating because it's infinity ward. Or at least just wait for it to hit a good sale which knowing activision will probably be black friday or soon after.

Edit: Just to add I think the reason a lot of people probably also enjoy it is because of nostalgia. A few missions hearken back to the days of of MW2.

[BlackOni]

If you like COD for the campaign, there aren't a lot of things to find or unlock in it, but it's so fun!

[CantThinkOfAUsername]

It's not underwhelming but not as good as MW2019.

[victorMaje]

I’ve played my share of cod campaigns, especially the MWs, they’re my favorites, then this one the other day at a friend’s on PS5. Trust me when I say it’s fun. We had a blast. Strong 8.

[CaptainHenry916]

IGN is starting to realize this franchise is getting stale and fatigue with these yearly releases

[GamingSinceForever]

I think it’s safe to say that as long as the multiplayer is on point this franchise is no where near stale. 90% focus on MP only.

[SullysCigar]

92.47% of facts are made up on the spot.

[senorfartcushion]

The person who loved cod and reviewed them highly left ages ago

[DaniMacYo]

I just finished it and I actually like it. It’s a lot of fun and I think overall it’s better than 1’s campaign. 8.0 I think.

[Flawlessmic]

I finished it and thought it was great, easily an 8 for me, not sure where ign pulled a 6 from.

[Npugz7]

Don’t listen to IGN they are the biggest dog shit company for reviews. The campaign was very well done and anyone I know who has played it has said it was awesome.

[senorfartcushion]

It was awesome but it’s rare for a AAA game to get less than a 7.9 from IGN. We should encourage harsher reviews for the long term benefit

[TheEnigma313]

They've run out of ideas for COD and don't know what to do.

[CaptainHenry916]

Facts but a lot of gamers are in denial

[Chris12]

Or those gamers are not lemmings and make their own minds up whether they enjoy the game. Look at the overwhelming positive comments in this article, are you suggesting everyone is in denial?

[CaptainHenry916]

@Chris12

And next year it will be the same $hit

[CrimsonWing69]

Or there’s a new generation of gamers who never experienced what we’ve experienced? 🤷‍♂️ You have to take into account that this is the first COD game for some.

[MIDGETonSTILTS17]

It clearly has DLC in mind.

This 1st part felt like a demo for all of the game mechanics possible in Warzone 2, so I hope the DLC 2nd part is more focused on being new and different, like the OG MW campaign….

[jznrpg]

Of course it has DLC in mind . CoD is a cash cow type of game . Why it gets the $ it does is beyond me but people will pay for MTs DLC every single year with no issues at all. Some of the same people will complain about a 70$ game but will pay a couple hundred on this one game.

[ocelot07]

Not a fan of cod campaigns in recent times other than cold war and mw. Likes of vanguard, black ops 3, ghost where all poor. Cod 2, 3, 4, world at war, blops where decent.

So far am enjoying MW2. It's not great but it's not mediocre like ign say. It's a 7.5 at the least imo.

[ShadowWolf712]

Naaah Vanguard's campaign was the best aspect of it.

[Shiro173]

I'll give it a solid 8 to 8.5 no way is this campaign a 6.

[jznrpg]

I don’t like reviews really. I just buy what I like or believe I will like and decide from there . I don’t buy CoD very often because I don’t think I will enjoy it for full price as I don’t play Multiplater at alll . I do occasionally buy one when they are like 5-10$ to play the campaign but I haven’t in a few years .

[Extermin8or3_]

This games campaign is easily an 8 every day kf the week.

[Father__Merrin]

All COD campaigns are pretty good it's a nice bonus this is where battlefield 2042 went wrong

I've just bought the cross gen version for £43 roll on 28th

[MIDGETonSTILTS17]

So much of this campaign was done in other games already:

1) The best missions were callbacks to previous MW campaigns.
2) The car chase was an inferior recreation of 3-4 different car chases across Uncharted 2-LL, and the upside down part was done in LoU Uncharted 4 (basically).
3) The moving cargo containers were already done in Uncharted 2&3
4) the safe cracking and backpack crafting were already done better in LoU 1&2
5) several parts felt like a tutorial for Warzone 2, such as vehicle hijacking and rappelling. I would’ve preferred to get setpeices that were more organic, such as the OG nuke scene.

MW2 was a good campaign, but not a great one. I hope the DLC next year is more…. ambitious.

[Elda]

Picking up my copy Friday for the campaign only.

[jznrpg]

I may pick it up also but not until next year when it’s in the bargain bin

[SPEAKxTHExTRUTH]

I completely disagree with score. I’ve completed the campaign and I’d give it a solid 8 easily.

[ARESWARLORD]

IGN I fully disagree with your low review score. The campaign is awesome and I recommend that people don't miss out playing it.

8.5 / 10 in my opinion

[anast]

So, it's a 3. I hope IGN continues to rail against these mundane yearly entries.

[z2g]

Hmmmafter playing the campaign all weekend from early access, I am surprised by this review. I’m not saying it’s the greatest campaign, but I thought it was actually pretty good.

[BlindMango]

It’s a shame, the first like 5 or 6 missions were great, then it’s like another crappy writer stepped in and said “I’ll be ruining this now!”

Ah bad writing, a recent plague on the gaming industry

[coolbeans]

It's not a recent plague. lol

[BestBusdriver]

Reviews are not what the used to be... take Gotham Knight...I love it...and most of the reviewers not. I think if you liked the other cod, you will also like this one.

[Traecy]

I'm enjoying Gotham Knights as well.

[Orchard]

Not sure how they got to a 6 for this. Having completed the campaign, it was a pretty fun experience. More like an 8.5-9 for me.

[aaronaton]

A 9?? Half life 2 and MGS3 are a 9. This is a straight 6.

[Orchard]

Personally I would put HL2 and MGS3 at 10/10. Those are examples of perfect games IMO.

[StarkR3ality]

I'd give it an 8, defo not the best one, but that score is a joke considering the amount of other lacklustre CoD's they have given 9+ for.

IGN is losing nearly all credibility, can't even review a CoD right 😅

[RCslayer]

Activision didn't write a cheque to IGN this year.

[CantThinkOfAUsername]

No company has, it appears. They're throwing many non-7s around.

[Npugz7]

Do not listen to this garbage review by IGN! This is probably the best campaign in the cod series I do t k ow what the reviewer was smoking they are obviously cod haters.

[Ninjamonkey82]

Ign is way off in this review imo.

[patterson]

Not surprised.

IGN helping Microsoft downplay CoD so they can go to the CMA and say, “See! Call of Duty sucks! So let us buy it for $70 billion.” 😂

[badz149]

so...the gameplay is sublime, graphics is great, but the story is not that great / generic, thus 6/10??

I wonder why Nintendo's games are not held to the same standard.

[Abear21]

COD is such annual filler it mine as well reside on Gamepass, destined to become FTP. Can Sony just revitalize Killzone already and bring back the glory days of the multiplayer FPS?! TDM and CTF shit, is this game design really that hard? Or just to too hard to resist micro transactions and F’ing the consumer with Seasons Passes and Boosts. Another year, same shit different toilet.

[metalhead]

I beat it on Veteran. It’s a good game and exciting story. Not sure why IGN is crapping on COD now but I actually thought this story was better than Vanguard

[aaronaton]

Who writes these games? Just absolutely mediocre cliche anti Russia/China tropes. Is it too much to ask for someone to write a game a good as say (any game in the Metal Gear Universe)

[HeliosHex]

Dam. Guess it's hard to out do mw 1 and 2.
Such a waste of phenomenal graphics.