The plot may be Tom Clancy lite, but boy is this slick!
Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare II (PlayStation, Xbox, PC, £59.99) Verdict: The artistry of war ★★★★✩
SUIT up, soldier. It’s not just time for another Call Of Duty release; it’s time for another Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare II.
There was a game that went by the same name — albeit with a number 2 instead of a roman numeral — back in 2009.
This new one isn’t a remake, nor even a retread. It’s more a riff on the original’s themes.
Or perhaps ‘themes’ is too grand a word. Basically, this one will have you taking out a lot of bad dudes — again.
It will give you a story made out of scraps of paper from Tom Clancy’s bin — again. It will want you to believe that grown men go by names like ‘Ghost’ — again.
If this makes Modern Warfare II sound unimaginative, well, in some ways, it is.
There’s a formula to all Call Of Duty games and especially to the Modern Warfare line. Shooting. Spectacle. Special forces. It never changes.
But, in other ways, there’s a whole lot of imagination on display here.
As a mixture of sight and sound, this game is impeccable.
And while there’s nothing to match the terrible majesty of the nuclear explosion in the very first Modern Warfare, there are still a dozen sequences that will invade your long-term memory — from a cafe raid in Amsterdam to a slipslide-y gunfight aboard a boat tossed by rough seas.
And then, of course, there are the game’s various multiplayer modes, which are more generous here — in both number and quality — than ever before. The formula is close to being perfected.
Bring on what will no doubt be called Modern Warfare Two in ten years’ time.