Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is the highly anticipated follow-up to Infinity Ward’s previous installment released back in November of 2007.  Modern Warfare quickly made its mark in the series by becoming the top-selling game worldwide for the year in 2007. That’s right, in less than two months it sold more copies than any other game that entire year and by May 2009, Modern Warfare had sold more than 13 million copies worldwide.  Not bad considering Activision didn’t even like the idea of setting a Call of Duty game in any other era than World War II.  Well that’s history and now it’s 2009 and we just got our hands on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.  All it really cost us was time spent in a line listening to some guy talk about how he was hit by a car and is now on workers compensation for the next few months.  I bring that up because after just minutes of playing Modern Warfare 2, I wish I was hit by a car so I could sit home and play this game. It’s that good!

Modern Warfare 2 continues the story arc with the events from part one as the foundation for the sequel.  Familiar faces appear again with several new additions such as my personal favorite Ghost. Scripted events and fast paced action continue to rock in the story, but beware...anyone who has seen a trailer for this game knows the war gets moved from their doorstep to ours and it takes a controversial event to make that happen. No longer are we fighting for an ideal held by our nation but rather the very lives of our American civilians, as our armies are forced to march on Washington, D.C. to reclaim our capital from the invasion appropriately titled “Red Dawn”.  New to the series are “Breach” moments as controlled explosions create an opening in the door allowing a slow motion take down of the enemies but make sure you avoid the traps and hostages.  The story is short, lasting only about 6 to 8 hours depending on your ability, but is filled with enough diversity and scripted events to keep the game moving fast which never feels dull. In interviews with Infinity Ward on which they comment about the game’s length, they said they wanted to focus on quality and not quantity.  I have to say the quality of this game is top notch.

Once the single player campaign is completed, gamers can move on to a new addition to the Modern Warfare franchise known as Spec Ops (Special Operations).  It's co-op or single player gameplay and it’s nothing more than cool events that Infinity Ward thought of but didn’t fit into the story.  This mode is just as fun as the rest of the game. Gamers can do everything from racing snowmobiles, to one person in an AC-130 providing air support to your friend on the ground as they make their way through the hostiles. As you complete more and more challenges, you unlock more and more events to play through. It’s a good way to supplement the short single player campaign.

The bread and butter of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is the multiplayer.  Some people are buying this game just for the multiplayer alone.  You can’t blame them.  The original Modern Warfare multiplayer redefined the online experience. It set standards so high that all other multiplayer platformers have failed to measure up to it since. I am calling you out Halo developers. Has Infinity Ward stepped up to the challenge this time around? Good News, Modern Warfare 2 did not let us down.  It took the already popular online gaming experience and built upon it, making it a much deeper and enjoyable online experience.   We have new levels to explore, new guns to play with, new attachments, and we get to choose what to use in our kill streaks. Prior to playing this game, one of my biggest concerns was in regards to the new kill streaks and perks. I was concerned that there would not be a balance between them, making the online matchups more difficult against those opponents who never sleep and eat, and breathe the multiplayer game. But Infinity Ward somehow found the balance between the casual gamer and hardcore gamers while maintaining a good level of competitiveness.  I would have been pissed if every online match I played ended with a nuke.  That’s after a kill streak of 25.

If our biggest complaint is that the single player campaign is only 6 to 8 hours and we want more, I say to Infinity Ward, “Job well done”. The game is outstanding and well worth the $60 price tag.  From the epic moments in the story, to the fun filled days of playing online against other people.  Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is poised to beat the first in sales and set some new records.  In the time it took to write this review, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has set the following records so far. The first day sales are in and the game earned $4.7 million, beating GTA4 at $3.6 million. In the first week it earned $310 million, beating Halo 3 at $300 Million.  Go out and pick up your copy today. This is truly one of those situations where the sequel is just as good if not better than the original.  For those of you who are considering buying it for PS3, beware, "the sudden influx of players has already proven too much for the PS3 version's online servers to handle." I would write some more, but I really want to get back and play.

I would like to request a moment of silence…a colleague of mine received the “red ring of death” on his XBox 360 after several hours of playing Modern Warfare 2.  Peace be with you my friend… Peace be with you.