Answering the ‘Call’ - Military Video Games, computer games, games, gaming - Navy Times

Answering the ‘Call’

Let’s get right down to the heart of this thing — is “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2” an excellent first-person shooter? Yes. Should you run out and purchase it immediately, if you haven’t already? Yes.

Does it live up to the tectonic plate of hype that preceded its arrival? No.

MW2 is the video game equivalent of The White Stripes’ “Elephant” — a release all the experts assured you would be transcendent, but which, when actually experienced, wasn’t. Instead, it’s safe, predictable and conservatively delivers more of what made its predecessor great. Nothing wrong with that, but after all the anticipation, don’t expect your eyeballs to melt.

Experienced gamers entering “MW2’s” splendid multiplayer — which is the game’s most desirable feature — will be immediately at home with the navigation, weapons and controls from “Call of Duty 4.” The multiplayer boards are rendered with the same levels of light and detail as “COD 4,” so much so that the new “MW2” maps could’ve been expansion downloads for the earlier game.

As for the single-player campaign, it’s another stock yarn from the Tom Clancy/Larry Bond/Glenn Beck airport-paperback script bin, built around cool action experiences. You play as several special operators in a high-stakes game of “Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego,” jetting around the globe to neutralize tangos, capture high-value targets, etc.

Despite the silly story, “MW2’s” campaign was an improvement over “COD 4,” because it let you do a range of cool things from the very beginning. You’re the roof gunner in a Humvee; you scale a mountain with ice axes; you wield twin submachine guns; and you control a Predator unmanned aerial vehicle, all within the early levels. As in “COD 4,” however, even though you often operate with computer-controlled squad-mates, you can’t control them and you always have to do the lion’s share of the killing.

As for new features, they’re touches that veteran players will appreciate: You can immediately gear up with an assault rifle and a secondary weapon, such as a shotgun or a grenade launcher. You can get new perks after getting several kills in a row, including extra equipment in a “care package” dropped from a helicopter, and different types of air support, including a helicopter that kills bad guys by itself.

With all the time and success since “COD 4,” the designers couldn’t have challenged “Rainbow Six: Vegas 2,” for best lighting and textures on their maps? They couldn’t have tried to outdo “Halo 3: ODST” and incorporate ground vehicles and aircraft? (“MW2’s” multiplayer has none.) Couldn’t they at least have come up with some new phrases for the characters to shout when they reload or throw a grenade? (Nobody knows what those Russian guys are saying, but they’re still saying it in “MW2.”)

Apparently not. “COD 4” is the best-selling first-person shooter in history, and its formula appears to have been considered so perfect that designers didn’t want to make any changes.

“Modern Warfare” is now the franchise standard-bearer, and its creators need their golden goose to keep on laying.

Ah, well — if all you can complain about is getting a steady stream of golden eggs, that’s a pretty good state of affairs.

Fight at night

Activision and game developer Infinity Ward have created what could be the ultimate collector’s bonus for a special edition of the new “Modern Warfare 2,” which comes with a pair of working night-vision goggles. We wondered whether this enormous black box was worth the steep premium, and the answer is: Yes, kind of.

The basic game will set you back $60. The “Prestige Edition” goes for about $300, and that extra $240 buys a “hardened edition” — which is to say, it comes in a metal rather than a plastic box — a “behind-the-scenes concept art book”; a “goggle stand” in the shape of a plastic head; and the night-vision goggles.

The “goggle stand” head, which you must snap together, is a likeness of one of the main characters in MW2’s campaign, and one of the silliest things you’ve ever seen. The “art book” is a collection of glossy screenshots. Classic “deluxe edition” fluff.

The NVGs , on the other hand, are surprisingly cool. I could see clearly in darkness indoors and get better situational awareness outdoors after dark. The goggles have a light-enhancing monocular that projects its image onto a display in the headset, and you can set them to show natural light or a green filter.

But make no mistake — your team won’t be getting these for your next deployment. The screen inside the goggles eliminates all depth perception, and my co-workers found it amusing when I lurched and stumbled from one end of our newsroom to the other in NVG mode. The instructions are full of caveats about when not to use the NVGs, including: “NEVER use goggles as a life-saving device.”

So if you’re willing to shell out for a kid who’s been reeaaaally good this year, the MW2 “Prestige Edition” does not disappoint.