Modern Warfare 2: The Emperor’s new clothes?
Please allow me to share my point of view on this subject that has been the subject of many days of playing, talking and observation.
First of all let me share my hypothesis, it can be summarised as follows:
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is analogous to Hans Christian Andersons – The Emperor’s New Clothes.
What do I mean? For those that are not familiar with the short story, …
An Emperor who cares for nothing but his wardrobe hires two weavers who promise him the finest suit of clothes from a fabric invisible to anyone who is unfit for his position or “just hopelessly stupid”. The Emperor cannot see the cloth himself, but pretends that he can for fear of appearing unfit for his position or stupid; his ministers do the same. When the swindlers report that the suit is finished, they dress him in mime and the Emperor then marches in procession before his subjects. A child in the crowd calls out that the Emperor is wearing nothing at all and the cry is taken up by others. The Emperor cringes, suspecting the assertion is true, but holds himself up proudly and continues the procession. … (Source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emperor’s_New_Clothes)
At present I feel like the child in the story, simply because this game that has broken all sales records (4.7 million copies and raking in an estimated $310 million in North America and the United Kingdom alone just does not match its billing.
Let me put this into context, I loved the first game played through twice on PC then bought it on PS3 and really enjoyed the jump in quality and cinematic depth. When I heard that the sequel was in development I was very excited. To that end I was out there in the cold come November 10 and again was one of the frst to get a copy on the night.
At this point I had some reservations about the gargantuan levels of hype surrounding this title but felt that its pedigree afforded it some slack. Reservations? No public beta, some modes that seemed to appear in the last month or so (Special Ops and 3rd Person) and no real talk of innovation.
Let me take you on a journey, September 1987, Second Year of Secondary School and the discovery that a new arcade machine had arrived in the shop near our school. That game was “Operation Wolf’ and my introduction to storybased shooters.
Looking back we have come a long way and there have been many landmark titles for me including Half-Life, Black, Modern Warfare and Killzone 2. Each of these titles despite lacking the media muscle of MW2 each delivered ground-breaking features whether they be graphics, gameplay, AI, environments and an evolutionary succession to the previously available titles.
I sat down at about 2:00am to play MW2 along with a friend, waited for the customary install and an update and then it began. The introductory trailer was okay, yet it contained lots of clips from the first game, then time for some screen calibration. I always play the single-player campaign before venturing into the multiplayer offerings. So here we go, >New Game >Veteran.
The training sets the tone for much of the single player experience and beyond with one trigger buttons targetting the next opponent and the other firing off a shot. The locations in the game are we designed and the game is frantic from the start the animations are good but after a few hours of playing seem a little repetitive. The lighting is awesome and in many cases disguises what appears to me to be a degradation in texture quality. Getting shot excessively splatter the screen with what looks like jam or syrup and this single feature causes more problems than many of the enemies.
The enemies are plentiful on Veteran, but feel a bit dumbed down compared to World at War and even Modern Warfare. Whilst the game is far from easy, it quickly reverted into a get to the next checkpoint exercise, dying once or twice is typically enough to work out where the enemy is and what to do to get by. The enemies run about and display a series of actions but again they lack a believable organic feel. There is always a sense of urgency but not a feeling of peril. The various enemies stack up like cannon fodder for a experiencced player. Just as you are getting a feel for the environment and the character the level ends and you are thrown into a new mission. The first game had me playing far too long, always wanting to get to the next act.
Back to the Emperor’s New Clothes – Speaking to people the next day many hadn’t bought it yet those who had waxed lyrical, 10/10, brilliant game, the best game ever. But I could not see it, over the next few days I played Spec ops, Multiplayer and more campaign, each day comparing comments and discussing the merits of MW2 with a range of people with their view strengthening that this was indeed the best game (FPS) ever.
My experience was that the Special Ops mode was good, in fact very good with a personal tendancy to play this mode predominantly. The Multiplayer mode was great fun but very similar to the first one. The commonly used phrase of run and gun being possible but not all that you will see online.
I was left feeling cheated, the disappointment of a broken promise, but why what was missing? After careful consideration I came to the following conclusions:
1. The popularity of MW2 has little to do with its quality, rather its scale and accessibility. By this I mean that what makes MW2 such an interesting phenomenon is the fact that so many people have it simultaneously, my friends list was a wash with MW2, every time I went on-line for the first week after launch. It was almost as if no other game existed. The implications of this are point 2.
2. The ability to shoot large numbers of your friends and evidence your gaming skill during 1 game is a massive lure, to have the best K/D ratio, to win the most games, to have the longest killstreak all afford you bragging rights. The game itself is not important, or in other words it is not the particular game that matters, and the reason why I still occasionally load up Counter-Strike.
3. The game could easily have been launched as a on-line only game like Battlefield 1943 since the large majority of players care little for the campaign mode.
4. When asking players to name 2 things about the game that made it great, many people struggled. None mentioned the campaign although there was the challenge for who could complete it quickest on Veteran.
5. Another group would always seek my opinion first, and when I said I thought it could have been better some agreed saying they thought it was just them. This is what lead me to my articles title, I felt that a certain degree of social conditioning was taking place.
In the first 4 days there were 4 updates, good turnaround from the guys at Infinity Ward but I just wonder if they would have been able to fix these issues pre-launch with a public beta. The development team obviously missed the issues that the updates addressed. It started to feel like Microsoft launching a new OS, get it out there and then fix it. This reminded me of the fact that the original MW had its share of problems at launch. Back to feeling cheated, a game with such a large development budget and that in fact set another precedent by increasing its price didn’t take the time to get their product right.
I wonder if the lack of a public beta was a part of the illusion and lure. No-one could play and decide before launch whether or not they liked the game.
The third person mode, who asked for it? (not sure) What does it add to the experience? (In my view nothing)What have they done better this time around? (promotion)Is it the game of the year? (No)
So to the end of my article and I firmly assume the role of the child in the story outlined earlier and unashamedly announce “MW2 it is not all that”.
