Modern Warfare II - The Little Things Still Matter

If you played Modern Warfare 2019 for any length of time, then this game should feel very familiar to you. A direct sequel in every facet possible. While also taking the time to explore new and interesting experiences for both the single-player and multiplayer aspects of the game. Right now, that’s kind of all we have. Campaign, multiplayer, and a few spec ops missions for us to mess around. The real meat and potatoes, DMZ and Warzone, are not out yet. They will be arriving in a couple weeks, the 8th of November if I recall correctly. I could be wrong on that. So, for now, this is all we have to judge the game on. Realistically, anyone who’s talking about COD should wait until those modes are in the game before giving a score of any kind, but we know that’s now how this industry works. It should, but it doesn’t sadly, so I’ll begrudgingly play along. We know what to expect from Warzone, but DMZ has my interest fully peaked, and I hope it delivers and an interesting take of extraction-based shooters. But we won’t know until launch. In the meantime, how’s the new COD? It’s... complicated. It's got some issues, but overall, I’m happy with the 30-second loop of the game. At least in regards to multiplayer. The campaign was noticeably enjoyable, and the standout for me personally was the music. It’s a step up from the last few games, because I can’t remember any of the music except from the OG games. Which, I wasn’t incredibly impressed from the COD event showcase of Warzone. I might be in the minority here but Warzone was always marred by not having players tell a story by finding a gun they want to use, and having to build it from the ground up like other BR’s and especially like Blackout. The loadout system is interesting, but is very short lived once you know how to hit the money requirement to get a drop.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Multiplayer. It's fun. Most of the time. Right off the bat, the guns feel good to use, even stock. Which is saying something because in COD and even battlefield, what usually sucks the fun out of those experiences is having to unlock the basic attachments to make the weapons even function at a competent level. In MWII, most of them are actually fairly strong out of the gate. The AKs are the most noticeable example. The 7.62, 5.45, and the AKS all feel really fun and powerful. Their iron sights are simple so the need for an optic is lessened. Their damage is very consistent, and overall, I feel as though these weapons at least in the assault rifle category are safe bets if you’re looking for something reliable to use as you level up and earn more weapons. Speaking of, earning weapons is perhaps the most interesting it's ever been in COD. In this game, some guns are simply unlocked when you meet the level requirement. Easy enough, However, guns are now tied to others in regards to their lower receivers. But, to make it a little easier to explain, I say that guns are grouped into families. The M4 has a family of different 5.56 weapons. All the AKs are in the same family. And so, on. Now, if you want the M16, you need to unlock the 5.56 LMG, and then use that to a certain weapon level, which gives you access to the M16. If you want the AKS74 you need to unlock the 5.45 AK and use that for a while. But, in order to get that gun, you need to use the 7.62 AK which you get at level 23. It sounds really confusing I know, but if you look at the menu for maybe 10 minutes it makes sense. And the game tries to explain that to the player with this weapon tree screen, but it kind of falls flat. Not to mention it’s littered with bugs. Which brings me to my biggest complaint with MWII: the overwhelming number of little bugs that when added all together, completely mars the experience of the game.

This game has so many goddamn bugs, glitches, and things in the game that shouldn’t be there it’s baffling. I hope someone online is keeping track somewhere, because it’s too many to count. I can try to rapid fire off some here, but I won’t be able to get all of them. So, your chosen operator you want to showcase doesn’t show no matter how many times you change it, your rank can always be shown as level 1 even though you have been playing for a bit and are much higher than that, post-game XP always says 0 so you have no idea how much XP you actually earned, calling cards, emblems, and other showcase items don’t function as intended, the weapon tree screen won’t track your cursor correctly, and moves the screen to early so you can’t see the later unlocked items, you can get stuck in an infinite loop of searching for a match unless you reload the game, or switch to something like ground war and play a match so the search resets, and right now, the tune weapons feature is currently removed from the game because it crashes for some people. And probably my favorite one is that one of the optional skins for the operators doesn’t show their portrait, no. It shows a character from Modern Warfare 2019. That alone makes me question how much of this game is built potentially on an old 2019 build or something. Again, there’s so many more as well, but I feel as though that kind of gets the point across.

Now, these don’t break the game; it functions and the 30-second loop is still enjoyable and the COD we all know. But, it’s extremely disappointing when you want to do something really simple and the game just freaks and can’t figure itself out. And to be honest, the UI for a lot of menu elements is gross; doesn’t make sense, not coherent, and clunky. Going from one menu for another, I feel as though I might’ve gone too fast for the game and it’s going to crash. Which it has for me. Twice. Back-to-back. It’s frustrating, when I just want the game, I paid $75 for because next-gen tax is here and here to stay unfortunately, to function as it should. For most people, they may not have run into these issues, and that’s cool. But for, I see them everywhere, and as I’ve said in the past, it’s the little things that matter most sometimes. And these are indeed little things, but when added up together sours the experience as a whole. My hope is that these issues are known and get fixed sooner rather than later. But I think what bugs me the most is performance with the game. It’s difficult to explain, but when I play MWII, every so often my screen will flicker either just a pure white image or some other kind of image for maybe a frame, two frames max. So, it happens really quickly. But it’s constant. I don’t know if it’s an FOV thing, a driver thing, or again, just a bug with the game. But it’s probably the thing that bugs me the most with this game. On top of that, I have game stutters every once in a while, which manifest either as an actual freezing of the game for a moment, or where my character looks like is rubber banding just ever so slightly back to a previous position. I know, it’s hard to imagine what I am explaining, but if anyone else has had this happen you know what I’m talking about. And with a 3060, 32GB of ram, and an I9 processor, it’s not my framerate or the game looking like crap. It’s solid, but it’s something deeper, and I can’t figure it out, and it’s again, frustrating to say the least.

MWII is more of the same from 2019. Which isn’t a bad thing because I myself really enjoyed that multiplayer experience. I put a decent amount of time into it, and most likely will do the same with this game. There's enough new here to keep players happy whilst we wait for season one and the two huge modes to be released. My hope is that these issues that I’ve experienced and that others have most likely experienced as well, get addressed by the team, and the game gets better from here. Because very much like 2019, the foundation and the gameplay are really solid. I may have some things to say about how people play the game, but the core loop is excellent. I didn’t touch on the new perk system, but it’s alright. Two perks always active, and then you earn two more over the course of a match. Kind of interesting, but what confuses me is why earn them you join a game late and have them unlocked so you don’t lag behind other people in the match. Could've been done a different way, but at least they tried something new, you know? But these bugs, glitches and issues are not to be ignored by anyone who has happened upon them. It mars the game for everyone, and it’s a damn shame it’s happening in the first place. So, MWII is a good game with better bones. But the relationship between it and myself is complicated to say the least. The little things may not matter as much to you, which is fine, but to me, they are just as if not more important than the rest. I just hope it gets smoothened out overtime and the game flourishes into the COD we all want it to be. If you have any impressions and experiences of your own, you’d like to share, please leave a comment down below and be sure to subscribe for more videos about new games and topics we all find interesting. I hope to see you in future ones.