MW2 is undoubtedly my favorite Call of Duty campaign, and this remaster does a tremendous job of bringing the memorable scenes and gameplay scenarios I remember to contemporary consoles. MW2 stands out among the more cinematic Call of Duty games for its distinct environments—scuba-ing onto an oil rig; assaulting a castle, sniping from a helicopter; fighting through the streets of DC—the visual highs of the campaign are brilliant, and made more stunning by lighting upgrades in this remaster. The only complaint I have, and it seems minor, is that they made Veteran difficulty easier by creating a more forgiving AI... I rarely faced any challenges in my play-time, and when I did, they were still nothing compared to the same spots in the original game.

A stellar remaster of a classic campaign. MW was a groundbreaking campaign at the time and MW2 somehow managed to take things to a whole new level. Missions are more diverse taking you all the way from the favellas to offshore Russian oil rigs. This diversity is matched with the gameplay. Some encounters haven’t aged that well, but the mixture of intense gun fights underpinned by top notch gunplay, tense stealth sections and satisfying slow motion breaches keeps the campaign well paced. It took me a while to get into the story, but the twists and turns towards the end really helped invest me into finishing the job. There are many memorable set pieces and the voice acting is fantastic. Beenox have done a superb job at not only bringing the visuals up to current standards but adding extras like fun modifiers and a museum where you can walk through exhibits themed around different missions, vehicles and weapons.

It’s a shame that spec ops and multiplayer weren’t included in this package, but MW2 holds up surprisingly well in this remaster and it’d be great to see MW3 get the treatment further down the line to finish of this trilogy.

Veteran difficulty can still feel incredibly unfair sometimes with some abrupt difficulty spikes and the lack of a safeguard when handing out the fortunately plenty checkpoints, but this is still one of the more varied and interesting Call of Duty campaigns. Of course this doesn't mean the story isn't anything other than a backdrop for the outlandish stunts you pull to take place in, but the easter eggs you find know exactly how goofy these games kinda come across and play into that in a fun way (intel perks, golden deagle, trophies). This leaves a lot to be desired in terms of actual quality gameplay and artistic resonance, but it is still generally enjoyable. The remastered graphics look good though so I guess it might be easy to overlook for the most part.

EDIT: I fucked up the mission 'Loose Ends' and didn't realize that by letting the DSM get destroyed, it counts as a fail state. THREE attempts at the mission later and I got the trophy. Fuck those mortars. I feel bad, so I'll remove the half star rating.

Lowest possible score for this playthrough. The 'Immortal' trophy is a buggy piece of shit. Guess I'm going to have to play it for a third time. It's not even too hard, it's just so fucking tedious because I've played this game like a hundred times already. Fuming.

Modern Warfare 2 probably had the biggest shoes to fill in the series. Following up one of the most influential games of all time was a tall task and there was almost no way it could have lived up to that challenge. Now, almost 11 years later, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered is in a similar predicament but with significantly more pressure, given the 10 installments the series has had since. And this remastered version buckles underneath the weight of not only its most immediate predecessor, but also most of those 10 entries.

Read the full review here:
https://www.gamerevolution.com/review/642055-call-of-duty-modern-warfare-2-remastered-review-ps4