Sacrificing it's predessessor's "realistic but epic" feel in return for a totally ridiculous plot was an excellent decision, at least in my opinion. The campaign improves on every aspect, the characters are more memorable, the levels more interestingly designed, the enemies less annoying while not being a total cakewalk. The combat is far more agile and exciting, the guns are overall much more consistently fun to experiment with, and while this is kinda just a "dumb military shooter" it strips the foundations that its predessesor laid to radically improve the formula.

"No Russian" is polarising for good reason, you feel awful during this level regardless of whether you pull the trigger, its a massive contrast with the goofy b-movie tone of the rest of the game but its an excellent exploration of Makarov's character. Its not the peak of videogame storytelling but it gets the job done. Meanwhile "Cliffhanger" or "The Only Easy Way..." feel straight out of a 60s Bond movie, they're fun, fast and while not shy from being corny help sell the over the top world of MW2. The missions in America are definitely the weakest, but they serve their purpose, and felt much less like accidental glorification than the middle east missions in MW1.

Overall this delivers as a genuinely fun, varied and creative military shooter, and while I'm very aware of its flaws I can look past them to acknowlege this is just a damn good time. Even if its only about 4-5 hours long.