srirachha15
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evilresident
2 days ago
srirachha15
reviewed
Unit 13
It's a PS Vita game but it's a ton of fun. I miss old-school shooters like these. The different approaches you can take on certain missions give it a good amount of replayability too. I'd give this one a try.
2 days ago
srirachha15
reviewed
Overwatch 2: Season 6 - Invasion
I had fun with this season. The story missions may not have been up to par with the original vision, but the fact that they're here is a game changer, as it's one of the biggest factors that differentiate this game from Overwatch 1. I played the Underworld event and thought the mission was great. The $15 DLC also seemed worth it with the amount of content present. It's a step in the right direction for Overwatch 2. We love to see it.
2 days ago
srirachha15
reviewed
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III
This review is my impressions on the game from launch to December of 2023.
This game is the definition of mid. The campaign is overhated and kinda good, but the ending kinda shits the bed. The multiplayer is pretty good but it feels overly familiar and the SBMM bullshit is getting old. The Zombies is just bad. Like actually trash. The next-gen copies of the game don't even get a platinum trophy, like MAKE THAT MAKE SENSE.
Let's start with the campaign. I think it is WAYYYYYY BETTER than MWII. There's actual stakes, it's paced well, and juggles all of its different plot threads mostly well. I think the open-combat missions are okay. They aren't as bad as everyone says it is but you can definitely tell they got lazy with them. This game was rushed to hell and it really shows here. They're fun to play through the first time but there's no replay value to them and it's just a cheap way to not make more high-budget linear missions. I was playing through the Gora Dam mission and thinking to myself "man, this really should've been a linear mission of some sort". I don't think the open-combat missions are the biggest problem with the game. I think some of the writing here is really generic. Makarov's introduction felt cheap. After saving him, there's a cutscene where he executes one of his soldiers for "not trusting his plan" when he still showed up to break him out? Some people have pointed out that it's because he didn't stall an enemy chopper during the escape, but Makarov of all people should know that mistakes happen right? Anyways, that guy gets executed because Makarov is evil muhahahahah. Really cringe. There's also a moment in the beginning where a civilian Farah talks to gets killed immediately after she talks about how Farah kept her safe? There's another moment where Ghost and Soap, once again, suck at interrogation at the end of the Oligarch mission and it creates probably one of the most awkward cutscenes in the entire game. Who hired Ubisoft writers for these scenes? Other than those few hiccups, the rest of the plot is fine. There was stuff constantly happening and I found the Shepherd subplot to be handled surprisingly well. I also think, despite his motivations not being entirely fleshed out, that the new Makarov has the potential to be really good. He had some moments where he absolutely stole the show. The flashback mission may have been a bit rushed, but all the Makarov scenes in it was great. The new actor gives the guy a charismatic presence of sorts and I don't know, his character just worked for me. The plot works, all the characters feel like they have a role to play, and the story was mostly well-written. Even the ending. I think the death was executed perfectly and it was a cool way to get the players hooked. My issue with the game isn't the ending itself, but the fact that IT JUST ENDED THERE. IT DOESN'T FEEL FINISHED. It felt like there was a whole third act to this game that they couldn't finish, so they added as many stakes as possible and padded out the runtime with open-combat missions to have something to push out by launch, and that's a real fucking shame. It's cheap and pathetic, because they're just trying to get you to buy another mediocre COD game just to see how it ends. It put a really shitty taste in my fucking mouth and despite the ride still keeping me hooked, the conclusion of it just made the whole thing feel underwhelming. I still don't think this is the shortest COD campaign though. It may have been because I sucked at a couple open-combat missions, but on Regular, it took me 6 hours, taking my time with it. If I was B-lining through it though, I could see it being 4 and a half to 5 hours. I don't find the length to be the problem more than I find the ending to be a problem. Cold War's campaign was shorter, I beat that campaign on Regular in less than 4 hours. To be fair, that campaign has more replay value to it due to the multiple endings, side missions, puzzles, and calling card challenges, but even then it was probably the shortest COD campaign ever. Yet no one complained about that one. Y'all need to relax. This campaign, despite its flaws, is still a 6.5-7/10 for me. Still enjoyable, still worth playing, just not for $70.
Multiplayer. This one makes me sad. The War mode is fun, despite there only being one map for it. I also enjoy the overall gunplay, perk system, and all of the changes made here. Some of the best design choices made in the last 5 years. However, despite its strengths, there's two things bogging it down: SBMM and the fact that there's zero new maps. Yes, there's a ton of maps at launch, and all of them are remakes of OG MW2 maps. One one hand, it's great not only because of nostalgia, but because one of these games finally have a good map catalog. The problem? All of the maps are familiar, so there's nothing here that feels new, and you start to slip into COD fatigue. Other than High Rise and Skidrow, none of these maps feel fresh to me anymore. And on top of that, SBMM. It's getting really fucking old. Not only that, but the SBMM here is Cold War-strong. I don't know when Activision will learn that this shit fucking sucks. Why won't they just drop Ranked Play at launch? It literally boggles my mind. Overall, it just felt old. We need more original maps. Meat and Greece in Season 1 were good. We need more of that. The events have been great though. I like the quantity of events being put out. I just don't think it's enough. More original maps please. For War mode too. The Ground War is really fun as always though.
Zombies. Fuck this mode. It's not the worst thing in the world and there is some fun to be had, like taking out mercenaries and leading zombies towards a stronghold. But almost all of its pros outside of that come from DMZ. DMZ died for this mode by the way, and it's way worse. They just used the upcoming Warzone map as the main map and FORGOT TO TAKE OUT DMZ ASSETS FROM THE MODE. You can still find stashes with the AQ flag and most of the sellable items you pick up are the exact same from DMZ. They didn't even bother renaming or reskinning them. It's super lazy and unfun because it just doesn't feel like Zombies. The game makes you complete a ton of tedious tutorial objectives before letting you even play through the story. You can skip it and go into the new Aether Rift area if you want, but you'll be missing out on story stuff. AND THE WORST PART??? YOU CAN'T EVEN FINISH SOME OF THEM BECAUSE THEY'RE FUCKING BUGGED. IT'S ABSOLUTELY FUCKING RIDICULOUS. And if you're not interested on story content, all there is for you to do is do contracts and exfil, which gets really old really fast. The schematics are all RNG so there's a chance you can grind all the way into the red zone and still get nothing. A lot of it just feels like it's more trouble than its worth. They need to do a serious overhaul or I really don't see this mode getting any better.
Finally, the Warzone. I think this part of the game is spot on. I like the new Urzikstan map (it plays better here than in Zombies) and Ashika Island and Vondel returning was a good move. Those maps definitely needed some more time to exist. The Santa event fucking slapped and if we get more events for this game like multiplayer I see this mode getting even better. Rebirth and Fortune's Keep is sure to bring back people in the future too so I'm really excited to see where Warzone goes next. If DMZ died so the main mode can thrive like this, it was honestly a good trade-off. Keeping DMZ as a separate download to play whenever was also a great move. The cherry on top was getting my boy Graves as the announcer. They cooked with Warzone this time around. It's in a better state than it's ever been.
Honestly, I only put this above Vanguard and MWII because it made a lot of better decisions than those games. That or maybe because I didn't hate the campaign as much as most people. But believe me that this game at its current state is not very good and within the same ballpark as the previous two games. I think it has the potential to get out of that ballpark quickly, but whether it does or not will entirely depend on Sledgehammer and Infinity Ward/Activision. Sledgehammer is doing a pretty good job but Infinity Ward seems to constantly want to sabotage them with their shitty design philosophies. And Activision doesn't seem to be budging on SBMM. The Microsoft acquisition might change things and Sledgehammer could keep fighting for some leeway but whether the necessary changes happen or not is something we are yet to see. Don't buy this game right now though.
This game is the definition of mid. The campaign is overhated and kinda good, but the ending kinda shits the bed. The multiplayer is pretty good but it feels overly familiar and the SBMM bullshit is getting old. The Zombies is just bad. Like actually trash. The next-gen copies of the game don't even get a platinum trophy, like MAKE THAT MAKE SENSE.
Let's start with the campaign. I think it is WAYYYYYY BETTER than MWII. There's actual stakes, it's paced well, and juggles all of its different plot threads mostly well. I think the open-combat missions are okay. They aren't as bad as everyone says it is but you can definitely tell they got lazy with them. This game was rushed to hell and it really shows here. They're fun to play through the first time but there's no replay value to them and it's just a cheap way to not make more high-budget linear missions. I was playing through the Gora Dam mission and thinking to myself "man, this really should've been a linear mission of some sort". I don't think the open-combat missions are the biggest problem with the game. I think some of the writing here is really generic. Makarov's introduction felt cheap. After saving him, there's a cutscene where he executes one of his soldiers for "not trusting his plan" when he still showed up to break him out? Some people have pointed out that it's because he didn't stall an enemy chopper during the escape, but Makarov of all people should know that mistakes happen right? Anyways, that guy gets executed because Makarov is evil muhahahahah. Really cringe. There's also a moment in the beginning where a civilian Farah talks to gets killed immediately after she talks about how Farah kept her safe? There's another moment where Ghost and Soap, once again, suck at interrogation at the end of the Oligarch mission and it creates probably one of the most awkward cutscenes in the entire game. Who hired Ubisoft writers for these scenes? Other than those few hiccups, the rest of the plot is fine. There was stuff constantly happening and I found the Shepherd subplot to be handled surprisingly well. I also think, despite his motivations not being entirely fleshed out, that the new Makarov has the potential to be really good. He had some moments where he absolutely stole the show. The flashback mission may have been a bit rushed, but all the Makarov scenes in it was great. The new actor gives the guy a charismatic presence of sorts and I don't know, his character just worked for me. The plot works, all the characters feel like they have a role to play, and the story was mostly well-written. Even the ending. I think the death was executed perfectly and it was a cool way to get the players hooked. My issue with the game isn't the ending itself, but the fact that IT JUST ENDED THERE. IT DOESN'T FEEL FINISHED. It felt like there was a whole third act to this game that they couldn't finish, so they added as many stakes as possible and padded out the runtime with open-combat missions to have something to push out by launch, and that's a real fucking shame. It's cheap and pathetic, because they're just trying to get you to buy another mediocre COD game just to see how it ends. It put a really shitty taste in my fucking mouth and despite the ride still keeping me hooked, the conclusion of it just made the whole thing feel underwhelming. I still don't think this is the shortest COD campaign though. It may have been because I sucked at a couple open-combat missions, but on Regular, it took me 6 hours, taking my time with it. If I was B-lining through it though, I could see it being 4 and a half to 5 hours. I don't find the length to be the problem more than I find the ending to be a problem. Cold War's campaign was shorter, I beat that campaign on Regular in less than 4 hours. To be fair, that campaign has more replay value to it due to the multiple endings, side missions, puzzles, and calling card challenges, but even then it was probably the shortest COD campaign ever. Yet no one complained about that one. Y'all need to relax. This campaign, despite its flaws, is still a 6.5-7/10 for me. Still enjoyable, still worth playing, just not for $70.
Multiplayer. This one makes me sad. The War mode is fun, despite there only being one map for it. I also enjoy the overall gunplay, perk system, and all of the changes made here. Some of the best design choices made in the last 5 years. However, despite its strengths, there's two things bogging it down: SBMM and the fact that there's zero new maps. Yes, there's a ton of maps at launch, and all of them are remakes of OG MW2 maps. One one hand, it's great not only because of nostalgia, but because one of these games finally have a good map catalog. The problem? All of the maps are familiar, so there's nothing here that feels new, and you start to slip into COD fatigue. Other than High Rise and Skidrow, none of these maps feel fresh to me anymore. And on top of that, SBMM. It's getting really fucking old. Not only that, but the SBMM here is Cold War-strong. I don't know when Activision will learn that this shit fucking sucks. Why won't they just drop Ranked Play at launch? It literally boggles my mind. Overall, it just felt old. We need more original maps. Meat and Greece in Season 1 were good. We need more of that. The events have been great though. I like the quantity of events being put out. I just don't think it's enough. More original maps please. For War mode too. The Ground War is really fun as always though.
Zombies. Fuck this mode. It's not the worst thing in the world and there is some fun to be had, like taking out mercenaries and leading zombies towards a stronghold. But almost all of its pros outside of that come from DMZ. DMZ died for this mode by the way, and it's way worse. They just used the upcoming Warzone map as the main map and FORGOT TO TAKE OUT DMZ ASSETS FROM THE MODE. You can still find stashes with the AQ flag and most of the sellable items you pick up are the exact same from DMZ. They didn't even bother renaming or reskinning them. It's super lazy and unfun because it just doesn't feel like Zombies. The game makes you complete a ton of tedious tutorial objectives before letting you even play through the story. You can skip it and go into the new Aether Rift area if you want, but you'll be missing out on story stuff. AND THE WORST PART??? YOU CAN'T EVEN FINISH SOME OF THEM BECAUSE THEY'RE FUCKING BUGGED. IT'S ABSOLUTELY FUCKING RIDICULOUS. And if you're not interested on story content, all there is for you to do is do contracts and exfil, which gets really old really fast. The schematics are all RNG so there's a chance you can grind all the way into the red zone and still get nothing. A lot of it just feels like it's more trouble than its worth. They need to do a serious overhaul or I really don't see this mode getting any better.
Finally, the Warzone. I think this part of the game is spot on. I like the new Urzikstan map (it plays better here than in Zombies) and Ashika Island and Vondel returning was a good move. Those maps definitely needed some more time to exist. The Santa event fucking slapped and if we get more events for this game like multiplayer I see this mode getting even better. Rebirth and Fortune's Keep is sure to bring back people in the future too so I'm really excited to see where Warzone goes next. If DMZ died so the main mode can thrive like this, it was honestly a good trade-off. Keeping DMZ as a separate download to play whenever was also a great move. The cherry on top was getting my boy Graves as the announcer. They cooked with Warzone this time around. It's in a better state than it's ever been.
Honestly, I only put this above Vanguard and MWII because it made a lot of better decisions than those games. That or maybe because I didn't hate the campaign as much as most people. But believe me that this game at its current state is not very good and within the same ballpark as the previous two games. I think it has the potential to get out of that ballpark quickly, but whether it does or not will entirely depend on Sledgehammer and Infinity Ward/Activision. Sledgehammer is doing a pretty good job but Infinity Ward seems to constantly want to sabotage them with their shitty design philosophies. And Activision doesn't seem to be budging on SBMM. The Microsoft acquisition might change things and Sledgehammer could keep fighting for some leeway but whether the necessary changes happen or not is something we are yet to see. Don't buy this game right now though.
2 days ago
srirachha15
reviewed
Call of Duty: Vanguard - Season Five
Okay, played this one way after its lifecycle. I don't really have much to say about this one. Definitely one of the worst COD games of all time, but isn't overall a bad game. It's like a 5/10 game, but for COD standards that's like the third worst.
Campaign. It's bad. The plot is super basic and takes a really good concept and screws it up. The game wants you to like this Vanguard team so much but its members either get killed off before we get to know them or are entirely unlikeable and forgettable. The only exception is Wade Jackson, who also gets the best missions in the game. The plot surrounds a plot to revive the Nazis into the Fourth Reich and eventually leads to ideas of Germans betraying Germans and an inner conspiracy. The problem is this idea is executed for like, one cutscene, and then it moves on to the final escape where the Vanguard save the day. This game also has this plot device called Project Phoenix and we're supposed to find out what it is. It's mentioned a couple of times but other than flashbacks, this game doesn't focus on it, despite it being the main goal of this entire story. It is finally revealed to us at the end, where it's revealed that Project Phoenix was a project to greenlight other projects like insert OG COD game reference here and insert OG COD game reference there. The end. I'm serious. The whole point of this game was to serve as a fan service moment and nothing more. The entire story was completely pointless and it doesn't build towards anything. And for that reason alone, it's the worst COD campaign of all time. And before I move on, I want to point out that the writers for this game did a horrible job with the representation. Instead of making it subtle and normal, every cutscene with Polina has to do with being a woman. There are a couple forced scenes about Arthur being black as well. What makes matters worse is while Polina is making comments about "men and their egos", HER ENTIRE ARC IS ABOUT AVENGING HER FATHER AND BROTHER. I really wanted to just emphasize that.
Multiplayer. It's good. Like I'm actually impressed with it. They basically took MW19's movement, made the maps better, and it literally fixed most of the issues I had with the core gameplay in COD multiplayers. SBMM is still present but not as bad as Cold War. The combat pacing helps keep things fresh whenever regular 6v6 isn't cutting it. They did introduce bloom, which was stupid, but adding attachments reduces it, so there's a way to counter that. There's also operator levels that unlock certain voicelines and skins and encourage you to use specific weapons to speed up the progression. Not all of the rewards are great, but it's a cool way to give players something else to do. Overall, I was really happy with it. It still has a few bad maps and existing modern COD issues here and there. I don't think their Fireteam-equivalent mode is very good either. All but one of the mastery camos are trash. But I was very happy with my experience with it nonetheless. Out of all of the modern-SBMM COD multiplayers, this one is my favorite. Hot take, but I did enjoy it.
Zombies. Okay, the first two roguelite maps? Garbage. Der Anfaang was fun for like, an hour. Once you play through one of the loops once, you've seen everything. There is nothing else to play for. The second map is exactly the same in a different location. Hands down the worst map in the game. But the Shinonuma remake and The Archon were awesome. The dig site was a great addition in my opinion. The Archon was also a decent round-based map with some added verticality to it. Those two maps overall were great. The issue with this mode is that that was it. Two good round-based maps, two awful maps, and nothing more. The final easter egg in The Archon didn't even have a cutscene, and just like the campaign, everything in Vanguard Zombies felt inconsequential. Barely anything happened, and even on its own, it wasn't very good. Definitely one of the weakest third modes in COD.
Finally, the Warzone. I did not like Caldera. It wasn't an awful map, but the visibility in it was shit. The game was also too reliant on Resurgence to save it at that point, and when that's the only thing in the game, it starts to feel dry. Not only that, but the events in both multiplayer and Warzone were really random. Futuristic weapons and Godzilla vs Kong???? Just like out of nowhere? That movie is already a year old, what were they thinking? Like it was enjoyable but there's little to no hype around it. The final update added Menendez, Rorke, Al Asad, Seraph, and one of the laser guns from Advanced Warfare for reasons? It doesn't tease their return or anything, it's just cameos for the sake of fan service to milk the shit out of the COD brand. And honestly, that was Vanguard's biggest problem. They focused too much on fan service through shit like bringing Captain Butcher from WWII and make references to Nova 6 and all rather than take advantage of their own concept. This is Call of Duty if it was made by Disney. The multiplayer/Warzone storyline was supposed to pick up where Cold War's left off and did absolutely nothing with it. It introduced Nebula 5 and told us the Germans were working on experimental weaponry, and that's about it. Nothing else happened, the storyline never got a conclusion. I guess we'll never know what Butcher knew about the bombs under Verdansk. And while we're on the topic of Warzone, Fortune's Keep was an awesome resurgence map. Better than the knockoff Alcatraz map from Cold War that they promoted as a new map. Cold War's Warzone will forever put a shit taste in my mouth for just reskinning Alcatraz and calling it Rebirth Island when it looks nothing like Rebirth Island, which is a problem because Black Ops 1 is still canon and all this does is confuse people on whether Cold War retconned the real Rebirth Island or not. Fortune's Keep is a brand new map made from scratch and is just as good if not better. Sledgehammer or Raven, whoever worked on it, deserves credit for that.
So yeah, Vanguard isn't very good. Unless it's for multiplayer, I can't really recommend it. You aren't really missing out on this one, but if you ever wanted to check it out, it's there I guess. It's pretty much the Eternals of Call of Duty.
Campaign. It's bad. The plot is super basic and takes a really good concept and screws it up. The game wants you to like this Vanguard team so much but its members either get killed off before we get to know them or are entirely unlikeable and forgettable. The only exception is Wade Jackson, who also gets the best missions in the game. The plot surrounds a plot to revive the Nazis into the Fourth Reich and eventually leads to ideas of Germans betraying Germans and an inner conspiracy. The problem is this idea is executed for like, one cutscene, and then it moves on to the final escape where the Vanguard save the day. This game also has this plot device called Project Phoenix and we're supposed to find out what it is. It's mentioned a couple of times but other than flashbacks, this game doesn't focus on it, despite it being the main goal of this entire story. It is finally revealed to us at the end, where it's revealed that Project Phoenix was a project to greenlight other projects like insert OG COD game reference here and insert OG COD game reference there. The end. I'm serious. The whole point of this game was to serve as a fan service moment and nothing more. The entire story was completely pointless and it doesn't build towards anything. And for that reason alone, it's the worst COD campaign of all time. And before I move on, I want to point out that the writers for this game did a horrible job with the representation. Instead of making it subtle and normal, every cutscene with Polina has to do with being a woman. There are a couple forced scenes about Arthur being black as well. What makes matters worse is while Polina is making comments about "men and their egos", HER ENTIRE ARC IS ABOUT AVENGING HER FATHER AND BROTHER. I really wanted to just emphasize that.
Multiplayer. It's good. Like I'm actually impressed with it. They basically took MW19's movement, made the maps better, and it literally fixed most of the issues I had with the core gameplay in COD multiplayers. SBMM is still present but not as bad as Cold War. The combat pacing helps keep things fresh whenever regular 6v6 isn't cutting it. They did introduce bloom, which was stupid, but adding attachments reduces it, so there's a way to counter that. There's also operator levels that unlock certain voicelines and skins and encourage you to use specific weapons to speed up the progression. Not all of the rewards are great, but it's a cool way to give players something else to do. Overall, I was really happy with it. It still has a few bad maps and existing modern COD issues here and there. I don't think their Fireteam-equivalent mode is very good either. All but one of the mastery camos are trash. But I was very happy with my experience with it nonetheless. Out of all of the modern-SBMM COD multiplayers, this one is my favorite. Hot take, but I did enjoy it.
Zombies. Okay, the first two roguelite maps? Garbage. Der Anfaang was fun for like, an hour. Once you play through one of the loops once, you've seen everything. There is nothing else to play for. The second map is exactly the same in a different location. Hands down the worst map in the game. But the Shinonuma remake and The Archon were awesome. The dig site was a great addition in my opinion. The Archon was also a decent round-based map with some added verticality to it. Those two maps overall were great. The issue with this mode is that that was it. Two good round-based maps, two awful maps, and nothing more. The final easter egg in The Archon didn't even have a cutscene, and just like the campaign, everything in Vanguard Zombies felt inconsequential. Barely anything happened, and even on its own, it wasn't very good. Definitely one of the weakest third modes in COD.
Finally, the Warzone. I did not like Caldera. It wasn't an awful map, but the visibility in it was shit. The game was also too reliant on Resurgence to save it at that point, and when that's the only thing in the game, it starts to feel dry. Not only that, but the events in both multiplayer and Warzone were really random. Futuristic weapons and Godzilla vs Kong???? Just like out of nowhere? That movie is already a year old, what were they thinking? Like it was enjoyable but there's little to no hype around it. The final update added Menendez, Rorke, Al Asad, Seraph, and one of the laser guns from Advanced Warfare for reasons? It doesn't tease their return or anything, it's just cameos for the sake of fan service to milk the shit out of the COD brand. And honestly, that was Vanguard's biggest problem. They focused too much on fan service through shit like bringing Captain Butcher from WWII and make references to Nova 6 and all rather than take advantage of their own concept. This is Call of Duty if it was made by Disney. The multiplayer/Warzone storyline was supposed to pick up where Cold War's left off and did absolutely nothing with it. It introduced Nebula 5 and told us the Germans were working on experimental weaponry, and that's about it. Nothing else happened, the storyline never got a conclusion. I guess we'll never know what Butcher knew about the bombs under Verdansk. And while we're on the topic of Warzone, Fortune's Keep was an awesome resurgence map. Better than the knockoff Alcatraz map from Cold War that they promoted as a new map. Cold War's Warzone will forever put a shit taste in my mouth for just reskinning Alcatraz and calling it Rebirth Island when it looks nothing like Rebirth Island, which is a problem because Black Ops 1 is still canon and all this does is confuse people on whether Cold War retconned the real Rebirth Island or not. Fortune's Keep is a brand new map made from scratch and is just as good if not better. Sledgehammer or Raven, whoever worked on it, deserves credit for that.
So yeah, Vanguard isn't very good. Unless it's for multiplayer, I can't really recommend it. You aren't really missing out on this one, but if you ever wanted to check it out, it's there I guess. It's pretty much the Eternals of Call of Duty.
2 days ago
srirachha15
reviewed
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II - Season 06: The Haunting
This review contains spoilers
Okay, post-launch review. I'm gonna break it down by season, starting with Season 1 Reloaded, since I covered the first half of Season 1 on the original review.
Season 1 Reloaded: They brought back Shipment. Great, who cares? Raid Episode 1 was pretty dope though, Alex better be alive. Building 21 in DMZ was also a neat inclusion. Not much else to say, game still sucks.
Season 2: Warzone got overhauled to be more faster-paced which was dope. I noticed a considerable drop in SBMM in multiplayer too (still there, but not to the point where it's unplayable). The new Raid episode was awesome, I like Ashika Island way more than Al Mazrah. Fighting Shadow Company in Ashika Island DMZ is cool as fuck. Dome and Valderas Museums were cool maps. Ranked Play was a game changer and actually made my time with the multiplayer worthwhile. This season was an improvement.
Season 3: The best season yet. First season cutscene to be connected with the story is cool. Valeria breaking out is a cool story moment that leaves her future in the story pretty bright. God bless because she was super underutilized in the campaign. The lighthouse map was fun and the Black Gold map gave me MW'19 vibes with the night vision. The movement was also tweaked to be more fast-paced and in-line with MW'19. Las Almas being present in Al Mazrah DMZ is cool. Gunfight returning was a GAME CHANGER. Reloaded added the new Raid mission and brought Plunder back to Warzone, both of which made me happy. The kill tracker in the UI being changed to look worse and the Hatchery map being dogshit did not. Spec Ops getting a new Defender mission was also cool though.
Season 4: Vondel is a pretty good map, but making that the only focus of your season was not a good move. Very light on story stuff compared to last season. Again, the map played well on both Warzone and DMZ (despite being hard as FUCK in DMZ). This was a very Warzone heavy season. I didn't get to play all of the new multiplayer maps but Vondel Waterfront in Reloaded was actually a really good map, and there's not a lot of those in this game. There are fun maps, sure, but they aren't exactly great and have a ton of safe spaces. They are fun despite their flaws. The Waterfront map has no flaws and is genuinely good. The Raid finale slapped but Hadir's death was a little underwhelming. I also think Makarov being Hadir's enemy despite Al Qatala and Konni being allies in the campaign was a little odd too. Unless they weren't, which begs the question of how Hassan was even able to acquire the missiles from the Russians in the first place? Despite the Raids being good overall, I still can't help but feel like it should've just been the campaign from the start. The Boys event in Reloaded was pretty cool though I'm not gonna lie. Temp V in Warzone was crazy. Overall, decent season, but kind of a downgrade from the last one.
Season 5: Graves is alive, I guess. This makes sense though, as I did point out there was no possible way for him to have climbed that wall and jumped into that tank that fast. I guess he kept Soap busy on comms until they took out the tank so that he can fake his death. There's a more complex canonical reason in some bio somewhere where it explains how they got Doc (a new operator this season) to who actually gives a fuck. It's clearly setting up for Modern Warfare 3, which sounds promising. DMZ had the most drastic change here. Shadow Company is now your allies (unless you fire on them), and every faction is fighting Konni. The number of Konni operatives you face will depend on which map you play on. It's cool promotion but also makes each map more varied in DMZ, which I think is awesome. Punta Mar was an okay map, Strike was better because I'm pretty sure it's a remake? Correct me if I'm wrong. The Faction Showdown community event was cool (Shadow Company won, as it should, fuck Soap) and the best Gunfight map was added to the game (aka Lounge). The DRC map was also alright and the Shadow Siege event KICKED ASS. Coolest reveal event ever. Havoc also deserves a shoutout for being one of the best new modes ever. That mode was so good SBMM can't ruin it. The only thing holding this season back is, again, the lack of Raids. This season is where I was just starting to lose interest with the game because despite the content being good, it's not enough. Spec Ops was as good as abandoned, the multiplayer, despite its improvements, is still weak, and the only thing keeping this game up is Warzone and DMZ. Hell, they've been doing most of the heavy lifting since Season 4, other than the Raids.
Season 6: Didn't play the multiplayer maps, I wasn't interested. This was mainly a Warzone season anyway. The Haunting of Verdansk event and the Zombie Royale mode SLAPPED. Every boss fight was cool and the rewards were worth it. I managed to do most of them solo on DMZ and I was having a blast. I played the ever living shit out of the event and DMZ before it stopped being updated. I guess it was a fitting way to say goodbye to the only modes that carried this game's lifecycle for me.
All in all, the post-launch content brought this game up a bit. However, with the atrocious state it was in at launch, there were some things that weren't salvageable. I still don't enjoy the campaign. I still think this is the weakest COD multiplayer due to its design choices. Raids and Warzone/DMZ did the heavy lifting but it wasn't ever going to be enough. As an overall package, with all of its content and all, I still can't really recommend buying this game unless it's strictly for the 3rd mode. $70 for Raids and Spec Ops though? Yeah, no. RIP MWII. You won't be missed. Except for the DMZ experience, I'll miss that.
Season 1 Reloaded: They brought back Shipment. Great, who cares? Raid Episode 1 was pretty dope though, Alex better be alive. Building 21 in DMZ was also a neat inclusion. Not much else to say, game still sucks.
Season 2: Warzone got overhauled to be more faster-paced which was dope. I noticed a considerable drop in SBMM in multiplayer too (still there, but not to the point where it's unplayable). The new Raid episode was awesome, I like Ashika Island way more than Al Mazrah. Fighting Shadow Company in Ashika Island DMZ is cool as fuck. Dome and Valderas Museums were cool maps. Ranked Play was a game changer and actually made my time with the multiplayer worthwhile. This season was an improvement.
Season 3: The best season yet. First season cutscene to be connected with the story is cool. Valeria breaking out is a cool story moment that leaves her future in the story pretty bright. God bless because she was super underutilized in the campaign. The lighthouse map was fun and the Black Gold map gave me MW'19 vibes with the night vision. The movement was also tweaked to be more fast-paced and in-line with MW'19. Las Almas being present in Al Mazrah DMZ is cool. Gunfight returning was a GAME CHANGER. Reloaded added the new Raid mission and brought Plunder back to Warzone, both of which made me happy. The kill tracker in the UI being changed to look worse and the Hatchery map being dogshit did not. Spec Ops getting a new Defender mission was also cool though.
Season 4: Vondel is a pretty good map, but making that the only focus of your season was not a good move. Very light on story stuff compared to last season. Again, the map played well on both Warzone and DMZ (despite being hard as FUCK in DMZ). This was a very Warzone heavy season. I didn't get to play all of the new multiplayer maps but Vondel Waterfront in Reloaded was actually a really good map, and there's not a lot of those in this game. There are fun maps, sure, but they aren't exactly great and have a ton of safe spaces. They are fun despite their flaws. The Waterfront map has no flaws and is genuinely good. The Raid finale slapped but Hadir's death was a little underwhelming. I also think Makarov being Hadir's enemy despite Al Qatala and Konni being allies in the campaign was a little odd too. Unless they weren't, which begs the question of how Hassan was even able to acquire the missiles from the Russians in the first place? Despite the Raids being good overall, I still can't help but feel like it should've just been the campaign from the start. The Boys event in Reloaded was pretty cool though I'm not gonna lie. Temp V in Warzone was crazy. Overall, decent season, but kind of a downgrade from the last one.
Season 5: Graves is alive, I guess. This makes sense though, as I did point out there was no possible way for him to have climbed that wall and jumped into that tank that fast. I guess he kept Soap busy on comms until they took out the tank so that he can fake his death. There's a more complex canonical reason in some bio somewhere where it explains how they got Doc (a new operator this season) to who actually gives a fuck. It's clearly setting up for Modern Warfare 3, which sounds promising. DMZ had the most drastic change here. Shadow Company is now your allies (unless you fire on them), and every faction is fighting Konni. The number of Konni operatives you face will depend on which map you play on. It's cool promotion but also makes each map more varied in DMZ, which I think is awesome. Punta Mar was an okay map, Strike was better because I'm pretty sure it's a remake? Correct me if I'm wrong. The Faction Showdown community event was cool (Shadow Company won, as it should, fuck Soap) and the best Gunfight map was added to the game (aka Lounge). The DRC map was also alright and the Shadow Siege event KICKED ASS. Coolest reveal event ever. Havoc also deserves a shoutout for being one of the best new modes ever. That mode was so good SBMM can't ruin it. The only thing holding this season back is, again, the lack of Raids. This season is where I was just starting to lose interest with the game because despite the content being good, it's not enough. Spec Ops was as good as abandoned, the multiplayer, despite its improvements, is still weak, and the only thing keeping this game up is Warzone and DMZ. Hell, they've been doing most of the heavy lifting since Season 4, other than the Raids.
Season 6: Didn't play the multiplayer maps, I wasn't interested. This was mainly a Warzone season anyway. The Haunting of Verdansk event and the Zombie Royale mode SLAPPED. Every boss fight was cool and the rewards were worth it. I managed to do most of them solo on DMZ and I was having a blast. I played the ever living shit out of the event and DMZ before it stopped being updated. I guess it was a fitting way to say goodbye to the only modes that carried this game's lifecycle for me.
All in all, the post-launch content brought this game up a bit. However, with the atrocious state it was in at launch, there were some things that weren't salvageable. I still don't enjoy the campaign. I still think this is the weakest COD multiplayer due to its design choices. Raids and Warzone/DMZ did the heavy lifting but it wasn't ever going to be enough. As an overall package, with all of its content and all, I still can't really recommend buying this game unless it's strictly for the 3rd mode. $70 for Raids and Spec Ops though? Yeah, no. RIP MWII. You won't be missed. Except for the DMZ experience, I'll miss that.
3 days ago
srirachha15
reviewed
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II
This review contains spoilers
I actually DESPISE this game. Get ready because this one's gonna be a long one. Also, this specific review is about this game's state on December 2022, not post-Season 6, I will have a separate review for that.
I want to start by saying that I really enjoyed Modern Warfare (2019). The campaign was phenomenal, the multiplayer was meh but I respected it for trying something new. The new movement, gunplay, and mechanics were some of the best in the industry. Infinity Ward's engine since Infinite Warfare has been incredible. The Spec-Ops was misguided and not very good, but I did have some fun with a few of the operations and classic missions. I'm aware Warzone was the mode that did most of the heavy-lifting but it had something going for it. Free updates and content year-round, crossplay, more accessibility options than ever? First game to let you edit your loadout mid-game? First game to introduce Gunfight? First game to give us 4-lane maps in a COD? Whether all of it landed or not, it had a vision and it stuck to it. SBMM wasn't the best but it wasn't nearly as strong as it is now and they were trying something new. They didn't listen to community feedback much but I don't see how much more they could've changed it from their vision (no excuse for the shitty maps that came later though). I still respected this entry for changing up COD and putting it back on the map. Cold War and Vanguard weren't up to par with their offerings, and after a three-year dev cycle, Infinity Ward was finally taking back the helm. I thought they were finally going to build on the foundations set in 2019 and improve them, saving COD in the process and giving it a bright future to look forward to.
And then they fucking dropped this dogshit. THREE YEARS. THREE THOUSAND DEVS. AND THEY GIVE US A SHIT CAMPAIGN, THE SHITTIEST MULTIPLAYER IN THE FRANCHISE, AND A BAREBONES SPEC-OPS WITH LITTLE TO NO REPLAYABILITY. The Warzone and DMZ modes were good but a lot of people weren't happy with it I guess, which is a shame, because they're the only modes worth playing here.
Let's start with the campaign. Where do I fucking start with this pile of dogshit. To be fair, I think the gameplay is still fun and the mission variety is a highlight. Every single one felt unique similar to MW'19 and the armored enemies did mix things up a bit, despite overstaying their welcome a little bit. I think Alone and Recon by Fire might just be two of the best COD missions in the series. El Sin Nombre and Dark Water also deserve shoutouts. Even the Uncharted vehicle mission was a blast. The story was also at its best when it felt like a proper sequel to MW'19, which was when Recon by Fire/Violence and Timing took place. There were actual immediate stakes and seeing veteran characters like Farah and Nikolai briefly return was also dope. Alright, I'm done with the compliments. The actual narrative was FUCKING DOGSHIT. "But at least the gameplay is fun, why do you hate it so much?" EVERY CALL OF DUTY CAMPAIGN HAS GOOD GAMEPLAY. Even Advanced Warfare despite its annoying death timers. EVEN VANGUARD HAD FUN MOMENTS. THAT DOESN'T AUTOMATCALLY NOT MAKE IT THE WORST COD CAMPAIGN, BECAUSE IT IS. The only credit I can give this campaign is that my overall experience with it was better than Vanguard. That's literally it. The story starts with us killing a random NPC named General Ghorbrani, and the villain is his second-in-command, Hassan. Throughout the game, you see him talk about how America bombs their land and shit and you would think that this game would try to show you his perspective a bit and tell us that his beloved general wasn't that bad of a guy and we just took extreme measures for no reason. Right? RIGHT?! LIKE THAT'S COMMON FUCKING SENSE. BUT NO, HASSAN HAS LITERALLY NO DEPTH TO HIM. AT ALL. WE GET A BORING ASS VILLAIN THAT WE SPEND HUNTING DOWN THE ENTIRE GAME. AND THE WORST PART?! WE CATCH HIM HALFWAY THROUGH THE CAMPAIGN, AND THEN LET HIM GO. This moment doesn't make sense, as we were able to get away with so much in 2019 without this much red tape and now it just exists for god knows what reason. They also said that they don't have actionable intel to kill him, even though we literally found his uniform in a terrorist stronghold, and we have intel that he is involved with the cartel. EVEN IF this wasn't enough for some reason, WHY WASN'T THE POSSIBILITY OF LETTING HIM GO INFORMED TO ANY OF THE SOLDIERS??? You would think that would be some information they would've told the rest of the team so there's no miscommunication but nope. The entire scene just consists of everyone sucking at interrogation and then being surprised about not being able to kill him. Everyone in that cutscene looked like a fucking idiot and this whole thing was just an excuse to drag the plot along further. Then Recon by Fire and Violence and Timing were great and felt like a return to form. El Sin Nombre was great but they explained all the Cartel lore, found out who their leader was, and captured her all in ONE MISSION??? Complete waste of potential. Valeria then gets a really good cutscene that made me feel like the game would've been 10x better if she was the villain instead of Hassan. Then, we go off to find one of the missiles and destroy it in the Dark Water mission. No complaints here. Shadow Company is an interesting faction and Graves is a well-written charismatic character. And then they completely shit on them too with one of the worst betrayal scenes I've ever seen. He kinda just pulls up to Alejandro's base, steals his base, and detains his men, and then fires at 141. Right after we literally worked together to blow up a missile. It's really weirdly placed. Then he turns Las Almas into a bloodbath because Valeria informed him that Hassan was there. Graves was technically following orders but the real mastermind over this stupid plan was General Shepherd. What was the need for him to detain Alejandro and his men??? And why in the world did Shadow Company start firing at 141 before they even did anything??? Not to mention, this whole thing started because Shepherd was moving missiles off-the-books and then got ambushed by Russian PMCs (whom this game could've easily been about). If that's what you were trying to cover up, WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD YOU BETRAY 141??? THEY WOULD'VE NEVER FOUND OUT ABOUT IT. THE WHOLE REASON LASWELL WENT DIGGING IN THE FIRST PLACE WAS BECAUSE YOU DECIDED TO FIRE AT US. Sure, he was acting a little suspect, but if he had just focused on the priority at hand rather than covering his own ass (WHICH WAS ALREADY FUCKING COVERED BY THE WAY), we would've all found Hassan by now and none of this would've happened. Hell, if we actually had the balls to just properly interrogate some of these guys like in MW'19, we would've just found the info we needed and took out Hassan together. But this entire dogshit campaign is just padding with terribly written reasons to move the characters from point A to point B. The final mission was cool but by the time we got to it, I was just ready for it all to be over. Other issues with this campaign include the characters. Ghost and Soap literally don't have an arc in this game. Well, maybe just Soap, because it's implied that he used this entire campaign as a lesson on what it means to be 141 or something. His bonding with Alejandro is also rushed. But the biggest issue with Soap is that he behaves like a fucking manchild at times. He's like Gaz but if he has to constantly be babied. He keeps saying shit like "when can we kill this guy" and "makes me want to do some war crimes of my own" (???) that make me question whether he's even fit to be in the position he's in. He even said a corny ass line to Ghost like "I wanna be like you when I grow up"????? What the fuck did Price see in this guy? Ghost is also a static character. The game gives him this corny moment where he goes "no one fights alone" and I'm like "thanks for the input?" What was that scene even supposed to mean? Did he finally learn the beauty of friendship? All seriousness, was it supposed to indicate a character change of his where he recognizes the importance of comradery and learns to loosen up his reclusiveness? Because he already knew how to do that. He's been working just fine with Alejandro and the rest. Hell, better than fine. He's been getting along with them a little bit too. That scene of his meant nothing. And the game felt like it was trying way too hard to get you to like him? They add in moments of MCU humor involving his mask and stuff multiple times and it just doesn't work with the established tone. Ghost and Soap aren't very good characters, yet most of the game centers around them? Price and Gaz take a backseat and Farah and Nikolai show up for one mission. Alejandro and Rodolfo were pretty cool, and so was Graves until the betrayal. Ghost and Soap just shouldn't have taken up that much screentime, considering they're not very well written. The whole game's plot feels very disconnected from MW'19. AQ is literally just a background villain. Hadir doesn't show up once. This would've been okay if it was in favor for a new, well-told story. However, all I felt after finishing it is that it should've just followed Hadir and Al-Asad instead. Also, instead of going back to them, this game instead introduces Makarov and plans on redoing No Russian??? Don't get me wrong, that sounds cool as fuck, but WHY WASN'T THAT THE ACTUAL CAMPAIGN??? It feels like Infinity Ward is juggling with too many characters and plot points now and isn't focusing on the right ones. 3 years just to play an absolute pointless, filler mess. Y'all deserve a round of applause.
Multiplayer. I'mma keep this short and sweet. This is hands down the worst COD multiplayer I've ever laid my hands on. They didn't listen to a single bit of criticism and made the maps worse. The aim resist is ridiculous. The SBMM in general is ridiculous. Awful decisions like putting perks on a timer, BRINGING BACK LAST STAND, ledge hanging IN MULTIPLAYER????, and the cool on paper but terribly executed weapon progression system, all contributed to making this entry terrible. Not to mention the fact that the maps here are somehow WORSE than MW'19's worst maps. Okay, maybe not Aniyah Palace bad but still very poor overall. The Embassy map is TRAAAAASH, and so is the museum one. And the less we talk about the Border map, the better. The only maps here that are even remotely tolerable are El Asilo (in objective-based modes) and Crown Raceway. That is it. Poor map selection, awful and random multiplayer decisions, and an overarching SBMM issue that is somehow worse than its ever been. Ground War and Invasion were fun though.
Spec Ops. It's about the same as last time. The missions are more well-designed and well-presented but as of right now, there are literally only 4 missions. Low Profile is a cool stealth mission and Denied Area feels like a Special Operation mission from MW2019, but better designed. Defender: Mt. Zaya is the weaker of the bunch but is the only mission where you earn stars by performance rather than time completed, which was nice. It's a cool wave-based mode on Dome, nothing special but still fun. The difficulty isn't too ridiculous this time around either and making the missions two-player was a good move to make it feel more old-school. High Ground is also hectic fun and a cool throwback. The problem isn't with the missions. It's the lack of content. And the only thing giving the mode replay value is replaying the existing missions enough times to earn stars for rewards and kit upgrades, which is really cheap and stupid. Even in MW'19, there were strands of challenges that consisted of things OTHER than just earning stars. I don't know what Infinity Ward was thinking when they did this. Hence, I can't call this mode an improvement from MW'19's Spec Ops overall. If you really want to upgrade kits before the Raid mode comes out, just play DMZ, you'll have much more fun.
And finally, the Warzone. I'm having a good time with it. It's a little more barebones and I'm not too sure about Al Mazrah as a map but at least it's better than Caldera? It feels a lot more slower paced but I kind of like that. It differentiates itself from the previous Warzone experiences and gives us something new. It just needs a bit more love and maybe an extra map to really nail it, but in its current state, it's fine. The DMZ mode is also a really fun Tarkov-lite mode. Again, I hope the mode gets a bit more love along with Warzone and the necessary changes are made to make it a better experience. But as of right now, it's still a solid 7/10 experience for me. Here's hoping Infinity Ward doesn't fuck it up like they did the rest of the game.
The only things that will save this game is if the Raid mode, Spec Ops, and Warzone/DMZ knock it out of the park. I would also say if they make better maps for the multiplayer and overhaul a few things but I really doubt Infinity Ward knows how to listen to their community. In my eyes, they completely shit the bed. I haven't been this mad about a COD game since Black Ops 4. What happened to campaigns never disappointing in COD? What happened to the incredible writing from MW19's campaign? Taylor Kurosaki literally laid everything out for a sequel before leaving the studio and y'all STILL somehow shit the bed by using none of it. COD multiplayer is done for after this mess. The Spec Ops doesn't have enough to it currently and I'm worried it's gonna turn out like last time again. Warzone fatigue is also setting in to the point where people aren't even checking it out. So many things wrong. What happened to Infinity Ward being the best studio? MW'19, despite its flaws, was a treasure. This one, however, was a giant fall from grace.
Also, forgot to mention, so I'll say it here. Even the graphics, on next-gen, look worse than MW'19's lmao.
I want to start by saying that I really enjoyed Modern Warfare (2019). The campaign was phenomenal, the multiplayer was meh but I respected it for trying something new. The new movement, gunplay, and mechanics were some of the best in the industry. Infinity Ward's engine since Infinite Warfare has been incredible. The Spec-Ops was misguided and not very good, but I did have some fun with a few of the operations and classic missions. I'm aware Warzone was the mode that did most of the heavy-lifting but it had something going for it. Free updates and content year-round, crossplay, more accessibility options than ever? First game to let you edit your loadout mid-game? First game to introduce Gunfight? First game to give us 4-lane maps in a COD? Whether all of it landed or not, it had a vision and it stuck to it. SBMM wasn't the best but it wasn't nearly as strong as it is now and they were trying something new. They didn't listen to community feedback much but I don't see how much more they could've changed it from their vision (no excuse for the shitty maps that came later though). I still respected this entry for changing up COD and putting it back on the map. Cold War and Vanguard weren't up to par with their offerings, and after a three-year dev cycle, Infinity Ward was finally taking back the helm. I thought they were finally going to build on the foundations set in 2019 and improve them, saving COD in the process and giving it a bright future to look forward to.
And then they fucking dropped this dogshit. THREE YEARS. THREE THOUSAND DEVS. AND THEY GIVE US A SHIT CAMPAIGN, THE SHITTIEST MULTIPLAYER IN THE FRANCHISE, AND A BAREBONES SPEC-OPS WITH LITTLE TO NO REPLAYABILITY. The Warzone and DMZ modes were good but a lot of people weren't happy with it I guess, which is a shame, because they're the only modes worth playing here.
Let's start with the campaign. Where do I fucking start with this pile of dogshit. To be fair, I think the gameplay is still fun and the mission variety is a highlight. Every single one felt unique similar to MW'19 and the armored enemies did mix things up a bit, despite overstaying their welcome a little bit. I think Alone and Recon by Fire might just be two of the best COD missions in the series. El Sin Nombre and Dark Water also deserve shoutouts. Even the Uncharted vehicle mission was a blast. The story was also at its best when it felt like a proper sequel to MW'19, which was when Recon by Fire/Violence and Timing took place. There were actual immediate stakes and seeing veteran characters like Farah and Nikolai briefly return was also dope. Alright, I'm done with the compliments. The actual narrative was FUCKING DOGSHIT. "But at least the gameplay is fun, why do you hate it so much?" EVERY CALL OF DUTY CAMPAIGN HAS GOOD GAMEPLAY. Even Advanced Warfare despite its annoying death timers. EVEN VANGUARD HAD FUN MOMENTS. THAT DOESN'T AUTOMATCALLY NOT MAKE IT THE WORST COD CAMPAIGN, BECAUSE IT IS. The only credit I can give this campaign is that my overall experience with it was better than Vanguard. That's literally it. The story starts with us killing a random NPC named General Ghorbrani, and the villain is his second-in-command, Hassan. Throughout the game, you see him talk about how America bombs their land and shit and you would think that this game would try to show you his perspective a bit and tell us that his beloved general wasn't that bad of a guy and we just took extreme measures for no reason. Right? RIGHT?! LIKE THAT'S COMMON FUCKING SENSE. BUT NO, HASSAN HAS LITERALLY NO DEPTH TO HIM. AT ALL. WE GET A BORING ASS VILLAIN THAT WE SPEND HUNTING DOWN THE ENTIRE GAME. AND THE WORST PART?! WE CATCH HIM HALFWAY THROUGH THE CAMPAIGN, AND THEN LET HIM GO. This moment doesn't make sense, as we were able to get away with so much in 2019 without this much red tape and now it just exists for god knows what reason. They also said that they don't have actionable intel to kill him, even though we literally found his uniform in a terrorist stronghold, and we have intel that he is involved with the cartel. EVEN IF this wasn't enough for some reason, WHY WASN'T THE POSSIBILITY OF LETTING HIM GO INFORMED TO ANY OF THE SOLDIERS??? You would think that would be some information they would've told the rest of the team so there's no miscommunication but nope. The entire scene just consists of everyone sucking at interrogation and then being surprised about not being able to kill him. Everyone in that cutscene looked like a fucking idiot and this whole thing was just an excuse to drag the plot along further. Then Recon by Fire and Violence and Timing were great and felt like a return to form. El Sin Nombre was great but they explained all the Cartel lore, found out who their leader was, and captured her all in ONE MISSION??? Complete waste of potential. Valeria then gets a really good cutscene that made me feel like the game would've been 10x better if she was the villain instead of Hassan. Then, we go off to find one of the missiles and destroy it in the Dark Water mission. No complaints here. Shadow Company is an interesting faction and Graves is a well-written charismatic character. And then they completely shit on them too with one of the worst betrayal scenes I've ever seen. He kinda just pulls up to Alejandro's base, steals his base, and detains his men, and then fires at 141. Right after we literally worked together to blow up a missile. It's really weirdly placed. Then he turns Las Almas into a bloodbath because Valeria informed him that Hassan was there. Graves was technically following orders but the real mastermind over this stupid plan was General Shepherd. What was the need for him to detain Alejandro and his men??? And why in the world did Shadow Company start firing at 141 before they even did anything??? Not to mention, this whole thing started because Shepherd was moving missiles off-the-books and then got ambushed by Russian PMCs (whom this game could've easily been about). If that's what you were trying to cover up, WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD YOU BETRAY 141??? THEY WOULD'VE NEVER FOUND OUT ABOUT IT. THE WHOLE REASON LASWELL WENT DIGGING IN THE FIRST PLACE WAS BECAUSE YOU DECIDED TO FIRE AT US. Sure, he was acting a little suspect, but if he had just focused on the priority at hand rather than covering his own ass (WHICH WAS ALREADY FUCKING COVERED BY THE WAY), we would've all found Hassan by now and none of this would've happened. Hell, if we actually had the balls to just properly interrogate some of these guys like in MW'19, we would've just found the info we needed and took out Hassan together. But this entire dogshit campaign is just padding with terribly written reasons to move the characters from point A to point B. The final mission was cool but by the time we got to it, I was just ready for it all to be over. Other issues with this campaign include the characters. Ghost and Soap literally don't have an arc in this game. Well, maybe just Soap, because it's implied that he used this entire campaign as a lesson on what it means to be 141 or something. His bonding with Alejandro is also rushed. But the biggest issue with Soap is that he behaves like a fucking manchild at times. He's like Gaz but if he has to constantly be babied. He keeps saying shit like "when can we kill this guy" and "makes me want to do some war crimes of my own" (???) that make me question whether he's even fit to be in the position he's in. He even said a corny ass line to Ghost like "I wanna be like you when I grow up"????? What the fuck did Price see in this guy? Ghost is also a static character. The game gives him this corny moment where he goes "no one fights alone" and I'm like "thanks for the input?" What was that scene even supposed to mean? Did he finally learn the beauty of friendship? All seriousness, was it supposed to indicate a character change of his where he recognizes the importance of comradery and learns to loosen up his reclusiveness? Because he already knew how to do that. He's been working just fine with Alejandro and the rest. Hell, better than fine. He's been getting along with them a little bit too. That scene of his meant nothing. And the game felt like it was trying way too hard to get you to like him? They add in moments of MCU humor involving his mask and stuff multiple times and it just doesn't work with the established tone. Ghost and Soap aren't very good characters, yet most of the game centers around them? Price and Gaz take a backseat and Farah and Nikolai show up for one mission. Alejandro and Rodolfo were pretty cool, and so was Graves until the betrayal. Ghost and Soap just shouldn't have taken up that much screentime, considering they're not very well written. The whole game's plot feels very disconnected from MW'19. AQ is literally just a background villain. Hadir doesn't show up once. This would've been okay if it was in favor for a new, well-told story. However, all I felt after finishing it is that it should've just followed Hadir and Al-Asad instead. Also, instead of going back to them, this game instead introduces Makarov and plans on redoing No Russian??? Don't get me wrong, that sounds cool as fuck, but WHY WASN'T THAT THE ACTUAL CAMPAIGN??? It feels like Infinity Ward is juggling with too many characters and plot points now and isn't focusing on the right ones. 3 years just to play an absolute pointless, filler mess. Y'all deserve a round of applause.
Multiplayer. I'mma keep this short and sweet. This is hands down the worst COD multiplayer I've ever laid my hands on. They didn't listen to a single bit of criticism and made the maps worse. The aim resist is ridiculous. The SBMM in general is ridiculous. Awful decisions like putting perks on a timer, BRINGING BACK LAST STAND, ledge hanging IN MULTIPLAYER????, and the cool on paper but terribly executed weapon progression system, all contributed to making this entry terrible. Not to mention the fact that the maps here are somehow WORSE than MW'19's worst maps. Okay, maybe not Aniyah Palace bad but still very poor overall. The Embassy map is TRAAAAASH, and so is the museum one. And the less we talk about the Border map, the better. The only maps here that are even remotely tolerable are El Asilo (in objective-based modes) and Crown Raceway. That is it. Poor map selection, awful and random multiplayer decisions, and an overarching SBMM issue that is somehow worse than its ever been. Ground War and Invasion were fun though.
Spec Ops. It's about the same as last time. The missions are more well-designed and well-presented but as of right now, there are literally only 4 missions. Low Profile is a cool stealth mission and Denied Area feels like a Special Operation mission from MW2019, but better designed. Defender: Mt. Zaya is the weaker of the bunch but is the only mission where you earn stars by performance rather than time completed, which was nice. It's a cool wave-based mode on Dome, nothing special but still fun. The difficulty isn't too ridiculous this time around either and making the missions two-player was a good move to make it feel more old-school. High Ground is also hectic fun and a cool throwback. The problem isn't with the missions. It's the lack of content. And the only thing giving the mode replay value is replaying the existing missions enough times to earn stars for rewards and kit upgrades, which is really cheap and stupid. Even in MW'19, there were strands of challenges that consisted of things OTHER than just earning stars. I don't know what Infinity Ward was thinking when they did this. Hence, I can't call this mode an improvement from MW'19's Spec Ops overall. If you really want to upgrade kits before the Raid mode comes out, just play DMZ, you'll have much more fun.
And finally, the Warzone. I'm having a good time with it. It's a little more barebones and I'm not too sure about Al Mazrah as a map but at least it's better than Caldera? It feels a lot more slower paced but I kind of like that. It differentiates itself from the previous Warzone experiences and gives us something new. It just needs a bit more love and maybe an extra map to really nail it, but in its current state, it's fine. The DMZ mode is also a really fun Tarkov-lite mode. Again, I hope the mode gets a bit more love along with Warzone and the necessary changes are made to make it a better experience. But as of right now, it's still a solid 7/10 experience for me. Here's hoping Infinity Ward doesn't fuck it up like they did the rest of the game.
The only things that will save this game is if the Raid mode, Spec Ops, and Warzone/DMZ knock it out of the park. I would also say if they make better maps for the multiplayer and overhaul a few things but I really doubt Infinity Ward knows how to listen to their community. In my eyes, they completely shit the bed. I haven't been this mad about a COD game since Black Ops 4. What happened to campaigns never disappointing in COD? What happened to the incredible writing from MW19's campaign? Taylor Kurosaki literally laid everything out for a sequel before leaving the studio and y'all STILL somehow shit the bed by using none of it. COD multiplayer is done for after this mess. The Spec Ops doesn't have enough to it currently and I'm worried it's gonna turn out like last time again. Warzone fatigue is also setting in to the point where people aren't even checking it out. So many things wrong. What happened to Infinity Ward being the best studio? MW'19, despite its flaws, was a treasure. This one, however, was a giant fall from grace.
Also, forgot to mention, so I'll say it here. Even the graphics, on next-gen, look worse than MW'19's lmao.
5 days ago
srirachha15
reviewed
Call of Duty: Black Ops - Declassified
It's Black Ops, so I already like it more than the average person. The game is decent but it hurts your hands if you play it more than 30 minutes. All of the ideas here are executed well for a portable game, but the problem is that I don't think COD belongs on a portable game. The controls will always feel awkward. I enjoy the time trial aspect of the game, considering how short these missions are. The action is absolutely fucking ridiculous though, even for Black Ops standards. The production here at times isn't very good. Still, Woods going back to WMD to fight the KGB is dope, and there are cool moments here. The final mission literally sets the events of Black Ops 2 into motion, which is cool. Canon or not, the campaign is worth a try. I just wish the overall design of some of these missions were better, because some of them just swarm you with enemies and give you little to no cover. And if you die, you have to start all over again, Spec Ops style, due to its time trial design. It gets pretty frustrating. I think the Hostiles wave-based mode is also pretty bland, as it gets super repetitive and the care package in between missions despawns after the wave starts??? Why?????? The firing range missions are cool and the fact that this game had a multiplayer is pretty dope too. Overall, it's a cool novelty item to have if you're a hardcore Black Ops fan, but there's not much else to it.
5 days ago
srirachha15
reviewed
Assassin's Creed
I did not enjoy a lot of my time with this game. A lot of the activities here were cool but are not required for 100% synchronization, so why even bother? I got used to the combat and enjoyed it despite the camera often betraying you multiple times whenever you're swarmed with enemies. The story is super basic and uninteresting and I figured out the big twist within the first few hours itself. The modern-day side of the story ends on a giant cliffhanger and doesn't really get a conclusion either. Not all of it is very well-written. Altair is also not a very good character, despite having his moments. The whole game felt like a 4 hour story stretched out to 15, and would've been better if they shaved off a few targets from the list in the final product. A few mechanics are also just not functional at times. The parkour and movement is cool but gets really clunky and unresponsive at times. There's a lack of accessibility features too, so no subtitles, which is a shame because the dialogue often times gets really quiet and you can't hear a lot of it. I think the map is pretty cool though. The kingdom is kind of fun to explore despite there being a lot of barren areas, and I enjoy traversing through all of the cities. I don't like Acre much, due to the color scheme making it look really shit, but Damascus and Jerusalem get a thumbs up from me. The archer enemies in Acre and Jerusalem really get on my nerves but other than that, I enjoyed the actual design of these cities a lot. Ubisoft did establish a winning formula here that helped them and was later improved in future entries. But overall, I think this game needs a remake. The story is juggling almost everything and nothing at the same time, and Desmond and Altair seriously need to be better written. The modern-day story too, because it sucks, despite having interesting ideas. Ubisoft used too many of their cards too early into the franchise and it honestly led to the franchise's doom. Too many cool ideas with poor execution on most of them. That's this game's biggest problem. That and the pacing because holy fuck did this game drag. I would totally cop a remake though.
5 days ago
srirachha15 is
now playing
Alan Wake II
5 days ago
srirachha15
backloggd
Resident Evil 2
5 days ago
srirachha15 is
now playing
Resident Evil 2
5 days ago
srirachha15
reviewed
XDefiant
Yeah it's good. Good job for once, Ubisoft. Scratches that old-school COD multiplayer itch. Not a lot of good multiplayer games out there right now so I appreciate when something like this comes around. Only complaint I'd say is that the TTK is a little too high, but maybe that's because I don't have a good loadout yet. Good shit.
7 days ago
srirachha15
completed
XDefiant
7 days ago