Crysis 2 Writer Calls Modern Warfare 2 a Disappointment

[Tom Goldman]

Crysis 2 Writer Calls Modern Warfare 2 a Disappointment

Crysis 2 [http://www.gamestop.com/Catalog/ProductDetails.aspx?product_id=74392].

To Richard Morgan, the sci-fi author hired to pen Crysis 2, Modern Warfare 2 is not the game it should have been. At a recent Crysis 2 event held in New York (covered by The Escapist CVG [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/op-ed/7398-Preview-Crysis-2-Blowing-Up-Consoles-in-New-York-City] that the story of Modern Warfare 2 just doesn't cut the mustard.

"I thought Modern Warfare 2 was an immense disappointment," he said. Doesn't he know that Modern Warfare 2 is the most popular game of all time, and therefore has no flaws? Ah, sarcasm.

He went on to say that Modern Warfare 2 is a "massive step down from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare" and that the "story is worse and the game doesn't really hang together, it's just a bunch of mission levels."

"It made no sense. It was totally implausible. It doesn't resolve. Basically, all the things that bad storytelling does. I just think they were way too impressed with themselves and that's always a danger. It's just unfortunate."

The world doesn't seem to have the same opinion as Morgan, or care as much, considering how people have already played Modern Warfare 2 for 200,000 years [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/99811-Modern-Warfare-2-Players-Log-200-000-Gameplay-Years] on Xbox Live alone up to this point. It's always nice to see a dissenting opinion of a game that is so popular, but it's a little harder to accept from someone working on a competing product.

However, Morgan's impartiality could be shown in later comments made about Uncharted 2. "Everything that didn't work very well, they fixed or ramped up or did something with," he said of Naughty Dog's recent effort. Is this just one man's opinion, or did Modern Warfare 2 really disappoint as far as the single-player game goes?

Source: CVG [http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=242227]


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[Cherry Cola]

The world doesn't seem to have the same opinion as Morgan

Someone hasn't been exploring the forums enough.

This opinion seems to be like most others: The story sucked. Nothing really surprising.

 

[Irridium]

"Son, I am dissapoint..."

That pretty much sums up my feelings of the campaign.
It did have its moments, but as a story, it wasn't that great.

Spec-Ops was fun though.

 

[JRCB]

Yeah, I was pretty confused about MW2's story. I liked the first one a lot more.

I really hope they start uping the quality of stories for first person shooters soon.

 

[DigitalSushi]

When it comes to CoD MW2's campaign, well my 13 year old cousin and all his friends were blown away by it, all of my friends over the age of 18 (like in real life) were not impressed.

I've not played it, so I can't really have a say other than, it doesn't appeal to me.

 

[D_987]

The world doesn't seem to have the same opinion as Morgan, or care as much, considering how people have already played Modern Warfare 2 for 200,000 years [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/99811-Modern-Warfare-2-Players-Log-200-000-Gameplay-Years] on Xbox Live

I don't quite see how you came to this conclusion?

How does the amount of time a large group of people (A decent number of whom won't have even played the single player missions) played multi-player correlate to people liking the single player storyline?

He's right, in my opinion - I've not seen anyone say that Modern Warfare 2 had a good story - in fact many reviews (IGN's particularly) also seemed to point this out - yet the majority didn't put enough emphasis on just how disjointed and poorly done the storyline really is.

In of itself, the storyline isn't bad - you have your standard 3 main parties (Makarov, Shepared and Prince and co.) with each mission effecting one or the other party until eventually they all turn on each other. Yet the way they communicated what was occuring was some of the worst I've seen in a first-person shooter. Watch some of the opening mission clips (although now you know what's going to happen they make more sense) and attempt to work out how much information you're given from them - not a lot - and many of them don't really have a direct correlation between what's occurring in the storyline at that moment.

The best example would have to be

Spoiler

When the Russians invade the USA - the game just basically shows a map of the US and you ca hear some people communicating that there are a large number of "bogies", that's it - we're not told their motive (which is utterly moronic once you do find out) nor why they specically sent in ground troops - you're not told where you're going or even what is really happening - it's just really terrible storytelling.

In Call of Duty 4 you were given a proper mission briefing explaining what you were going to do, or the different characters motivations. In Modern Warfare 2 the story only really got interested at the end - because you had a clear motivation and an understanding of the bigger picture - your aim was to kill Shepard as he wanted you dead - simple. Yet for most of the game you're supposedly looking for information on Makarov (although you're not really told that until about midway through) yet the missions themselves offer no real clarification of why you're at that place, why everyone in the area wants you dead etc.

 

[Screams]

I agree with Morgan, MW2 is inferior in every way to CoD4 except maybe the graphics.

 

[Cabisco]

I think it was just too over the top, they took the 'shock and awe' moment from the first modern warfare and tried to replicate it for every mission. The result was a game which was just idiotic and because your constantly shown over the top scenarios they completely loose their wow factor.

 

[Simalacrum]

As the story went, I thought it was actually quite good - sure it was short and whatnot, bad it was dramatic, had lots of action and stuff, etc etc. I don't care if its implausible - its a videogame for Pete sake, it doesn't have to be plausible! Would Monty Python (possibly the least plausible thing of all time) be considered bad writing?

 

[SavingPrincess]

...did Modern Warfare 2 really disappoint as far as the single-player game goes?

Short Answer: Yes.

Unnecessarily Exploratory Answer: Yes, it felt entirely like an afterthought and a necessity more than an intention. The Michael Bay-like setpieces and over the top gimmicky special effects did not lend a bit to the narrative other than something to distract the attention-deficit from how shoddy the overall arc was. The multiplayer, while decidedly Madden-esque in its delivery, seems to negate this aspect in the eyes of the masses, but not me.

 

[TheMadDoctorsCat]

Yeah, I was pretty confused about MW2's story. I liked the first one a lot more.

I really hope they start uping the quality of stories for first person shooters soon.

Pish. As always this kind of thing depends on what you're looking for from your FPS. If you want a freaky atmosphere and scary story, you go for your System Shocks / Bioshocks. If you just want something fun where you can blow up a few buddies sometime, you go for your Team Fortresses and your Unreals. And if you just want a giant enemy-fest, you go for your Dooms and your Painkillers. Personally I can enjoy all of those games if I'm in the right kinda mood.

If anything, I find that the games sometimes try to do too much for me. "Painkiller" is a prime example. The problems with its endless cutscenes concerning characters that never even appear in the live game are well documented. Less well documented is the achievements system. Absurdly, to my mind, you have to complete a whole host of ridiculous achievements that have nothing at all to do with how well you play the damn game, in order to complete it!

I mean, one level has an achievement for not killing any more than eighty-eight enemies. I'm sorry, but what kind of shooter won't let you progress until you learn to NOT kill enemies? What the frick? Whose dumb idea was this? Get out of the way and let me kill some stuff, thanks!

 

[Asehujiko]

...Crysis... ...Calls... ...Modern Warfare 2... ...disappointment...

Pot, meet Kettle.

 

[VGFreak1225]

Yeah, the campaign may have been a roller-coaster ride of excitement, but the written storyline was a mess.

 

[DarkSaber]

Modern Warfare 2s story (all 3 and a half hours of it) is absolutely terrible.

 

[Vigilantis]

I can agree Modern Warfare 2 was in general a disappointment, however I enjoyed the ride, the musical score and story game play more or less really brought out an epic journey for me at least. I can say I am neither glad nor happy that I spent money on this game, its just another game for me when I'm not playing Uncharted 2 or Aliens Vs Predator.

 

[Delusibeta]

The tl;dr edition of this article: Dude who's working on Crysis 2 states the general consensus on MW2 & Uncharted 2. Not much to see here, in my opinion.

 

[MatsVS]

...Crysis... ...Calls... ...Modern Warfare 2... ...disappointment...

Pot, meet Kettle.

Yeah, Richard Morgan had absolutely nothing to do with Crysis. Nice try, though.


I am looking forward to The Cold Commands, even though The Steel Remains was slightly disappointing.

 

[Jack and Calumon]

This man Agrees.

Calumon: It was a disappointment everywhere. People just don't be quiet on it. >.<