From what I've played, the gameplay is spectacular, but the story is far from satisfying. Fun, though.
Crysis 2 Writer Calls Modern Warfare 2 a Disappointment
- Thread starter Tom Goldman
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I thought the story sucked, the game was fun though and looked nice. 2/3.
Storytelling, though important is in the back seat when it comes to shooters, we just need an excuse to shoot. Its like TF2, not much story, just shoot (*please don't kill me for saying that, I thought the game was awesome)
I find that its certain genres that need more storytelling than others. A good story will be a great boon to the game but if the graphics are poor for the time (classic games are exceptions) and the game doesn't play well then who cares about the story until the game is good.
Storytelling, though important is in the back seat when it comes to shooters, we just need an excuse to shoot. Its like TF2, not much story, just shoot (*please don't kill me for saying that, I thought the game was awesome)
I find that its certain genres that need more storytelling than others. A good story will be a great boon to the game but if the graphics are poor for the time (classic games are exceptions) and the game doesn't play well then who cares about the story until the game is good.
Aside from Jessie Stern, who's written a handful of episodes for several TV series, no one involved in the writing of Modern Warfare 2 is actually a professional writer. Even Jessie Stern is a bit of an enigma in this regard, because the bulk of his page on IMDB is actually producer credits. In many cases, they're people who've been with Infinity Ward in other capacities in previous projects.dbrose said:
On the other hand we have Richard Morgan who lacks an IMDB page of any kind, but does have a page on amazon.com (I'm assuming he is in fact Richard K. Morgan), with about half a dozen novels in print. According to the bio on here, in this very article, he's a professional writer, by trade.
In his professional capacity, Richard Morgan weighed in on MW2, calling it crap. And from a cursory glance at a synopsis, as a deranged academic, I concur, its crap.
As a writer who is remaining in print, its a pretty safe bet that he knows what bad writing is and looks like. It is also a pretty safe bet that he can do better. (Not even necessarily good, but at least better.)
(For the record, Richard Morgan was not involved in the original Crysis.)
The story was bad, really bad, without excuse terrible. It was confusing and mashed up, but held the game together, just.
These two factors have nothing in common with each other. Playing devil's advocate has nothing to do with it either. 200,000 years does not equate to 200,000 years of enjoying single player. I would hazard a guess of about..oh.. 97 or 98% of that was spent playing multiplayer (which is actually decent on xbox) and specops (the only portion decent on all three platforms.)Tom Goldman said:Oh, you know, sometimes you just have to play devil's advocateD_987 said:
This is a use of an extremely general statistic to make an extremely specific claim. A common practice in many industries today, advertising being the most infamous. We had to study these a lot in AP Stats.
For that matter, time played does not necessarily equate to liking the story: I played single player much more than multiplayer b/c it was actually functional, and none of my steam friends had MW2, so no SpecOps. I finally stopped playing it when Steam crapped out again and I couldn't get on single player, at which point I finally dropped MW2 for good.
Ah, now I understand. Thank you for clarifying.Starke said:
I find it amazing that almost none of the Writers for Modern Warfare are professionals--the script they put out was second-to-none. The second game was pretty good as well, although I could see that things were starting to go downhill (my personal favorite missions were the ones in war-torn D.C., even if it was straight out of "Red Dawn").
And what game [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0954921/] would that be? In case you're a little slow, I'll explain. This is the first time this writer has been involved in game development, as far as I can find. But, hey, kudos for that hillariou pot/kettle joke. It's not like you were beaten to it by Asehujiko on the first page of the thread.Kalezian said:
The first game apparently only had one writer, and, it's Stern, the guy with the actual writing experience, so, we can probably extrapolate that the deterioration in quality is the result of the others (it's a guess, but a reasonable one).dbrose said:
As for the second being good? Sorry, I can't help you there. What I'm looking at in the synopsis is a cliched "I kan be Tohm Clancey to" train wreck that should have been put out of it's misery in pre-production.
EDIT: To be clear, I don't mean to be condescending or insulting to you. You like it and that's an entirely legitimate matter of personal taste (god knows I love some terribly written games). It's just not, what I would call objectively good, in so far as the writing is concerned.
EDIT 2: Punctuation is my true arch nemesis.
I'm not gonna lie (and this isn't coming from one who loves to play the game online particularly), I still enjoyed the story and wild ride MW2's campaign wasBrockyman said:
It was mad fun and epic, not unlike some insane summer flick
...oh and it was DEFINITELY not GI Joe ridiculous haha it definitely had more dignity
honestly guys, it works and aha I get it, but simply over the top
it's definitely not the Transformers 2 wtf is going on sort of thing
(of course if y'all just wanna hate on it then fine, COD:MW isn't my fav series anyway lol)
I completely agree with this statement, especially the latter portion. I firmly believe that the reason many sequels fall flat on their face is the hubris of the developers and producers. Nine times out of ten, when a game is a huge smash hit, everyone involved in crafting that game let things go to their head. Whether it be intimidation, or in the case of IW an overwhelming sense of accomplishment, the development process goes in the crapper due an abundance of success. MW2 is a gleaming example of what I feel is a mixture of the aforementioned.Tom Goldman said:
MW2 feels as though they were overly confident in attempting to tweak their winning formula. Rather than expanding on the style of gameplay that worked in the original, they practically went off the rails in an attempt to make the game more accessiable and mainstream (in terms of multiplayer), and in the process botched the single player completely. Sadly, those tweaks did more harm than good, and rather than having an amazing single player experience to fall back on everyone is left wanting.
Wanting less glitches.
Wanting a better campaign.
Wanting the original game back.
But hey it sold almost twenty million copies to date, so in the end they win. Right?
Well my first thought was, no shit. Every one thinks the story is terrible. Cod4 was waaaaay better in this aspect.
However I liked the music and the MP. It improved on everything. Also the ending to mw2 was really good, it felt like a movie.
However I liked the music and the MP. It improved on everything. Also the ending to mw2 was really good, it felt like a movie.
Something we are not including is that other games such as Call of Duty World at war Which from my point of view had a nicly plotted snigle player campain( yes we know that WWII has been done before) But it has the Saving private ryan air of "war is hell" but mixes it with historical accuracy and the view on past events no other COD (with the exeption of the Big red one whitch was my favioret call of duty in the series)game i have played offers. But in the end i have to conlude that if the call of duty series contuniues on this path it will i will cease to play them.
Did the contributor for this story forget that the campaign and multiplayer are two separate entities?
Oh well. I agree with the Crysis 2 guy, the campaign for Modern Warfare 2 sucks. It doesn't make any sense and it is barely plausible, especially when compared to the first Modern Warfare. It's a shame that the raw gameplay was good, because I honestly felt ashamed playing through that mess.
Oh well. I agree with the Crysis 2 guy, the campaign for Modern Warfare 2 sucks. It doesn't make any sense and it is barely plausible, especially when compared to the first Modern Warfare. It's a shame that the raw gameplay was good, because I honestly felt ashamed playing through that mess.
If I was to describe MW2's plot, it would be: all over the fucking place.
THE BEST, DAMMIT!
Thank you, sir, for having the best avatar I have seen in my life.BigFurry said:
THE BEST, DAMMIT!
I find both Modern Warfare games to be highly enjoyable and fun to play.
While CoD4 DID have the better, more realistic storyline, I think people are a little too quick to dismiss MW2's story.
Yes, the story was unrealistic, and yes, it was a little confusing. But here's the thing. It's unrealistic in an over-the-top kind of way. Watch any of the...what is it, 22 now?...James Bond films, and you'll realise that over-the-top action entertainment has been around for a long time.
Yes, it's unrealistic...but it's FUN! And for that, I accept MW2's story for what it is.
As for the confusion, I'll admit that it took me about 3 plays through the campaign to understand the story, and even now I'm still a little confused over some points. But here's the point...sometimes a plot is not meant to give you all the answers. Use the squishy thing in your head called a brain and TRY to figure things out for yourself!
I think IW should actually be credited for giving us a plotline that did not spoon-feed us all the answers! The plot had a sense of mystery to it, and the core of a good mystery story is simple: you're not supposed to know all the answers until the end (or at least until the massive plot twist).
I will say this, though; I was VERY DISAPPOINTED with MW2's ending. If there's one thing I hate, from video games, movies and books alike, it's cliffhanger endings that demand a sequel (or two or three). THAT part of the story was obviously for the various companies involved with MW2 to force a Modern Warfare 3 on us...and attempt to make millions off of poor souls who just want to know what happens, and how it all ends.
So while MW2's story IS unrealistic, and IS over-the-top, do not be too quick to associate UNREALISTIC with INADEQUATE. Sometimes we just need some pure escapism, a great adrenaline rush from the comfort of our own homes...and that is EXACTLY what MW2 provides.
You don't like it? Fine, everyone has their own precences, and you don't have to play it. Just please leave those of us who do to our own devices.
While CoD4 DID have the better, more realistic storyline, I think people are a little too quick to dismiss MW2's story.
Yes, the story was unrealistic, and yes, it was a little confusing. But here's the thing. It's unrealistic in an over-the-top kind of way. Watch any of the...what is it, 22 now?...James Bond films, and you'll realise that over-the-top action entertainment has been around for a long time.
Yes, it's unrealistic...but it's FUN! And for that, I accept MW2's story for what it is.
As for the confusion, I'll admit that it took me about 3 plays through the campaign to understand the story, and even now I'm still a little confused over some points. But here's the point...sometimes a plot is not meant to give you all the answers. Use the squishy thing in your head called a brain and TRY to figure things out for yourself!
I think IW should actually be credited for giving us a plotline that did not spoon-feed us all the answers! The plot had a sense of mystery to it, and the core of a good mystery story is simple: you're not supposed to know all the answers until the end (or at least until the massive plot twist).
I will say this, though; I was VERY DISAPPOINTED with MW2's ending. If there's one thing I hate, from video games, movies and books alike, it's cliffhanger endings that demand a sequel (or two or three). THAT part of the story was obviously for the various companies involved with MW2 to force a Modern Warfare 3 on us...and attempt to make millions off of poor souls who just want to know what happens, and how it all ends.
So while MW2's story IS unrealistic, and IS over-the-top, do not be too quick to associate UNREALISTIC with INADEQUATE. Sometimes we just need some pure escapism, a great adrenaline rush from the comfort of our own homes...and that is EXACTLY what MW2 provides.
You don't like it? Fine, everyone has their own precences, and you don't have to play it. Just please leave those of us who do to our own devices.
Well I've yet to play an FPS in which the story was anything other than a turgid pile of crap so I'm just gonna give a preemptive "Your story sucks balls too, quit your bitching" I'd say there's a good 85% chance I'm right already.