I just wish the campaign had been as much fun to play as it was to look at. I was often in awe of the game’s staggering attention to detail - so much so that a short segment tasking me with engaging in a bit of misdirection in the streets of Amsterdam was so visually captivating that I spent more time sightseeing than I did actually completing the mission. Even better, that largely carries over into the missions as well.

The last few games were graphical showcases themselves, but Modern Warfare II is in a league of its own, packing some of the most realistic environments and character models I’ve ever seen in a video game. While I didn’t care much about the events happening during the otherwise dull cutscenes, I was immensely impressed by the sheer quality of the visuals that accompanied them. The production values and acting are remarkable across the board, but with so many characters from various factions crammed into a shallow five-hour campaign, we’re never provided with enough time with any one of them to care about where they’ve ended up when the credits roll.

Picking up a few years after the first game, Modern Warfare II once again brings back beloved series mainstays like Captain Price, Simon “Ghost” Riley, and John “Soap” MacTavish, who find themselves entangled with multiple groups of friends and foes as they attempt to track a terrorist who has stolen American-made missiles. It’s rather sad, then, that Modern Warfare II‘s campaign doesn’t feature much beyond a bombardment of military jargon, characters with superficial motives, and a whole lot of nothing to say. Vanguard from 2020 told an affecting tale of a ragtag group of soldiers who reflected on their individual pasts as they underwent Nazi interrogations during World War II, and 2019’s Modern Warfare did a decent job of examining morality and the long-term effects of war. While they rarely strive to be high art, I’ve been thoroughly engrossed in the narratives in most of Call of Duty’s recent campaigns. Whether it’s worth the asking price comes down to what you’re hoping to get out of a Call of Duty game. Its soulless campaign feels familiar without ever being half as memorable as the games it’s trying to replicate, but its multiplayer is mostly successful at bringing all of the usual thrills alongside a couple of cool tricks up its sleeve. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, by comparison, is a more mixed bag, with its two major components very much at odds with each other.

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