“Call Of Duty” has long been a gaming juggernaut, recently culminating in the astonishing sales of “Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2,” a game which has set records and, to date, has reportedly grossed over US $1 billion. As a general rule, the franchise rarely, if ever, disappoints in gameplay – it is always a tense, engrossing experience which places players in the middle of combat and relentlessly pushes us through mission after mission until we reach the end of the game.

While the historical “Call Of Duty” games have more or less accurately captured the feel of battles in World War II, the “Modern Warfare” franchise deviates from this formula by placing players in a fictional, contemporary setting in which we fight against terrorist cells, weapons and munitions suppliers, militias and so forth. In the case of “Modern Warfare 2,” players will fight the usual groups of thugs ... as well as dangers that we never could have imagined and never saw coming.

First and foremost, “Modern Warfare 2” is absolutely worth playing; it is likely one of the essential games of this console generation. It’s an immersive, adrenaline rush of a game, filled with white-knuckle moments, enemies in the crosshairs and trying to survive to the next checkpoint. Even on the easiest setting, this game is not easy. However, it offsets that difficulty with what feels like more checkpoints than “Modern Warfare” had, and although some missions may be more frustrating than others, it rarely seems to take more than half-a-dozen attempts to successfully complete any particular goal and the game is fairly forgiving; usually, a player will only lose a few minutes of progress. Although the single-player campaign still feels a bit short in comparison to other games (it can probably be completed in as few as five hours, although most people will likely need seven to ten hours to finish it), “Modern Warfare 2” compensates for this with a wide variety of Spec Ops missions.

The Spec Ops missions offer a variety of tasks – as is common in gaming, later missions are unlocked by completing a set number of missions, meaning that you will have to complete some number of tasks to advance to the next level. The missions can vary from relatively easy to very challenging, and some require co-operative play, so you’ll need a friend either in the room with you or online to successfully complete them.

However, where “Modern Warfare 2” shines, much like its predecessors, is multiplayer. Generally speaking, the multiplayer experience is fantastic and challenging when taken as a game. With that said, some people in the “Modern Warfare” and “Modern Warfare 2” gaming communities seem to engage in a fair amount of trash talking which can be discouraging, especially given the volume of profanity and often highly offensive insults that can come from less mature players. It appears to be fairly common practice for people to disable speech while playing “Modern Warfare 2” online and, given my personal experience with both games, I’d certainly recommend that approach until you have a number of friends who will play the game with you.

On the other hand, “Modern Warfare 2” implements some rewarding changes to multiplayer, including deathstreak bonuses, which are essentially the opposite of killstreak bonuses – instead of getting a reward for achieving a certain number of kills in a row, you will get a temporary bonus for dying a certain number of times in a row. Some of these bonuses, like Last Stand, can be quite powerful and are available in default classes which will help you last a bit longer and be a bit more successful in multiplayer matches. Again using Last Stand as an example, it gives you a brief period of time to kill someone after being downed; if you succeed and survive for a certain period of time, you’ll return to full health and be able to resume playing normally. In that sense, multiplayer is more forgiving than it was in “Modern Warfare.”

Then there are the Accolades – while “Modern Warfare” could feel very frustrating due to skill gaps and mismatches, “Modern Warfare 2” offsets this somewhat with awards at the end of a match for various accomplishments, like spending the most time prone or crouched, or traveling the greatest distance or spending the most time sprinting or having the most grenade or knife kills. It’s a way to recognize what a player actually did during a game and where a player succeeded, which feels like a welcome addition.

As enjoyable a game as it is, there are still ways that “Modern Warfare 2” could be improved – matching players of comparable levels (perhaps levels 1-10, 11-20, etc., instead of levels 1-70 in the same match) and skills (as one example, if a player has completed the single-player campaign on Hardened or Veteran difficulty, perhaps they shouldn’t be matched with a player who hasn’t attempted the single-player campaign on Regular difficulty) together would be a terrific start, but these improvements are mostly fine-tuning something that already works well enough.

Ultimately, the decision to buy this game – independent of accessibility issues – should rest on whether the frantic pace of online multiplayer sounds appealing. If it does, then it’s worth buying the game right now. If it doesn’t, the game is still very much worth playing for the story in the single-player campaign, but the decision then becomes whether to wait until the price drops to a much more reasonable level or to rent it.

Accessibility Issues / Concerns

“Modern Warfare 2” appears to have been designed with some accessibility concerns in mind. Subtitling appears enabled by default, and the text is very easy to read, even from several feet away. While ambient noises and sound effects are not subtitled and there is no switch to enable that feature, the game makes a point of subtitling story and mission instructions. It is true that mission subtitling can fade off the screen somewhat quickly at times, but pressing the Start button will bring up the game menu which includes a list of current objectives, so you can proceed with the game. The omission of sub-titled audio cues (explosions, gunshots, footsteps, etc.) may present deaf gamers with some surmountable challenges in the single-player campaign, but AI-controlled teammates should more than offset this oversight.

However, deaf gamers will likely experience problems with the Spec Ops campaigns and especially with online multiplayer – the lack of sound effect subtitling omits a number of audio cues in both Spec Ops missions and online multiplayer which help players stay alive – gunshots, explosions, footsteps, breaking glass, etc. For a deaf player, the lack of those audio cues could be a very challenging barrier which could make the Spec Ops missions and online multiplayer exceptionally frustrating, especially since there are no AI-controlled teammates assisting players. Furthermore, while some Spec Ops missions have mission-specific subtitling, multiplayer subtitling doesn’t appear to be present. While there really isn’t any mission-specific dialogue, there are still some audio warnings about enemy jets or helicopters, the end of a match, etc., and it’s another barrier to access for deaf people.

Gamers who only have use of one hand may find “Modern Warfare 2” somewhat accessible – one of the southpaw configurations places movement control on the right stick, next to the buttons, resulting in what appears to be a more or less ideal configuration for a right-handed player, but a number of missions require the use of both triggers, the use of both sticks, or the use of both triggers and sticks. With that said, “Modern Warfare 2” does offer four separate controller configurations, each of which clearly displays a map of the controls before you activate that control setup, and that does seem to be progress, even if the controls are not remappable. Considering the rapid pace of action in online multiplayer matches, it appears that gamers with use of one hand would likely experience significant frustration with the game. Given that online multiplayer is a massive part of the “Modern Warfare 2” experience, another game might offer better value.

Gamers with motor function or cognitive concerns will likely find “Modern Warfare 2” challenging, and not in a fun way. While some enemies will stand around and virtually wait to get shot, precision is a concern with the game. There are slow-motion events which require shooting enemies before they do something like killing hostages, and they do require a degree of accuracy. The game is very forgiving of failure in that respect and usually restarts players right before that event, but it still may be a point of frustration for some people. Again, online multiplayer could be significantly frustrating for gamers with these concerns and another game with a longer single-player campaign might offer better value.

Gamers with a form of color blindness shouldn’t encounter any challenges with “Modern Warfare 2”; while some tasks use a red or green box to highlight targets, they never use both. Usually, thermal vision for missiles will use a red box to indicate hostiles (and your location is clearly marked with an icon) while some forms of rocket launchers will use a green box to indicate a target lock. Beyond those two examples, “Modern Warfare 2” does not seem to rely on color to indicate friendlies or hostiles.

Precision: You will need some precision to play the single-player campaign and special ops missions. You will need a significant amount of precision for online multi-player games. Recommend rating of 5 out of 10 for single-player campaign and special ops mission; recommend rating of 0 out of 10 for online multiplayer.

Deaf Gamers: Substantial subtitling, with the only drawback being that mission-specific subtitles can lag behind the voice text on occasion. However, the instructions can still be accessed through the objectives list. Furthermore, the subtitling is highly legible and readable, even sitting several feet away from the TV. Recommend rating of 8 out of 10 for single-player campaign, 0 out of 10 for Spec Ops and online multiplayer.

One-handed: Possible in theory, but likely very difficult. The southpaw configuration places control of movement on the right stick, closest to the buttons, which should help one-handed gamers. Furthermore, each configuration option displays which buttons and controls perform which function, offering gamers a better idea of the control set. However, the controls are not remappable. Finally, a number of tasks in the game require using both sticks or both triggers. Recommend rating of 3 out of 10 for single-player campaign and special ops missions, 0 out of 10 for online multiplayer.

Subtitled: Very clear, legible and readable subtitles – gamers with normal or corrected vision should have no problems viewing the subtitles even from several feet away. Sound effects and ambient noises are not subtitled. Recommend rating of 8 out of 10 for single-player campaign, 0 out of 10 for Spec Ops and online multiplayer.

Color Blind: Some missions highlight enemies in red or green boxes, but the game does not use both red and green boxes at the same time; this should be fine for people with color blindness. Recommend rating of 8 out of 10, but only because the game uses red and green.