Overview of the game "Why Do We Need Cinema?"

I remember a few years ago when I was swimming with other soldiers in a boat on the Volga, German fighters were roaring in the sky, they were firing bursts from their machine guns, and the fighters next to me were dying. I curled up into a ball, I was silent, I was afraid to speak. At any moment, tracer fire could hit me too. Then they gave us bullets, just bullets — the rifle, well, you’ll pick it up from the dead. And I ran, and I screamed. I tried to save myself... It was one of the brightest experiences of my gaming life. At that time, it was just stunning — there was no need to kill, there was no corridor, there was no single main path lined with crowds of enemies. Call of Duty shocked, showing that first-person shooters could be different...

Since then, a lot has changed. And quite a bit of time has passed. The duty called to another war, the Americans lost their ally status, and Omaha Beach has long since ceased to attract anyone’s attention. But the developers’ approach to Call of Duty remains the same. They try to amaze, to surprise, rather than just making us shoot a lot and hard.

The Show Must Go On

Modern Warfare 2 is provocative. But it provokes in a good way. It’s provocatively expensive, done well. Somewhere, you can put cats on a shotgun and urinate in cops' mouths, and it’s possible to show a nuclear explosion from space, throw us on the assault of a ruined white house, or even create a scene in an airport. And however you feel about it, it’s part of the story, part of the overall picture. No other game can afford anything like it, and Infinity Ward risks and earns 400 million dollars on the first day of sales.

It’s hard to get used to the fact that the game is different, or rather — not like all others. For example, how does training take place in thousands of shooters? Let’s take a kosher Half-Life 2 or any other decent project. There, we learn as we go. We run-run, a beam falls, blocking the way, we press “C” and crawl under it. Then to jump through a window, we need to build a small staircase from bricks. Now we know how physics works here. It’s all fun, visual. But in Modern Warfare 2, it’s simply not easy. And so we find ourselves facing newbies who have just been delivered to the range and we train them to shoot. The commander screams at us: “Show these rookies how to aim and how to hit the enemy with one shot” or “Now throw a grenade so they know how effective it is.”

Or a completely astonishing case. We suddenly find ourselves in open space. Hanging near the ISS, gazing at Earth. It’s beautiful here, calm. And then headquarters contacts us, asking to look at the dark side of Earth (Darth Vaders, be quiet!), so they can also decipher what is happening there through the camera on our helmet. And here we see a small glow, a bright spark circling the planet, flying high until it explodes. Moreover, the impact is so intense that it first destroys the space station and then kills us too.

This is the presentation; where else can you see something like this? Where are we shoved into the skin of some man (an astronaut!) to make a small interactive video. After all, the developers could just show the explosion, briefly or elaborately mention it, even pour millions of dollars into creating the most epic nuclear boom in history. But they wouldn’t achieve such a strong effect; here we seem to have witnessed with our own eyes what happened. We followed orders, observed the rocket, could move a little.

Alright, I’ll stop being pedantic. Tell me, where else will we be climbing up an icy mountain, where will we jump over a huge chasm, and where will a partner catch us at the last moment when it already seems like we’ve made a mistake and are about to fall? Where will we have to run away from several dozen Brazilian terrorists, unarmed, out of breath and stumbling, just to jump onto a helicopter and fly away? Tell me, where else do we start a mission underwater with other divers? And where every level is something new, unusual, something we’ve never seen before in games? I can go on for a long time, but however second-rate the overall story of Modern Warfare 2 may be, every mission is a small reason to drop our jaws and say: “Damn, what amazing developers, and why hasn’t anyone done this before?”

Modern Warfare 2 is no longer just a first-person shooter; it’s an interactive film in the style of Fahrenheit, because besides shooting, there are many other actions here. And I find it utterly absurd to make a movie based on this game. Why adapt something that is essentially already a movie? Well, only for the sake of money... Simply put, Modern Warfare 2 is better than a movie. It’s just as spectacular, epic, interesting, and dynamic, but the main character is you. And you get more powerful sensations than you could while munching popcorn in front of a big screen.

Not About Myself

And there are heroes here too. In principle, quite simple and clichéd, but they act like real people. Moreover, not in the way role-playing games do: they start talking and acting only after you address them. Here they always say something, do something, and kill enemies alongside you, and they actually kill — not just pretend to shoot while waiting for your actions. By the way, many of them are much more skilled fighters than you. Therefore, sometimes the allies are indeed the main heroes. And you are just the sidekick.

What really makes the characters feel alive is that they also make mistakes, they fail, and they can argue or rejoice. Someone will tell a joke, someone will try to open a door, but it gets stuck, and he will struggle with it for a few seconds. He might go the wrong way, get shot by the enemy, or die...

And that’s why this is not a shooter, because in shooters all this would play a secondary role, while here — it’s fundamental. Remove the showiness, remove the innovative scenes, and there’s no Modern Warfare 2 left.

Rack the Bolt

But, of course, we still have a game that is not like Fahrenheit. They are similar in spirit, but by form — it’s heaven and earth. Unfortunately, with all the virtues of Modern Warfare 2, with all its realism and innovation, the shootouts here are just a vast interactive shooting range. And the scale of action is no less than in games about World War II. After we walk twenty meters, a hundred enemies drop. Enemies are everywhere — in all windows, doors, nooks, streets, roofs, basements. If there’s a place without an enemy, it means it’s some mistake of the developers — they simply forgot to seat a standard terrorist (or a Russian invader) there, because they are everywhere in MW2.

This is stressful because we don’t think, we don’t create strategies; we just shoot, run, shoot, and run a little more. Just when something exciting and unusual happens from Infinity Ward, shooting begins. And there are very few missions where something truly unique will occur in terms of shooting. They can be counted on one hand. And what’s doubly astonishing and even disappointing is that if the developers come up with something new in this aspect, it looks stunning. Better than anywhere else. Let me try to explain my point.

Let’s take a mission during a snowstorm. We move slowly with Soap, the enemy doesn’t see us, we find him with a heartbeat sensor. Everything is white around, and we have to proceed almost blindly. The feelings are very amusing when you move slowly like a sapper, turning around, trying to spot the enemy to kill or bypass. Then the cautious gameplay accelerates sharply; the blizzard ends; a hell of a lot of enemies hunt us down; we run, regroup, cover each other, and finally jump on a snowmobile and escape. Isn’t that cool?

Or another case. After the nuclear bomb explosion in Washington, there was a local disaster; the Russians came, broke everything, and captured the White House. And here we charge into the attack through the trenches, like in World War II, with the same ruined White House burning in the background, where the Russians are firing at us with machine guns. The whole city is dug up; a real, genuine war is going on. Helicopters fly overhead, tanks roam nearby. And we run, drop to the ground, shoot back, and hide behind the wrecked cars. And this is also unusual because, unfortunately, epic games are rare. Mostly everything is very simple — you’re one, there are a dozen enemies, three bullets in each, and that’s all the fun...

Just like in MW2, when either the developers run out of imagination, or they simply decide that there’s no need to invent anything. We run (though with some comrades) and shoot at everything that moves aggressively in our direction. And so sometimes you just dream of completing the mission. Because aimless shooting can exhaust even the most bloodthirsty comrades.

Heartbeat Sensor...

But still, you forget the bad stuff, especially when the game sends shivers down your spine. This seems to be my first time. And the situation doesn’t seem particularly thrilling, but just imagine. You’re running at night under the light of fires with a group of soldiers through a destroyed city ruined by the Russians. And suddenly, the radio command transmits that if there’s anyone alive in the area, they should climb to the roof and light signal flares. Otherwise, the location of your shelter will be bombed along with the other buildings... And time is running out, and there’s no final countdown, no numbers in the middle of the screen, and a calm voice on the radio continuously urges to go upstairs and signal... And there’s a minute left, forty seconds, thirty-five... and we’re in the basement, and enemies are nearby, and we try to break through upstairs, and the voice says that there are fifteen seconds left until the airstrike. And the most dramatic moment when one of the soldiers runs ahead, we’re almost on the roof, only need to climb up, only five seconds left, he lights the flares early but stumbles, falls, crawls a few meters on all fours, gets up, and madly waves his hands as soon as he sees the sky...

I don’t know why, but it touched me. The desire to save oneself, the rush, even the hysteria — a lot could be seen in the fall of that soldier. And when we finally find ourselves on top, with signal flares in hand, planes flying directly above our heads, and the radio announces: “We see you, cancel fire,” it feels warm somehow.

Although I admit that in general, all of what the game impresses is quite cliched in cinematography. MW2 uses what exists in expensive but rather ridiculous American action films. But since it’s interactive, it touches us, and that’s why we are amazed. This is games moving to a new level. And I repeat, no one does anything like this. And the only “competitor” is Heavy Rain. Though that sounds a bit funny...

Going into the Light...

But if you have an allergy to brave American guys, if you’re not interested in this new genre that Modern Warfare 2 'spouts,' then you really need to try the game... But I won’t talk anymore about its spectacle, quality, and cinematographic qualities. Now about the network mode. And only about that.

As a policeman, I place my shield, crouch down, and wait for the bullets from Counter-Strike, CoD4 and little lolis with big eyes to fly at me. And even though I’m currently under fire, I will still say — the online mode of Modern Warfare 2 is damn good. Even if it’s not as difficult as somewhere, even if real pros aren’t playing, it doesn’t matter.

There are many delightful features about the MW2 multiplayer. Let’s break everything down in order, starting with the very thoughtful achievement system.

Mom, Now I Kill People Twice As Fast!

When you first start your career, you're at level one and a few pre-made classes are available to you. Among them are sniper, policeman, saboteur, and others. They already have certain weapons selected, and it’s all predetermined — you just have to shoot and adapt. But as you level up, gain new levels, and become accustomed to the game, the classes will allow you to create your own. That's when the fun begins.

It turns out that only a few types of weapons are open. One or two assault rifles, machine guns, pistols, rocket launchers, shotguns, and other types of arms. Even not all grenades are available. And to use what you like — you have to play, gain experience, and “level up.”

But just fighting over and over is not enough. For example, if you get a decent assault rifle that you liked in the campaign, you run around with it, but something is missing. Want a good scope? Kill 70 enemies with a silencer. Need a thermal scope? Blow up 30 enemies with an under-barrel grenade launcher. And to earn anything else, you need to manage to shoot 40 enemies through the wall.

And now you have completely upgraded your third rifle in the game, added various joyful gadgets to it, and then you discover another gun. You tried it, like it more. Therefore, you will have to unlock all the attachments again. And so it goes with every weapon in each category. Someone might say: “Nerdiness!” and I reply — fun. Because this is not Lineage II, where you just have to slay monsters — this is an online shooter where we would have fought opponents anyway, but here we have a specific goal, we want to achieve something and use certain methods to do it.

But MW2 isn’t just about weapons. There are also a whole host of abilities that make life easier and diversify the gameplay. There are four branches, each containing several types of abilities. They too unlock with levels and can be enhanced. And importantly, you cannot use everything at once. From one branch — one ability. The law of the jungle.

As a result, you create your own unique class that may not exist for anyone else. For example, you might have an M16 with a heartbeat sensor and penetrating bullets, a second weapon — a grenade launcher. You know how to throw a knife and a flashbang. Among your skills — an additional slot for attachments, increased penetration power, a scrambler to jam the enemy radar, and a grenade drops out from you after a series of deaths. And you choose all of this yourself and earn it all.

Plus, there are a huge number of achievements (they're also “achievements”) that give you patches and ranks as well as lots of experience upon completion. But “huge number” isn’t just a cliched phrase; it’s really true. There are well over a hundred. And they range from pretty standard ones like “kill 100 enemies” and “win 10 times in domination mode” to something absolutely crazy like “score the final kill by dropping a support crate on an enemy.” There are also just funny ones, like “die from a fall of 9 meters” and “die from a nuclear explosion.” But even recounting a small part of them is difficult — there are just so many.

And it seems all these pictures, given as achievements, are useless. But they create your image, give grounds for bragging, and just for pride. An interesting thing. And IW is probably the only ones who approached the distribution of “achievements” so thoughtfully and cleverly. I remember praising World in Conflict for its reward system, but here it’s on a giraffe’s neck long.

So Many Roads, So Many Paths

Now, directly to the gameplay. It doesn’t differ too much from the previous part, and it often resembles everything we’ve seen in other online shooters. At least, if you don’t take into account all the various upgrades and abilities.

Let me highlight a bit about the game modes. Not all of them, but the most interesting ones.

At the top of my personal list is the “bomb” mode. It’s practically CS-style. Two teams of players, six rounds. In the first three, you try to plant the bomb, after that, in the next three, you defend the points. Death lasts until the end of the round, that is, you cannot respawn constantly.

This is the most brutal mode (especially if you’re playing it on increased difficulty), and complete team interaction is essential. One carries the bomb, the others cover him. Two up front, one in the back, and a couple of soldiers go checking another point to see if anyone’s there. Here, by the way, the choice of abilities and weapons that everyone fights with plays a huge role. Someone always walks around with a heartbeat sensor and tells others where he sees the enemies. And someone, on the contrary, runs with abilities that ignore all “detecting” ones. And such a beauty can very adeptly take down those who slowly and cautiously track the enemy.

But if you don’t have a team, or just want to have fun, welcome to another mode, which is interesting but not as brutal — it’s domination. There are three points on the map that need to be captured and held. And these two teams fight for them. Here it’s less important whether you die or how many times — the main thing is to help defend positions and not allow enemies to grab them.

This is a very fun and dynamic mode. In one minute, you can kill five times and seven times die; it’s a complete non-stop.

There are obviously free-for-all fights and thoughtless team frays. You can grab the flag and fight 9 vs. 9 (usually it’s 6 vs. 6), and there’s also increased difficulty for some modes. This is already local ArmA2 (or even **America’s Army**) — no interface, no aiming reticle, no map, and bullets kill with one or two hits. It’s also pretty entertaining, though it requires more focused actions.

I won’t say that Modern Warfare 2 is the best shooter (or game) of the year. I won’t say that I consider it among my favorites, adored, and best. I might forget it fairly quickly. But the fact that it surprises and delights during the passage — is a fact. And that the online mode steals the deadlines for delivering material — too.

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