Officially announced on February 11, 2009, the game is due for worldwide release on November 10, 2009. It is the sixth installment of the Call of Duty series, and the direct sequel to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, continuing along the same storyline.

Modern Warfare 2 will be released in conjunction with two other Call of Duty games: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Mobilized for the Nintendo DS, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, a port of Call of Duty 4 designed for the Wii console. In addition, a comic book series based on one of the game's characters will also be produced, entitled Modern Warfare 2: Ghost. The developer has stated that the game's proprietary IW 4.0 game engine is an improvement over the engine used in its previous game.

PUBLISHER: Activsion

DEVELOPER:Infinity Ward

CONSOLES: MS Windows, PS3, Xbox 360

RELEASE DATE: November 10, 2009

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Gameplay

Campaign

In response to questions about the length of the single-player campaign, Infinity Ward CCO Jason West stated that Modern Warfare 2 would not be longer than the 6-10 hour-long campaign of Call of Duty 4. Mission settings in the game will include Russia, a military base in Kazakhstan, a desert area in Afghanistan, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. New features include the ability to dual wield handguns.

Multiplayer

Special Ops

Modern Warfare 2 will feature a cooperative mode entitled Special Ops, which consists of independent missions similar in design to the "Mile High Club" epilogue mission from Call of Duty 4. These missions will take place in a variety of locations from the campaign mode, but are related to story of the campaign itself. Special Ops supports cooperative play for up to two players, and can be played alone, in split-screen locally with another player, or online with another player. It includes such scenarios as a snowmobile race, a battle alongside U.S. Navy SEALs, and fending off a wave of 50 enemies at once.

Special Ops is divided into separate groups of missions with changeable difficulty levels. The third group, "Charlie", includes the mission "Breach and Clear", where the objective is to just make it to the end of the level. At the beginning of a mission, players select what weapon to use from several scattered around a room before the actual mission commences. Once a choice has been made, a nearby wall is breached and the mission begins. At the end of each mission, a statistics screen displays how long the player took to complete the level and how many kills were scored. Successfully completing a mission earns the player stars, with missions completed on Veteran difficulty rewarding up to three stars. These stars can be used to unlock further missions in the mode.

Online

The online multiplayer mode of Modern Warfare 2 retains the same experience points and unlockable reward system of Call of Duty 4, but also introduces several new features. Aside from new weapons and equipment, 15 different kill streak rewards can be unlocked and selected by the player. Among these is the ability to call in a strike by an AC-130 gunship after achieving 11 enemy kills in a row. It is also now possible to upgrade perks to a "pro version".

Characters

During the single-player campaign, the player will take on the role of Sergeant Gary "Roach" Sanderson, a young member of an elite, multinational commando unit known as Task Force 141. The player character in Call of Duty 4, Sergeant John "Soap" MacTavish, returns as a non-playable character; promoted to captain in the Special Air Service, MacTavish is now the head of the Task Force and Sanderson's superior officer. A third member of the Task Force is Ghost, a mysterious character who conceals his face with a skull-imprinted balaclava.

Plot

Modern Warfare 2 is set several years after the conclusion of Call of Duty 4. The radical Russian Ultranationalist organization has returned to prominence under the leadership of Vladimir Makarov, a former associate of Imran Zakhaev with his own ambitions. Makarov has publicized Zakhaev's death as an act of martyrdom to garner support for his cause, enabling him to build a strong power base in Russia over the years. Fearful of Makarov's growing influence, the global community established Task Force 141 to counter the threat posed by the resurgent Ultranationalists.

An early campaign mission called "Cliffhanger" was demonstrated during E3 2009, following the player character Sergeant Sanderson as he and Captain MacTavish infiltrated a Russian base in the Tian Shan mountain range in Kazakhstan and escaped on snowmobiles.

Downloadable content

Activision announced that two downloadable map packs will be released for Modern Warfare 2. Microsoft stated at E3 2009 that these map packs would be made available for the Xbox 360 via Xbox Live before they would be released for other platforms. Robert Bowling said that community response to the game and the first two downloadable map packs would be used in designing other potential map packs.

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