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First Modern Warfare 2 Demo Level: Cliffhanger
Modern Warfare 2 is a direct sequel to the first installment, but even so, the start of the game is definitely different.
The first images that we were shown were white as snow. That's because we were in the middle of a blizzard.
The first mission of the game takes place somewhere in the Kazakhstan mountains. The title ‘Cliffhanger’ is suitably appropriate for this level, as the first thing we do is shimmy across a narrow ledge. Beneath us is a deep ravine, the wind is howling and it’s cold. Ten seconds later, we’re hanging on a ice wall, by means of two picks. Straight up the side it is. The picks are controlled with the trigger buttons, one by one. The cracks made by our icepicks are in no way scripted.
The howling wind is still ever present and it does not make it any easier on fully kitted soldiers climbing up a mountain.
A fighter screams past, just over our heads. The enormous noise generated by the plane causes a small avalanche to occur. Heaps of snow and large ice cones only just miss us. Suddenly I fall. Captain MacTavish grabs our hand just in time. MacTavish… doesn’t that ring a bell? Precisely, it’s one of the main characters of the previous game.
During moments like these, the gameplay is slowed down. The same thing happens when you kick down a door, or trigger an explosion. A small slow motion segment happens, after which the gameplay returns to it’s normal pacing.
INFILTRATION
What struck us here is the finished look of the game. The frame rate, the facial expressions and the little graphical details, it all already looks super smooth. The best part of it all is that Robert Bowling and Vince Zampella (the guys demoing the game to us) know it all too well. You could see them gleaming when they could finally unveil the project. When they could finally open their mouths about it.
Finally on top of the mountain, we and MacTavish are trudging through the snow. Our weapon has a heart beat measuring device, allowing us to detect our enemies. Snowfall heavily limits vision. At no more than 30 meters ahead of us, two patrolling soldiers. MacTavish: “You take the left, I’ll take care of the right!” We wait until a fighter jet flies overhead to mask the noise of our shots, and take the patrolling enemies down with a minimal amount of bullets. The blood spatters fly through the air and color the snow red.
Modern Warfare starts with a pure infiltration mission. We’re supposed to sneak around, which is not what we’re used to. The accompanying stealth kills are new to us as well.
ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE
We dispatch of a patrol a couple of times again, and sneak into the enemy camp, cutting some throats here and there and setting explosives.
It is at that moment that we are caught and MacTavish is forced to surrender.
Just before he does so, he yells over the comms to proceed with plan B.
MacTavish is being held at gunpoint by about twenty Kazach combatants. A simple press of the button makes the scenery behind these guys explode, which ends our sneaking around - and all hell breaks loose.
Half the camp is one fire, smoke plumes, jet fighters, and helicopters are involved, and armed enemies pour from every nook and cranny. When the first real shootout starts, the floor of the hotel room shakes. Should be audible three stories down.
So, MacTavish was saved by the explosion, but how long will you last in this chaos? Not long, it turns out. Accordingly, we were spraying the guns around like blindfolded Rambo’s taking cover behind sandbags before getting our asses onto snowmobiles.
DOWNHILL
Like two drunken teenagers, we race down the mountain at full speed on our snowmobiles. Zig-zag-ging between the trees and all the while we keep shooting at our enemies. Looks like James Bond in Die Another Day.
While there is little color on this level, there’s enough to experience. Racing through fresh snow, to gliding across an ice sheet. No matter what surface we’re traveling on, it’s fast… downhill fast. Bullets whistle past our heads, trees get hit and fall down, snow falls from branches, and if all that isn’t enough, a large chasm looms. A huge jump follows. We’ve made it, and are greeted by our teammates.
The mission is (partly) successful.
Second Modern Warfare 2 Demo Level: Slums
The next level we were shown seemed like more familiar terrain to us, or so it appeared. It turned out fairly quickly we were not in Afghanistan, but in fact in a "favela", a slum in Rio de Janeiro.
We’re in a car when all of the sudden, we’re fired upon. Our driver gets a bullet in his head and is bleeding to death on the steering wheel. The amount of bullet holes in the windshield is multiplied in a mere fraction of a second.
You’ve probably already seen it coming: all hell breaks loose, again.
Large numbers of bad-guys are shooting -- and not only at us. Our objective is pursuing some dude, but we have to capture him alive.
It’s complete chaos. Residents of the city run away screaming, in sheer terror. Exploding cars, bodies in the streets; looks like a news broadcast about Afghanistan or Iraq on a particularly violent day.
You don't want to hit civilians, which are around in large numbers. Hitting the right target is a must. Nevertheless, we succeed in hitting the sprinting dude, the one we were looking for, in the leg. We’ve got him! That’s where the demo ended.
GREATNESS IN LITTLE THINGS
At that moment, our ‘demonstrator’ Zampella, quits the mode, detaches the camera and shows us a gigantic level. He zooms out, and in again. For Modern Warfare, they’re using texture streaming, so that much bigger levels can be created.
Will you notice more "pop-ups", we asked. Bowling was honest about it: “Yes, that could happen if you don’t utilize the technology correctly, but we'll get it right".
We can expect even bigger levels, which is good news.
“You can devise your own approach to success in these levels. However, we haven’t done it, just because it’s technically possible. The story and gameplay come first, and then we think about making it technically possible.”
Modern Warfare 2 is going to surpass it’s predecessor in the graphics department as well. Among other things, the lighting is a lot better than it was in COD4. The way the sun reflects in a windshield or on the lenses of the weapons is more realistic.
When zooming-in you can even see finger prints on the lens. Really, the details are unprecedented.
The favela shacks, made from corrugated-plate built on mountainsides are everywhere, it’s bizarre how pretty it is. All those huts, all those little hallways; we’re inundated by details, like a few old newspapers in a little corner, being subtly moved by the wind. It’s amazing!
When we remark that this would be an amazing multiplayer map, Bowling answers, with a wide smile ”Yes, yes it would…”
Third Modern Warfare 2 Demo Level: Desert
By now, we’ve seen two levels, packed with action.
In Rio, we stopped playing after a while, and just ‘looked at the game’. For example, the way the level was built. The ‘Slums level’ is not done yet, although you’d think otherwise at first glance. The gentlemen at Infinity Ward are not ones that leave things half-finished and didn’t want us playing ‘unfinished business’. Which was the reason we explored the third level in precisely the same fashion in which we concluded the second level.
Now, we’re now smack dab in the middle of a desert. A barren landscape with nothing but sand all around.
Zampella tells us we’re driving a truck from the middle of the desert to a ravine.
There, we see a deep ravine, with a river in it. We also come across a abandoned settlement. The setting is old and dilapidated. Zampella says we’re going to climb down the cliff face. Right at that moment, you see a smoke stack, puffing out smoke, and realize that this abandoned settlement is anything but abandoned. When we, just after, notice a cave entrance, it becomes clear. We’ll be playing underground!
After walking into the cave a bit, Bowling starts to tell how proud he is of this segment. “It looks a lot like that scene in Iron Man, where he builds his suit”.
He’s right. It looks exactly like that!
The cave has large rooms and consists of a seemingly endless corridor system, right until we exit on the other side.
“We really have to stop now, guys” An Activison rep tells the Infinity Ward guys. You can tell by looking at the two, that they’d like to tell more and show more. In their enthusiasm, they’ve told too much already.
Final Thoughts
It’s clear that there’s a lot of work still cut out for the development team, especially so considering the rock solid November 10th deadline. It’s very clear however, that these folks are doing one hell of a job. Who’d have thought they’d top CoD4’s levels?
Nevertheless, that’s exactly what it looks like they’re going to do. Of course, as an experienced gamer, you won’t be immediately blown away, after all, you’re used to Modern Warfare’s levels, but count on it that number two will be a unavoidable game for everyone.
Activison manager Simon Wells even dares to predict that Modern Warfare 2 will be the best selling game ever.
That comment notwithstanding, it is very clear, even now, that we’re dealing with such an awesome game that every gamer with common sense will place a big exclamation mark on November 10th in their calendar.
THINGS THAT STOOD OUT
In two hours time, Bowling and Zampella showed us one complete level, some pieces from another, and a specially for the purposes of a demo, constructed demonstration space in which you could blast anything back to kingdom come. Further, they mainly gave us info about the story and the possibilities within the level they ran. They kept their lips shut, but nevertheless, by paying close attention and asking some clever questions, we managed to glean some things, which we’ll divide into the segments ‘singleplayer’ and ‘multiplayer’.
SINGLEPLAYER
* The physics on bullets and grenades have become more realistic. Bullets will now ricochet, and grenades will bounce down stairs, or roll down inclines, like they would in real life.
* You can now hold a pistol in one hand, and a knife in the other. In doing so the knife hand supports the gun hand. Knifing will now become even more popular.
* We’re going under water. Why else would they show us a extremely cool, heavily armed SEAL diver?
* We glimpsed a level with the name ‘International Cyber Space Lab’ We aren’t going into space are we? Or was this a abandoned Russian missile base.
* Bullet time will make it’s debut in CodMW2. Hold your horses!, it won’t be FEAR, ramming on yellow if you get into trouble. Bullet time will only occur when the developer wants it to, and will be used more like a dramatic effect during an explosion, allowing you to take out those few extra enemies.
* This time around, there will be innocent bystanders.
MULTIPLAYER
* There will be a number of new modes in multiplayer. More about this will be only made public after E3, but they are modes we aren’t seeing in other games yet. The menu structure from which you start multiplayer sessions, will be changed as well because, and we cite Bowling, “there will be too many extra things, that we want to present in a decent manner”.
* And...the music will be different as well.
* MW2 will have a number of new perks that will undoubtedly be a pleasant surprise for the community.
* The riot shield will be, for a 100% sure, a perk. Bowling let it slip, that you’ll be able to carry two shields with two guys, and that a third player could, while taking cover behind the two gents, open fire on the enemy. How sick is that?
* For console folks, good news. For everyone hating on dudes that decide to walk out in the middle of a game. Bowling wouldn’t say how, but he indicated that there would be “options to act on that”. We’ll be keeping him to his word, because if there’s something we hate.
A RACE AGAINST TIME
An innovation in CoDMW2 that we liked a lot, was the addition of so-called Challenges.
When you complete a level in the singleplayer, you immediately unlock a ‘Challenge’. This Challenge looks the most like the Horde mode from Gears of War 2, where you have to ace a bucket load of enemy.
In CoDMW2, it's all about time: the faster you blast everyone in a certain location, the higher you get in the rankings.
Really a very nice addition that at the moment is only playable splitscreen with two people, but will very likely be playable through online co-op (special forces mode) as well. This will be hard, as proven by the fact that Bowling and Zampella couldn’t get through it, with the two of them playing on regular. And they built the level themselves.
DESTRUCTIBLE ENVIRONMENTS
A big wish in the CoD community was that there’d be more destructible environments in Modern Warfare 2. In the first game, you could penetrate a lot of material with your rounds, but really strategically destroying a position wasn’t possible.
That desire has been heard.
MW2 still is no Red Faction, but a whole lot more can be sent to kingdom come. And, in true Infinity Ward fashion, not in a cookie-cutter way. For example, you can blast a fire hydrant, resulting in a huge geyser. It looks awesome, and will obscure part of your vision.
Another nice one is the gas pump of which the hose, when the thing is hit, will bark out a thick jet of fire, like a turning an tumbling dervish. We aren’t sure yet, but we can see both the fire hydrant and the gas station coming back in multiplayer. Resulting in unheard of strategic possibilities.
Furthermore, crates and boxes were riddled, and they really broke into pieces and splinters, that ended up in the air, and floated down to the ground in real time, all accordance to the laws of gravity and wind. Pure eye candy, that unfortunately, you won’t have a lot of time to admire, as the enemy won’t account for sight seeing.
Das meiste kennen wir schon, aber hier gibt's wenigstens etwas über den MP zu lesen...
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