It’s been a long long while since I’ve done a Top 5 list, so I thought I’d bring it out especially for Modern Warfare 2. Infinity Ward seem to consistently make these awesome set pieces that really makes their games feel like an action movie. Modern Warfare had such things as the nuke, the final stand off between you and Zakhaev and the mission in which you sneak through post-disaster Chernobyl. Modern Warfare 2 ramped up the intensity and gave you these moments in spades. It was pretty hard to decide my Top 5 but I think I’ve narrowed it down well enough.
Obviously, there will be spoilers ahead so avert thine eyes if you want to stay clean of any plot details.
#5 – Sneaking through a blizzard
Cliffhanger is the first mission in which we get to see the hero from Modern Warfare, Soap MacTavish, in the flesh. This was a strange move for IW, who always seemed to never reveal what their main characters look like so you can decide for yourself. Here we have a burly guy with a mohawk and a thick Scottish accent. Not what I was expecting for sure. You begin by climbing the face of a cliff made of ice. If this hasn’t captured your attention then maybe this will. You then equip a gun with a heartbeat sensor (just like in the movie Aliens) and proceed to sneak through the facility under the cover of a blizzard. The heartbeat sensor becomes your eyes for this mission as visibility is low. Sneaking around the base whilst trying to find the blips on your sensor quickly becomes one of the most tense sneaking missions to grace gaming in a long while.
#4 – Assault on the Gulag
You’ve been told to rescue a prisoner from a Gulag. In you go with a swarm of helicopters and jets flying past. This is intense. Parts of the castle-like Gulag start breaking away as missiles hit the sides, jets swoop past on their bombing runs and finally you land. The entire mission then becomes an intense assault through the maze like corridors of the Gulag. You become trapped in the centre of the prison block as enemies swarm from all directions. You fight your away through a shower block until you reach one of the coolest plot twists in the game. Captain Price is the prisoner and he’s back to kick some arse! Following this, you must quickly escape the Gulag before Shepherd blows the place to pieces. You strap on to the line leading up to the helicopter and just make it out in time to see the jets hit the Gulag one last time.
#3 – Helicopters RAINING FROM THE SKY!
This was one of my personal favourite missions in the game, due to how cinematic it was. The “Second Sun” mission follows on from Captain Price’s detonation of the nuke, sending an EMP blast disabling all electronics. Before this occurred, Foley and his team were pinned down, near their recently destroyed helicopter, by a lovely gunship with the aims of blowing you to high hell. You switch to the view of an unnamed astronaut on the ISS. You’re told to look to the right of planet Earth to see the nuke flying through space and then detonating. This destroys the ISS and kills the astronaut. You swap back to Ramirez, still trapped in the helicopter, when, all of a sudden, the helicopter pinning you down just falls from the sky. You clamber out of the downed helicopter to be met by more falling helicopters. You dodge and weave to avoid falling debris to find out barely any of your electronic equipment works. You then have to fight through a Washington DC plunged into darkness to reach Whiskey Hotel, aka The White House.
#2 – Red Dawn 2: Russians invade again
I love Red Dawn. It’s kind of a guilty pleasure of mine. A group of high school students forming a guerilla army to fight back the Soviet Union that has decided to invade the USA. The same happens in the mission “Wolverines!” with the title itself being a reference to the name of the high school guerilla army in Red Dawn. Here, you’re dropped right into the suburb of Northern Virgina to see thousands of Russian soldiers parachuting to the ground. The stand out moment here is the huge battle that occurs in the fast food area of the city. A high priority target is trapped in a downed helicopter and you need to get him to the storage room of Nate’s (a sort of TGI Fridays type place, probably a parody of Applebee’s). From this restaurant you must defend the spot until you can be extracted. Hundreds of soldiers descend upon your position, causing you to move between Nate’s, Burger Town (Burger King?) and Taco Togo (Taco Bell?) with a huge fire fight occurring in the car park area situated in the middle. Things get even more hectic when the helicopters show and you need to find yourself a rocket launcher fast. This was easily one of the most fun missions in the game, mainly because I felt I was playing Red Dawn: The Videogame.
#1 – All out war
Now comes the time when all allegiances are aside. It is basically survival. The title itself shows this “The Enemy of my Enemy” is my friend. Price and “Soap” MacTavish are on their own, with just the help of Nikolai the helicopter pilot. Shepherd is clearly a mad man, having just killed Roach and Ghost and burning their bodies. You arrive at a graveyard for planes, where a battle is raging between Makarov’s men (the main bad guy in MW2) and Shepherd’s men. You need to make it across the battle to get to Nikolai and fly away to Shepherd’s hiding place on a vengeance mission. What is impressive about this mission is that the battle will rage on, whether or not you want to take part. Everyone here, however, is your enemy. The battle does provide for distractions to sneak through this dangerous battlefield. One section in particular places you atop a hill, where the two armies battle tooth and nail with each other. It’s mesmerising to just sit and watch as the battle unfolds.
So that was my Top 5 Awesome Moments in Modern Warfare 2. Agree or disagree? Want to put your own moment forwards? Leave a comment below with your opinions!
