Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. “Best Game of All Time”… Yeah Right.

Attention Call of Duty Fanboys: it is probably best if you look away now, as you will not like what you read. In fact, it might make you melt and shrivel up into a pile of oozing acne puss, or at the very least make you hate me. And I don’t WANT to be hated, even by you. Just a warning.

Now that thats out of the way, I am not going to pretend like i have played it, because i haven’t(yet), but any gamer who has been playing video games for as long as i have will immediately doubt the claims any game gets when touted as “biggest game of all time”. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 does look awesome, but really, best game EVER!? Give me a break, internet.

A simple Google search brings you a barrage of praise that proclaims Infinity Ward as geniuses and creators of not only the best game of the year, but the best game ever. My problem with all these statements are the same problems I have with the game industry right now in general: ALL the A+ titles are rehashed sequels, that are fun, but are nothing we haven’t seen before. I am not doubting that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 will be a great game, and i am positive it will be a blast to play, but to what standards are we holding our “best game ever” claims? I feel like that term is thrown around so loosely these days, to the point where we forget that this game is just something that has already been done before. How can a game that builds upon an original concept become the top of the art form? Or are we not looking at games AS an art form?

On that note, there is one thing that Infinity Ward did do to break the mold of mediocrity. The one scene that has been getting major controversy around the world in mainstream news is the extremely unsettling opening sequence of the game. If you haven’t heard (how is your home under that rock?), you play for a brief moment as the Russian terrorist organization and mow down civilians in an airport. Now, please don’t take this the wrong way: It is not that I LIKE the idea of mowing down innocent people in an airport, I don’t get my jollies from doing that. In fact, it makes me really uncomfortable. But from all that i have heard about the game so far, that is the one thing that really piques my interest and makes me say ” wow, that is interesting and unique”.

I am so sick of any entertainment medium staying “safe”, and especially in games, this “to controversial dumbed down content” is almost all we see. We are always the “heroes” saving the day from the “bad guy” in a black and white world; one unlike the real one we live in. Kudos to Infinity Ward for not being afraid to do something risky and putting the player in an uncomfortable situation, even if it only is for a small amount of time. Give me more of that and maybe I will consider your title game of the year material, though i am sure the “real world” will probably hate us both. Oh well!

In the end, all i know is by tonight I will be playing this “masterpiece” myself, and though i most likely will be having a ton of fun blowing up my friends on Xbox Live, I know in the back of my mind that this will have nothing on the original Metal Gear Solid, or Chrono Trigger, or any other game that defied genres and pushed for something new.