I haven't been this disappointed in a game since Grand Theft Auto IV. I am a huge fan of the singleplayer campaing in CoD4. I raved about it. I beat it 4 times, and it's extremely unusual for me to replay a shooter campaign. I felt connected to the characters, enjoyed th plot (even if it was silly, it was consistent), and loved the drama and setpiece moments. Now, to get this out of the way first: The setpiece moments are even better in Modern Warfare 2. Absolutely an improvement there and probably one in general gameplay as well, but....

What the fuck is going on? There is barely any plot. I swear before every mission they just mumble some nonsensical bullshit about Makarov and send you on your way. There is no connection here. The entertaining character interactions are almost completely absent, and the ones that are present don't matter because there are too many characters and you never get to connect with any of them. It's short as hell, tries way too hard to be dramatic, and a narrative so bad even Michael Bay would be embarassed.

I swear they just sat in a room and said "Alright this all the supercool shit we're going to include in the campaign. A plot that fits them together? No, we don't need that."

And as for the airport scene that had reviewers raving about as powerful, I thought it was incredibly stupid. *spoilers* So Makarov kills an undercover CIA agent and all the sudden America is blamed for the whole thing? Did he have an ID on him that said "American CIA Agent?" Were there no security cameras in the entire freaking airport that noticed the the infamous Makarov walking around shooting the place up?

Seriously I was just constantly annoyed by this game.

I haven't played it, but this is exactly what I thought when I saw an extended commercial on tv.  Hey there's a castle, now an airport, now you're on a snowmobile, oh there's a space station blowing up, etc.

I agree about the airport scene and the plot in general. I am enjoying the single player in MW2, and at this point would rank it the same if not slightly better than CoD4. I still have 3 missions to complete so take that for what it's worth.

Well obviously I was more forgiving on the plot's flaws. I guess I really was just expecting a Michael Bay/Robert Emmerich type experience and the game delivered something that is better than what both ususally produce.

I found alot of the set pieces and action scenes really fun. The dramatic scenes were nice, especially the cinematic flare at the end of the airport scene.

I think the airport scene was rushed to, almost as if the director knew it was the money shot and got to it as soon as possible. If they had taken 1 or 2 levels or to develop the characters moral delima then as soon as you walk off the elevator the emotional turmoil would have boiled. It was hard to play thru that 1st part even w/o any character development.

*spoiler* one thing that still annoys me. What happend in that panic room and what was recovered!!! I need an answer *spoiler*

my friend really loved the cod4 single player but i haven't gotten any reviews about mw2.

i, on the other hand, have no interest in the single player mode. i bought the game just for the competitive multiplayer mode (and i'll probably check out the multiplayer special ops, too).

this is just me though. sorry the game didn't live up to your expectations.

Yeah, they never explain the panic room thing. Almost feelslike there's about 4 hours of game missing that would have explained all this crap (although the entire airport was just a poor design decision).

they are going to release the rest of the game as DLC , you can count on it.