This could be Tom Clancy, narratively speaking, except this time you're approaching things from another angle, Allen forced to play along in a brutal terrorist attack at a Russian airport. The pacing of this scene is deliberately at odds with the rest of the game, the player following the terrorists around the airport as they casually mow down swathes of innocent civilians. You can shoot too, although you're not forced to, and this level is easily one of the most uncomfortable I've ever experienced. There's something unsettling about the whole nightmare-like horror show, if only because it sits so much at odds with what you expect from a title. Still, from a story perspective its a bold move, and clearly felt it was necessary in making plausible what follows.

Without going into too much detail about where the plot goes from here, it's fair to say that the story plays out like a Donald Rumsfeld daydream, a wounded and angry Russia unleashing merry hell on the eastern seaboard, America having been erroneously blamed for the atrocities at the airport. Switching the 'modern warfare' to the States is something of a masterstroke, middle America proving a compelling backdrop to you'd usually be undertaking in more exotic locales. It is here that the game's designers really go to town, and also here that 2 further sets itself apart in a crowded genre, jam-packed with war-torn premises of one description or another.

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The steamy favelas of Rio de Jeneiro offer Infinity Ward yet more furtive opportunity to show off their mastery, and it is in the narrow crumbling streets that you'll really feel the 'crispness' of the controls, appreciate the the sound effects of the different weapons and also tremble at the sheer unpredictability of the enemy AI. With cover and safety patchy at best, Veteran players will really endure a test of their mettle, while the poignant statue of Christ watches from the mountaintop high above the city. For sheer cinematic exuberance MW2's singleplayer is hard to match, although some of the scenes in the US, and in particular the airport, do sit at odds with a plot that is still more than anything else. That said, when the action is this intense and so finely polished, few will grumble.

Keen to lavish a little love the way of co-operative players, the Spec Ops mode; singleplayer-style missions outside of the main story experience, offers a good few hours of additional action, the standard kept high enough to ensure that this offering is far more than packaging bullet-point fodder. A range of missions are on offer, some harder than others, all of them taking in locales experienced in the singleplayer game from a fresh angle, enlivened for co-op action either locally or online. As with the proper side of Modern Warfare, this aspect of the game is heavily stats-focussed, enabling players to compare their performances and encouraging repeat play in a way that is perhaps less relevant, nay necessary, in the normal singleplayer game.

Of course, if the original Mordern Warfare taught us anything, it is that a ten million selling console game doesn't achieve greatness through singleplayer alone (even the story-heavy series has recognised this), and the multiplayer side of looks to build upon the genre-high watermark set by the original game. More data and statistics than you can shake a stick at form the bedrock of this pseudo-MMO like experience, with customisation also key on both a personal and a team level.

The range of modes on offer is quite incredible, while once again players will be lured into spending hours accruing new honours and upgrades. If anything, the level design is even better than in the original Modern Warfare, while there is once again the tangible sense that the developer has mustered a platform that the gaming masses will make their own over the coming months.

Inevitably, the multiplayer side of the game will evolve in the coming weeks and months, and there will also be the predictable raft of downloadable content further adding to a side of the game we've only briefly tasted for now. Still, fans of the original can rest easy in the knowledge that everything appears to be in place for the multiplayer dominance of the original hit to be continued in this sequel.

The clock is now ticking on this review, however, so it is time for me to some how wrap up my thoughts on Modern Warfare 2. There's so much more I could have talked about, too, the sense of peril in the splashes of blood that your vision as death gets dangerously close, the new fixed gun emplacements, the smile-inducing diversions like the drone bombings and the occasional but hugely entertaining use of vehicles. Indeed, perhaps this broad-ranging virtuosity is the whole point, Modern Warfare 2 can mean so many things to so many games players, and entertain on so many levels. The cinematic appeal of the singleplayer action makes it infectious and hugely memorable in a way few if any other games can manage. That this is bundled with the best multiplayer experience of any game really leaves us in little doubt that this is the complete package. Two years ago we awarded the original Modern Warfare 95 percent, I see no reason why this tour de force, despite its occasional lack of originality, deserves anything less.

95%

By Luke Guttridge