User Score
6.6

Mixed or average reviews- based on 3152 Ratings

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  1. Apr 14, 2016
    8
    Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 and Wolfenstein are best shooters of 2009 in my opinion . Modern Warfare 2 has got good graphics , one of best storyline of Call of Duty and Modern Warfare 2 best game of the series with Call of Duty , Call of Duty 3 , Call of Duty World at War and Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 . Modern Warfare 2 is a good game and best shooter of 2009 with Wolfenstein . 8/10 .
  2. Dec 3, 2017
    6
    Enjoyably over the top single-player and a great adrenaline rush of a multiplayer, both local and online. Me and my friends used to play the splits-creen co-op all the time so I have fun memories of Modern Warfare 2.
  3. Mar 27, 2017
    5
    It's cod. Mediocre shooter material at your service folks...

    What's that? Meta critic requires my review to be 150 characters? Please... It's cod lol
  4. Nov 16, 2016
    10
    The greatest game ever made. Thrilling fast paced campaign, top notch multiplayer and excellent Spec Ops mode. I love this game so much. Soundtrack by Hanz Zimmer is amazing. A must buy.
  5. Dec 6, 2016
    8
    The sixth shooter in this long series, infinity ward delivers a competent shooter with good gameplay:

    Pros: -Good written story with a intense campaign -Voice acting and characters are excellent -Good graphics and sound design -Multiplayer is intense and fun -Spec ops mode is enjoyable Cons: -While good, the campaign is short. I completed it in about 5 hours on normal mode and
    The sixth shooter in this long series, infinity ward delivers a competent shooter with good gameplay:

    Pros:
    -Good written story with a intense campaign
    -Voice acting and characters are excellent
    -Good graphics and sound design
    -Multiplayer is intense and fun
    -Spec ops mode is enjoyable

    Cons:
    -While good, the campaign is short. I completed it in about 5 hours on normal mode and I'm not the best FPS player ever.
    -While fun, multiplayer is very unbalanced with many OP kill streaks and guns.
    -Spec ops can be dull if you are by yourself

    In the end:
    Story: 8/10
    Gameplay: 7.5/10
    Multiplayer: 7/10
    Graphics/sound design 8/10
    Overall: 8/10
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  6. Apr 3, 2017
    7
    7.5 - Really good campaign and multiplayer maps as well. The issue was the weapons and perks on multiplayer were not balanced at all, and became frustrating to play at times. Campaign and Spec Ops were done really well, especially Spec Ops since it allowed for coop and made it very memorable.
  7. May 31, 2017
    7
    I seem to have been caught up in the massive explosion of the Call of Duty series when Modern Warfare 2 was released in 2009 and I was only a teen. I first saw MW2 by a friend on their PS3, and was immediately sold. The fanbase and popularity of Call of Duty from there on exploded into one of the most popular gaming franchises in history. Now that I am much older and look at games in aI seem to have been caught up in the massive explosion of the Call of Duty series when Modern Warfare 2 was released in 2009 and I was only a teen. I first saw MW2 by a friend on their PS3, and was immediately sold. The fanbase and popularity of Call of Duty from there on exploded into one of the most popular gaming franchises in history. Now that I am much older and look at games in a more articulate way, I can say that MW2 is perhaps the most overrated COD game ever made.

    Let's start with the campaign, which is definitely a good campaign despite character motives and development being very little in regards. I enjoyed the snow mobile ride even if it was railroaded, the pulling of the knife out of Mactavish and throwing it into Shepard's eye, and a few other moments, but unfortunately the game tries to hard to hold your hand in terms of freedom and playing. To hear your soldiers constantly asking you over to objectives and give you devices and gadgets, it was like I was just being prepped more for the multiplayer instead of enjoying a great campaign that COD4 achieved and WAW had not-as great but still well done regardless. Makarov's involvement was just so one-off, yet you could skip the mission of being in the Russian airport massacre and then have no idea who he was (since he never shows himself again until MW3). The inclusion of Soap MacTavish and Captain Price was not necessary, so it made me a bit confused on why a new group wasn't included. COD4's Marine Sgt. Jackson and his team dies in a nuclear explosion while the two SAS soldiers sustained wounds from a ultranationalist Russian organization. It was suppose to be a story of their's and nothing more should have been become of it. In short, the campaign had good moments, but was lost alot of its charm and brilliance that made the previous unique.

    The spec op missions were a brilliant inclusion to the game, probably the best the game had. Splitscreening with a friend or playing over a mic and chat was really fun and the challenge the missions held were commendable. The Juggernauts were tough foes not found in the campaign and was great to fight overall. I can't help but feel thought something was missing. Maybe it was the fact it was the campaign maps recycled that made the missions not as good, but something else too. Regardless, it was a neat little side activity that proved to be the better arm of the entire game as far as I was concern.

    Of course you have to talk about the multiplayer, which (in the context of ONLY looking at COD4 and WAW for comparison) almost took an entire nosedive in quality. Perk imbalance was still in full swing, and with the new pro effects stacked onto them, the idea of war went out the window. It now became an arcade-like firefight that included goofy camos, scorecards and overload of scorestreaks that it made it feel so dam lame. Was it fun? Yes. But was it carrying on the tradition of its predecessors? I would say no in 100% confidence. With the inclusion of quickscoping, influx of kids and younger adults (like myself at the time) and such at the time aside, it just didn't feel like war now. With the community exploding and releasing a whole slew of hatred and acidity on a whole other level, it's no wonder why so many can see this being the first COD to suck so much.

    I mean overall I can MW2 is a good game, but grossly overrated for the departures it makes that made its previous so good and interesting. It felt like it was more commercialized and safe rather than trying to innovate itself again and prove to be a strong arm for shooters of its time.
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  8. May 14, 2017
    10
    Oh. My. God. If a game better than this ever exists, pinch me because I am definitely dreaming. If you haven't played Modern Warfare 2, then get onto gumtree, eBay, whatever and buy yourself a PS3 or an Xbox 360 because even just to play this classic it would be worth it.
  9. Dec 3, 2017
    8
    This is everything a Call of Duty game should be. The Single player is rather short but very enjoyable.
    As for multiplayer, its the best I've seen in any of the call of duty games. This is easily the most memorable game on Xbox for me.
  10. May 21, 2019
    8
    The story is surprisingly really, really good. The multiplayer is pretty great too.
  11. Sep 6, 2020
    7
    Graphiquement, c'était beau pour son époque. La durée de vie du solo n'est pas très longue, ok,mais fun à suivre.
    il y a aussi le coop et le multi pour rattraper ça. Le multi est addictif, il y a beaucoup d'armes à notre disposition, de quoi satisfaire tout le monde.
    De plus, on peut apprécier le travail d'Hans Zimmer sur la BO de la campagne
  12. May 26, 2019
    10
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Best game jdjdjssjsjjdjsjsshhsshshshshsshshshshنبننبنبترترتتررتتررترتjjdj Expand
  13. Apr 10, 2020
    10
    This is by far one of the greatest video games of all time. Absolutely biblical. The killstreaks are amazing, the killstreak system is amazing. The game ending nuke is absolutely amazing. By far the greatest first person shooter game of all time. Thank you Vince Zampella, Jason West and the original infinity ward for this masterpiece. The Hit detection on the game is amazing and the timeThis is by far one of the greatest video games of all time. Absolutely biblical. The killstreaks are amazing, the killstreak system is amazing. The game ending nuke is absolutely amazing. By far the greatest first person shooter game of all time. Thank you Vince Zampella, Jason West and the original infinity ward for this masterpiece. The Hit detection on the game is amazing and the time to kill is fast, but not too fast as to promote camping. Running and gunning is great in this game. The only problem is the one man army noobtubes and the quickscoping. Ground war domination is the most fun you can have in a video game. If you want to get the nuke, run the 7-11-25 killstreaks (6-10-24 with the hardline perk). The perks are amazing and provide a huge difference to the game. All in all, a masterpiece. Again , a big Thank you to Vince Zampella and the original infinity ward team :) . Expand
  14. Mar 15, 2019
    9
    Amazing single player campaign. Multiplayer is still good just it's really laggy and depending on were you live it can take a while to find games but, if you live in/near a big city in America it will be fine.
  15. Oct 12, 2021
    8
    A Great Sequel to the first Modern Warfare game, with a better story, way more action, and an unbalanced yet chaotic Multiplayer experience.
  16. Jun 26, 2021
    9
    This game's campaign is absolutely amazing, and the multiplayer is still fun even today.
  17. Apr 18, 2020
    7
    A very complete game, one of the best Call of Duty's ever with a good story and excellent multiplayer.
  18. Nov 2, 2021
    8
    Oh baby a triple!! Sorry about that. This game's campaign is phenomenal just like it's prequel. The multiplayer started the dude bro thing and trickshotting. Spec Ops was ok I guess.
  19. Oct 25, 2019
    10
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. It's FANTASTIC. The soundtrack is awesome and now you can enjoy it on XBOX ONE by Xbox backward compatible game... THE BEST COD I EVER PLAYED Expand
  20. Nov 26, 2022
    7
    A bit overrated but it's okay in the multiplayer

    the Campaign is mediocre
  21. Apr 27, 2020
    10
    This game is a masterpiece, I don’t have much else to say besides mw3 is absolute garbage.
  22. Nov 7, 2020
    10
    The best game ever, it was perfectly done, campaign godtier, multiplayer was god like, and spec ops was great, truly the best cod ever.
  23. Jul 30, 2020
    10
    Definitely one of the best first-person shooter games and the best trilogy ever. All three games are a must-play for a complete experience.
  24. Jan 15, 2021
    9
    To put it simply, this is the pinnacle of FPS online gaming. It will be hard to CoD to top this one, much less any other video game.
  25. Jan 21, 2022
    10
    Mw2 combined with mw1 is absolutely best call of duty experience. Vivid characters engaging sory and so many epic locations. Campaign of 2 is not better than first mw but multiplayer in mw2 is brilliant and spec ops are awesome as well. Must play! After mw1 of course.
  26. Jun 21, 2020
    10
    an amazing game the multiplayer but even more so the campaign, by far the best call of duty story ever
  27. Jun 21, 2020
    8
    The pinnacle of what a modern Call of Duty campaign could be. Aside from CoD4, MW2 has the best campaign for my money.
  28. Jun 25, 2020
    10
    Love, love, love this game. Easily the best call of duty ever. Absolute best multiplayer and campaign.
  29. Sep 16, 2020
    9
    Seeing what Call of Duty has become in the future I have to come back to this game and say this game is a relic from the golden age of Call of Duty. this is now one of my favorite games of all time.
  30. Jun 25, 2022
    9
    Amazing game that improves slightly upon the story and game play of Call of Duty 4 but is also very similar still. Only disappointing thing is how short it is compared to older games like Call of Duty 2. The gameplay feels great and smoother than the previous title and the story is a fun quick explosive experience that feel like an action movie. Honestly surprised this game has mixed reviews >.>
Metascore
94

Universal acclaim - based on 100 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Mixed: 0 out of 100
  2. Negative: 0 out of 100
  1. 100
    Modern Warfare 2 crosses into the must-have category of video games effortlessly. It offers an unmatched shooter experience, a compelling story mode, a slick package of mini missions and a multiplayer which is pretty much unparalleled in depth.
  2. 100
    Modern Warfare 2 offers epic gameplay, a stunning Spec-Ops mode and a huge amount of adrenaline.
  3. Anyone who already has issues with the single-player ‘style’ of IW’s games will still find fault with the scripted, linear experience, but in terms of sheer drama and show-stopping set-pieces accompanied by laser sharp FPS controls, Modern Warfare 2 is your daddy. And that’s without Spec Ops and Multiplayer.