“Its about initial, massive impact” Infinity Ward President Jason West told Game Informer Magazine, in a recent article exclusively detailing some of Modern Warfare 2’s gameplay features.

While Modern Warfare will in many ways resemble its predecessor, making strong use of storytelling alongside high impact set pieces, Game Informer reports that it would be inaccurate to assume that Modern Warfare 2 will be more of the same playing out it in a new context.

West told Game Informer that Infinity Ward looked at incorporating a character leveling process into the single player campaign, but left it out as it ultimately broke down the narrative structure and storytelling component of the game.

The story in Modern Warfare 2 will continue from its predecessor Call of DUty: Modern Warfare. Zakhaev is dead thanks to the efforts of Sgt. Price and his team, a new leader has taken his place. Makarov, an ex-associate of the terrorist leader you killed in the first game has taken his place, and is especially annoyed at the free world for killing his buddy.

Will MW2 feature CoD’s inexhaustible enemy waves?

Previous Call of Duty titles have been criticized for the infinite enemy spawn mechanic. Basically, in many instances, enemies keep pouring through a location entry point until the player crosses an invisible line. Infinity Ward knows about the problem, and had this to say on the matter:

“We are aware of it, and we’re actively trying to eliminate it” said West confirming feedback from CoD 4 players by adding “I think we agree that it is not a good thing”.

Longer campaign this time around?

Another criticism leveled at Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, was that the campaign was too short, with experienced players finishing it at well under 8 hours. On this matter, Infinity Ward is sticking to its guns.

“For the story, we want that to be this awesome experience that you have that you can talk with your friends about and that you remember fondly” said West.

“It’s not about dragging it out or playing the same thing over and over again. I was very happy with Modern Warfare 1 and the length of it. We let the story drive the length, and we had the story we wanted to tell, and it took the number of levels it required, and we think it worked out. Stretching out the story seems like the wrong way to go”

Special Forces

One of Modern Warfare 2’s most striking new features has to be the inclusion of Special Forces missions. These missions will not be part of the narrative, and are essentially once offs which can be completed on varying degrees of difficulty.

Possibly the most exciting aspect of Special Forces is that players will be able to take on missions co-operatively. While co-op was omitted from the single player campaign due to the fact that it did not work well with the narrative, Special Forces mode is free from such constraints.

Players will play through their objectives potentially employing a wide range of co-op tactics. While Infinity Ward did not confirm that Special Forces co-op would support online play, it will be surprising if it does not.

Less linear Gameplay

Although calling Modern Warfare 2 an open world shooter is a stretch, Infinity Ward did inform Game Informer that the missions would not play out in the typically linear fashion that CoD fans are accustomed to. Instead, players will be given objectives, tools, and the freedom to choose exactly how they approach each mission. This theoretically means that players will be given more choice in terms of their gameplay style.

Multiplayer

Infinity Ward has not yet divulged any details regarding Modern Warfare 2’s multiplayer component, apart from the inclusion of co-op in the Special Forces missions. However, West did state that one of his favorite things about multiplayer is making people famous. “When people do things that are noteworthy, you hear about it in a way that is easier to remember”.  This teaser may give some indication of the direction Infinity Ward is taking with its new community site.

Modern Warfare 2 is scheduled for release on November 10 2009, and will be available on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3.

Watch promotional MW2 gameplay video on  MyGaming

View promotional MW2 screen shots on MyGaming

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