Modern Warfare 2 Spec Ops Review: Two Guns Are Better Than One

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Modern Warfare 2 sees the return of a fan-favourite mode in Spec Ops, the cooperative, mission based mode that allows you and one friend to take on a variety of objectives and hopefully make it out alive.

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Fans will remember the mode from the Modern Warfare 2 (2007), and more recently from the reboot in 2019. In the original all those years ago, you’d pair up with a friend to take on a series of shorter missions in an attempt to get three stars. You’d pick your difficulty level and try to succeed throughout the different scenarios. In the more recent edition, you could pair up with up to three other players and take on various missions on a much bigger scale, again trying to ensure the completion of the mission.

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Modern Warfare 2 seems to mix these two approaches, in that the maps are gigantic, but you’re only able to pair up with one of your friends. At present there’s only three missions, which makes sense with the grand scale of those on offer, at least map wise.

The first of three missions Low Profile pits you and a friend to locate three separate radioactive items, under the guise of taking nuclear materials out of the enemies hands. Starting in a plane you’ll parachute in, and tackle the mission in whatever order you like, before escaping, all preferably without being seen.

The second mission Denied Area is much less stealth orientated and much more run and gun, with the two of you tasked with destroying four separate SAM missile sites, so as to protect your allies in the skies.

The last of the three Defender: Mt. Zaya is on a smaller scale, with you and your partner defending a site from oncoming enemy forces, who, if not killed quick enough, will then plant a bomb in an attempt to destroy said site.

Modern Warfare 2 – Spec Ops

Whilst the missions differ in objective and gameplay, they all share one thing in common; the maps are sparse, empty and feel like wasted ground, especially Denied Area. The variety of the missions is to be commended, with each feeling considerably different from the last, but the emptiness of the maps, and the enemy AI suffering from any real individuality make the missions feel a little lifeless at times.

As with the rest of the game, the gunplay is fantastic, as is the general performance, with little to no issues with lag, graphical drop-out etc, and the nervous running around looking for ammo after a firefight is always a fun part of each mission, but there’s no getting away from the feeling that something is missing.

As already mentioned, at present there’s only three Spec Ops missions, and hopefully that’ll grow as we get further from release, but personally speaking, I’d have taken a larger, more varied selection of smaller, tighter missions than the three sprawling missions we’ve received. Gimme a Spec Ops Mile High Club mission Infinity Ward!

All-in-all, Modern Warfare 2’s Spec Ops missions are good fun as a whole, if a little frustrating at times, although that’d be rectified by a competent team mate and a sense of actual teamwork, which I definitely didn’t have with my friend. The missions however don’t offer a huge amount of replayability that the original Modern Warfare 2 offered all those years ago, even with the larger maps this time round.