First Play Review: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered [2020]

Note this review is for the 2020 release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered, a remastered version of the original Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 campaign from 2009 and not to be confused with the 'reboot' Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II from 2022. 

I felt that such a good job was done on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered that it was worth checking out Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered and see if it was going to be a superior experience to the original which I reviewed in 2010.

From the beginning I knew it was given a serious upgrade. With all the bells and whistles turned up to the max I was getting <30FPS on my RTX5080! After some tweaking I passed the 100FPS mark and was able to enjoy the stunning visuals that the team at Beenox recreated from the original to deliver a sublime experience with significant visual updates. Among the advancements are improved models and art along with remade cutscenes with new motion capture, as well as a revamped post-process pipeline and HDR support using a modified version of Sledgehammer's engine from Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.

My thoughts on the gameplay and plot haven't changed much. Gameplay and shooting is still solid and it seems relatively untouched. I never felt I had a substandard weapon and some of the set-piece weapons like the Javlin missile were great to use. The plot is still a Micheal Bay wet dream that while Hollywood has outgrown it is still great to go back and remamber what the times were like. I will also say in the intervening 16 years since playing the original I do appreciate the value of a tighter and shorter gaming experience as I have less time available these days. 

The action set-pieces look even more incredible especially the battle to retake The White House, while the truly harrowing and ever-controversial "No Russian" level is even more disturbing than I remember. While I was critical of the amount of cinematic sequences (especially in light of a very short campaign), I have also since discovered the likes of cutscenes created by Hideo Kojima which make COD cutscenes seem like a minor QTEs by comparison.

Call of Duty has had some of the best sound in any videogame from explosions, vehicles, weapons and even the environment. I had forgotten about the A-grade voice talent recruited for this; among them Lance Henrickson, Keith David, Glenn Morshower,  Kevin McKidd, Craig Fairbrass, Barry Pepper and Will Arnett. Who I did not forget about however were the composers as the music score from Lorne Balfe was bookended by theme composer Hans Zimmer driving this project home as a truly cinematic action game. 

Final Verdict: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered is a short but enjoyable, highly curated cinematic-like experience that replaces the original only due to it's pixel-perfect art direction that brings 2020 visuals to a 2009 game.

Technicals: 6 hours playtime approx. using a Nvidia RTX5080 @ 3440x1440 with max settings on Windows 11 with upscaling.

Bugs: None

Availability: The pricing of the Call of Duty franchise suffers from a phenomenal level of greed from Activision, even following the Microsoft acquisition. A €24.99 pricetag placed on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered is on the more reasonable end but still difficult to justify for a roughly 6 hour campaign and no multiplayer. The game is strangely only available from Battle.net.

Call of Duty series (PC Only):

• Call of Duty [2003]
• Call of Duty: United Offensive [2004]
• Call of Duty 2 [2005]
• Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare [2007]
• Call of Duty: World at War [2008]
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 [2009]
• Call of Duty: Black Ops [2010]
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 [2011]
• Call of Duty: Black Ops II [2012]
• Call of Duty: Ghosts [2013]
• Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare [2014]
• Call of Duty: Black Ops III [2015]
• Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare [2016]
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered [2016]
• Call of Duty: WWII [2017]
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 [2018]
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare [2019]
• Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War [2020]
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered [2020]
• Call of Duty: Vanguard [2021]
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II [2022]
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III [2023]
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 [2024]
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 [2025]
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 [2026]