The "your player is dead" trick was over-used to the point of becoming laughable
I laugh every time someone says this, since it only happens once that isn't optional. It only happens twice if you count the astronaut, which fills the same purpose as Al-Fulani in the first game. Watching Allen buy the farm is completely optional.
I've heard lots of people say the story was confusing? What, exactly, was confusing about it? Makarov sets the U.S. up as the fall guys for a thousand dead civvies in Moscow. Russians get pissed, attacks the U.S. Gen. Shepard takes a hand-picked taskforce to find and kill Makarov. To find Makarov, they track down his arms-dealer. From him, they find who Makarov hates behind reason, and go to spring from jail to lure him out. To GET to the guy, they disable a gigantic SAM site on an oil rig, which also happens to help the U.S. attack a little bit of Russia, as well. When they find the guy, it's Price. Price then spits in Shepards face and EMPs Washington to get the U.S. and Russia to stop killing each other (I admit I don't see the logic behind that, but it isn't hard to follow, story-wise). Shepard and friends then gear up to take down Makarov by attacking his safehouses. Player successfully takes safehouse, steals Makarovs operations playbook and all that. Shepard kills player to tie up loose ends, since "history is written by the victor," and he wants history to be as he says it is. Soap and Price get shot at by everyone, escape with Nikolai in a C-130. Soap and Price go after Shepard. They kill him. Game ends.
Really, it isn't that hard if you actually listen to what's happening.
Your-Player-Is-Dead moments:
One: PFC Allen a.k.a Alexei Whats-is-name via Makarov (optional)
Two: ISS Astronaut (I don't count this as a player, really)
Three: Roach via Shepard.
Considering that you play as a total of four people during the story (five with ISS guy), and two of them are still alive by the end of the game (Soap doesn't die, that we know of), that doesn't scream overdone to me, especially considering what kind of stuff the player characters do over the course of the game.
I purposfully left out Ramirez's little arc because it admittedly didn't offer much to the story. Ranger fights Russians in D.C. pretty much sums it up. Oh, and on the oil rig you rescue some hostages. Also left out Allen's little ventures in Afghanistan because they are just there to set up the "Makarov frames U.S." mission.
I just realized which major point I missed. Soap and Roach sneak into a Russian base to steal back a piece of satellite equipment. Russians manage to copy it before they get to it though, and get a free pass through SatCom defenses. Interestingly enough, the stolen plans are in Russian for some reason :P
On that note, breach sequences should've been in real time at least during Veteran in MW:2.
This. I finished Veteran earlier today, and those breach sequences were six or seven steps below the normal difficulty for each of the levels they are on.
On an only slightly related note: Those multiplayer woes I kept hearing from Battuta never materialized. Sure it's irritating if an akimbo '87 guy catches you around a corner, but they're really just easy targets without said corner.
(Infinity Ward missed a great moment to kill off Ramirez, Dunn, and possibly Foley with style when the chopper goes down though. That would've made a very nice tribute to Blackhawk Down.)
Also this. I noticed for the first time earlier that Dunn DOES get shot, in full view, when you're defending the chopper, but then is up and running around, taking point, no less! in the next five minutes. I was sort of like :wtf:
The funny thing is, you actually missed some key points in the story. I'll let you see if you can figure them out. :)
You have to look at the entire plotline through General Shepherd.
Shepherd's casus belli for his entire plot is the wanton disregard the world paid to the deaths of his 30,000 men in Baghdad in the original MW. He hates the ultranationalists for it, and MW2 is the story of him hatching his plot to exact revenge on the now-ultranationalist Russian government.
Shepherd 100% intended for the Russians to invade the US. In fact, he may have very well delayed sending in 141 to recover the ACS module until he was sure the Russians could crack it. He gave the Russians a casus belli for the invasion by paying Makarov to pull off the airport massacre. Makarov goes along with it because Shepherd tells him there's going to be an American in the group that can take the blame for the whole operation. Remember in the briefing where Shepherd tells Allen "you have no idea what it cost to put you next to him"? I don't think he's referring to money or lives...more the cost to his own soul.
While Price letting the nuke fly wasn't necessarily part of Shepherd's plan, it didn't exactly hurt it either. I don't think Shepherd would have predicted Price simply detonating the nuke in the atmosphere and EMP'ing all of DC; rather, I think he expected the nuke to destroy the city ("We will lose the White House"/"We've rebuilt it before, we'll rebuild it again"). Before the nuke goes off, he gets his blank check from SECDEF to do whatever he needs to do to run the war against the Russians. Assuming of course that the line of succession is crippled, SECDEF would likely be the next in line.
That's what I think the whole "Raptor" and "HVI" situation was in the Ramirez missions. Those people you were sent to rescue were members of the government--people in the line of succession. In fact, I wouldn't doubt Raptor being SECDEF himself. Notice the POTUS emblems on the HVI's suitcase in the panic room? The trooper they found dead had to have been from Shadow Company, Shepherd's personal unit. That whole plot ensured a Shepherd-friendly SECDEF would give the General a blank check to do whatever he deemed necessary.
After DC is retaken, Shepherd sends in TF 141 to hunt down Makarov. Roach and Ghost retrieve Makarov's files at the safehouse, then Shepherd kills them. Why? Makarov likely had information that would've implicated Shepherd in everything that's happened so far. So since Shepherd used 141 to retrieve the data, they're no longer useful to him.
History is written by the victor.
If a few plot holes had been filled, this could've been one of the best-conceived actions plots in a long time. What I don't like is that one satellite module allowed the Russians to break through every defensive screen the US and its allies had to offer--Rivet Joints listening to comms traffic, radar stations tracking Russian aircraft, Aegis cruisers, satellite surveillance, deep cover operatives and NORAD had to all be compromised or disrupted to allow the Russians to simply sneak up on the US. I don't know how widespread the (fictional) Attack Characterization System is, but it just doesn't seem logical that every system in the US/NATO military is hardwired to it.
That was the main issue for me. Well, that and Captain Price launching a nuke by himself, but I probably could explain that too. I really actually liked the plot. Granted, it indeed wasn't as good as the original, but it was still enjoyable. Suspension of disbelief FTW.
Booyah, story overanalysis done.