It doesn't help that the plot is convoluted and hard to follow. The game's "characters" have no depth at all. They as a means of trying to explain the storyline, but it doesn't work. As a result, you feel nothing when a couple of the many characters you play in the game get killed.
Visually, the game is something of a mixed bag. There are some well done visual effects. Lighting is evocative at times and character animations are smooth. But the limitations of Infinity Ward's graphics engine are showing. The levels look and feel more like fake movie sets than actual places. The linear design of each level highlights the overall fake feel. Additionally, some of the art textures are dated, especially when it comes to water. The graphics are clearly meant for console specifications, but there are no options to increase the visual quality for high-performance computers. On the bright side, most PC gamers should have no problems running Modern Warfare 2 at high frame rates, but the look probably won't impress a lot of hardcore PC gamers.
Modern Warfare 2's single player campaign is fun but not terribly challenging. Its lack of a coherent storyline and no real characters will not make you forget truly memorable shooters like BioShock or Half-Life 2.
Infinity Ward decided not to put in co-op support in the campaign, wisely knew that players would be upset if there wasn't any co-op at all. Enter Spec Ops, a series of levels culled from this campaign and the previous Modern Warfare game, but re-imagined as an arcade-action experience. You play through the levels to achieve certain goals. If you make it through, you gain stars that eventually unlock even more levels to play. While you can play Spec Ops all by yourself it's definitely designed for two buddies to enjoy. In fact, one level is just for two players.
Goals in the Spec Ops mode include racing to complete objectives in a set amount of time, killing enemies or blowing up vehicles and more. It's very addictive, and believe it or not, it will likely take you longer to complete the Spec Ops mode than the regular campaign. However, for some reason you can't just jump in and find someone online to play Spec Ops. You have to bring a known friend online to play. The Spec Ops mode is quite fun and it helps take some of the sting out of Modern Warfare 2's shallow single player campaign.
Then there's competitive multiplayer. We will get to the PC version's features in a minute, but first we have to give our hats off to Infinity Ward for packing in tons of content, modes and levels in their multiplayer portion of the game. Everything that made Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare such an time sink in multiplayer has been turned up to 11 here. There's the RPG-like perks system that adds new abilities and skills as you play and you can even get some secondary abilities in this edition. We also love the new Deathstreak abilities you can get. One of the coolest is Copycat which after you get killed lets you take on all the weapons, abilities and more of the player that killed you.