Quickfire Q&A: Modern Warfare 2

So what’s the lowdown on Special Ops?

About 20-30 missions grouped into five classes (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, etc), ranging from wave defence to kill-X-number-of-foes to snowmobile races to bomb defusal and many more besides. You can earn up to three stars for completing a mission (69 in total), depending on how many fools you cap, how many civilians you save, how fast you reach the checkpoint, yadda yadda. Special Ops modes have their own unique baddies too.

Ooh, last bit sounds interesting. Which baddies?

There’s this chap called the “Juggernaut”, who wears about half a dozen bullet-proof jackets and carries what looks like a heavy machine gun. You can only kill him with a 50′ calibre barrel weapon, like the Barret sniper rifle.

Where and when do you run into Juggernauts?

It looked like they were cropping up randomly in the forest lodge map, but I can’t be sure. Every time a Juggernaut appears the background music goes all menacing, so you’ve usually got plenty of warning. Kind of like the Tank in Left 4 Dead.

Like the Tank in Left 4 Dead? Hell’s bells.

Perhaps not as bad as the Tank in Left 4 Dead. If you’ve got that 50′ cal to hand they seem to go down easy, but you wouldn’t want one flanking you.

Did you get a chance to play a Special Ops mission?

Yes indeed. I had a kill-everybody-quick session on one of the Rio de Janeiro maps. The other guy was rubbish, but then I did accidentally throw a grenade at him when we spawned in, which probably shook his nerve. Nearly planted a Claymore mine on his head while trying to revive him, too.

You’re a credit to your profession. What’s changed then, in terms of core gameplay?

Not a bunch. You can still shoot through certain materials, there are the same three stances (stand, crouch and crawl) the same optional snap-to-target aim assist. Environments are pretty indestructible, save for stuff like glass – at one point I shot out a window from the inside and the fragments of broken pane piled up against the iron lattice on the outside. It looked real pretty.

How about loadouts and inventories?

Not sure if this applies to single player, but secondary weapon options are no longer limited to pistols – you could bust out an automatic shotgun, dedicated grenade launcher, rocket launcher, or whatever suits. Likewise, grenade slots can be filled with throwing knives for silent takedowns, portable respawn points, riot shields (very useful when defending flag-holders in CTF), sticky grenades and more.

What a feast.

The killstreak ability business is much more involved too. Instead of calling in a helicopter flyby and running for cover, you’ll actually man the mounted MG while the pilot’s making his run. Conversely, if somebody else calls in a chopper you can shoot it down. Ditto for Predator missiles. There are also “Care Packages” – randomised supply drops, basically – which you might use to tempt members of the other team away from their comrades.

So it’s going to be awesome, in summary.

It might be at that. Oh and I forgot – apparently something “special” awaits players who “Prestige” (reset) their online profile on reaching level 70.

Besides one of those jazzy icons, you mean? Wonder if the “special something” is a sex aid.

A man can dream.

Modern Warfare 2 hits Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on 10th November.