Modern Warfare 2.3 - Multiplayer & Reviews

This is the sixth and final part of a multi-part Modern Warfare 2 review.

Multiplayer & Reviews
My last comment on Modern Warfare 2 is short: sometimes I wish the multi- and single-player experiences of games were more-commonly separated in reviews because gamers often buy games for one experience over the other. My review is of the single-player experience of Modern Warfare 2 but I have friends who have-played and will-only-play multiplayer.

For gamers that love both play types, I know the game offers a lot of bang for the buck, and that should be represented. There is, at least, a lot of love behind the creation of its single-player campaign. But I've noticed a lot of games that have rather weak single-player experiences get stellar reviews seemingly based on their multiplayer alone. In fact, I've also seen stellar single player experiences get way less credit for having "merely" solid multiplayer. This is a grudge I've been holding for awhile, but I was always disappointed seeing the brilliant Half-Life 2, for example, get critically overshadowed by Halo 2, which almost nothing to the table outside of the multiplayer arena. But I digress.

Perhaps with all the hoopla over Modern Warfare 2, I'm reminded of this dynamic. There's something fantastic going on in the story when death and cinematics don't disconnect you, but these can be serious problems. I mentioned that it was a craps shoot for me, and it made me wonder if Plunkett rolled badly since his comments in 2009's disappointments sounded like my complaints about the original Modern Warfare. Given the extremely high scores of the game, I have to wonder if good multiplayer is a much bigger part of the review equation, which is kind of a bummer to folks like me.