BIG GUNS ARE BACK; AFTER ALL THE HYPE AND CLAMOUR, DOES MW2 MANAGE TO HIT THE SPOT?

Byline: KEVIN LYNCH 

CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 2 ..... Xbox 360, PS3, PC. pounds 54.99 Christmas comes but once a year and often brings a deluge of big name games. But this year it's different. The clamour for Infinity Ward's first-person-shooter sequel - expected to be the fastest-selling game of all time - has scared off a number of software houses who are holding back their big guns until the New Year.

Set four years after its predecessor, the early stages of Modern Warfare 2's campaign mode sees the world descending further into a global conflict. It's all been triggered by an airport terror attack on home turf by Russian nationalists, cunningly disguised as the work of their American enemy.

From here, as before, you get to bounce around the world's war-torn hotspots like a cross between Andy McNab and Judith Chalmers, taking control of various different crack coalition soldiers.

Although the one-player experience still feels a little short - old hands should be able to plough through it within a few evenings of play - what it lacks in quantity it makes up for in quality, with each breathtaking set-piece often surpassed by the level that follows.

An early mission led by newlypromoted 'Soap' MacTavish from Call Of Duty 4 sees you infiltrate an enemy mountain base and ends with an exhilarating downhill escape on snowmobiles that rivals the thrills of the bike scene in Return Of The Jedi. Better still is a tense hunt through a hostile Rio shanty town for an enemy operative, followed by an unsettling brink-of-Armageddon battle that sees Russian tanks rolling through Washington. But the real icing on the cake for MW's vast legion of multiplayer fans will be the new twoplayer split-screen Special Ops missions, in particular the brilliantly frantic Elimination mode where you and a pal are tasked with taking out a set number of enemies.

MW2 somehow manages to live up to all the anticipation. Often brutal, superbly cinematic and never less than gripping, the competition was right to give it a wide berth.

CAPTION(S):

CINEMATIC: Beautifully realised playing fields