War isn’t about friends,” scowls General Shepherd, Modern Warfare II’s returning villain. “It’s about enemies.” As a philosophy, it’s intended to counterpoint the ride-or-die attitude of Captain Price and Task Force 141, the scrappy special forces outfit that picks up allies in unusual places. But we can’t help but feel that 141 used to have better friends than these. At the centre of its inner circle are Kate Laswell, the CIA handler who takes ‘staying frosty’ to Himalayan heights; Ghost, a sentient skull mask in search of a personality; and Alejandro, a Mexican Tier 1 operator whose mouth opens only to deliver introductory explainers on his country.
Despite ample downtime devoted to character developmentmoments of onscreen dialogue choice – none of this chorus comes close to matching the cast of Infinity Ward’s previous two campaigns. It’s a fact underlined when 2019’s Nik and Farah show up for cameos. These are characters who convinced in three dimensions, undergoing real change during their short, shared adventures. Conversation with the current crop, by contrast, too often devolves into empty combat posturing. “Nice moves”, they holler. “He’s mine.”“You’ve got balls, you son of a bitch”. It’s the punched-up version of what kid-directed action figures say to each other as they fly across a bedroom.
