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IGN Review of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare - Reflex
Developer Treyarch has become synonymous with the Call of Duty series on Wii. When Nintendo's system first launched, the team was there with Call of Duty 3. Last year the Call of Duty brand returned to Nintendo's console after a two year hiatus with World at War; another Treyarch-developed experience. During the development of World at War the team figured out a process for porting down the COD4 engine onto Wii, which brought about a pretty impressive offering for fans that weren't afraid to jump into another World War II shooter. It's been a year since World at War, and while Modern Warfare 2 hits the 360/PS3/PC for this holiday season, Wii owners are finally getting a chance to check out the game that started it all with Modern Warfare: Reflex Edition.
From the outset, it's obvious that the team went to great lengths to get the original Modern Warfare running on Wii's hardware. Pop in Reflex and you'll find every mission, every mode, and every Modern Warfare moment found on the other consoles two years back. If you've played it on other systems (or if you own other systems that have the HD source material) you might as well pass this one up, but for those that are Wii-only gamers and want to try their hand at the Modern Warfare series, this your first time to jump on in, and you're getting a nearly identical set of content.
For those that are new to the Modern Warfare series, Infinity Ward's now critically acclaimed shooter brings (for the first time ever) a Call of Duty experience set in today's modern age. Centered around the new weapons of warfare, and inspired by the still-applicable conflict occurring in the middle east, Modern Warfare shapes a unique and original story. You'll take the role of multiple soldiers within both U.S. and British special ops, and while there's obvious inspiration found in events over the last few years, the story itself is actually more of an action epic, following a few core characters, a rising Russian Ultranationalist group that's out to revive the Soviet Union, and plenty of blockbuster moments to keep things interesting.
Visuals are of course downgraded on the Wii due to the lack of HD and system horsepower, but when stacked against other Wii shooters Reflex still looks a bit too stripped down. Model textures are very simplistic and you won't find as many smoke and lighting effects as in World at War on Wii (a game that most likely had a much larger team dedicated to the Wii version) but the same scripted events and cinematic moments makeup the experience, and that alone gives the game a nice overall feel of intensity and a bit more life to it all. One downside though; the videos between levels are lower res and are poorer in quality than last year's Treyarch offering; again evidence of a quicker port.
When it comes to the overall options given to Wii users, Reflex is a step in the huge direction for Activision's line of shooters. Trumped by only The Conduit, Reflex allows for full tweaking of the aim area's bounding box, and plenty of sliders are included to let players switch up how fast the camera moves, how sensitive the cursor is when you move the pointer, and what buttons/motions are mapped to what actions. You can even change the cursor type, an obvious addition due to the user feedback from World at War. When it comes to pure customization, Reflex is definitely on the right track.
Unfortunately the ability to get COD4 running on Wii comes at a price, and it's a pretty big one. The framerate in Reflex is extremely inconsistent, and it impacts gameplay in a big way. The game constantly dips below the 30 frames per second mark, and every time it does the cursor goes right along with it. In fact, even when running with little action on the screen the cursor doesn't have the pixel-by-pixel precision that you'll find in nearly every other pointer-based game out there. One tap of the Wii remote's home button will instantly show you what you're missing, as the cursor goes from choppy and unresponsive when receiving slight movements in Reflex, to tracking every subtle movement you make in Nintendo's menus. Other shooters have nailed Wii's pointer control – Metroid Prime, Medal of Honor Heroes, and The Conduit to name a few – an even when swapping out Reflex for Treyarch's own World at War and Call of Duty 3 (a Wii launch game) the cursors were more reliable and accurate than Modern Warfare. In addition to choppy moments, and some very basic visual effects, I actually encountered a full-on crash bug during one of the larger moments in the game. During a sniping mission that overlooks a huge valley filled with houses and enemy soldiers the game dropped to black, and brought up a fatal error message. For as much potential Modern Warfare Reflex has, it just falls short.
This carries over into multiplayer as well, with the general feature set looking pretty strong on paper, but the overall experience pulled down in sheer entertainment value due to a sub-par control base. For those that warm up to the general feel of Modern Warfare on Wii, online multiplayer is a nice touch, blending plenty of modes with some pretty impressive overall online presentation. I didn't personally encounter any lag – though hits weren't always registering; evidence of random sync issues- and the levels are pretty true to their COD4 inspirations. I played COD4 up until the release of Modern Warfare 2, and I definitely felt some nostalgia running through the levels on Wii. What you won't find, however, is local splitscreen multiplayer or voice chat support. The "piggyback" mode from World at War returns though, so if you want your buddy to jump in for some drop-in/drop-out co-op, essentially acting as a second on-screen cursor, it's available.
©2009-11-11, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved
From the outset, it's obvious that the team went to great lengths to get the original Modern Warfare running on Wii's hardware. Pop in Reflex and you'll find every mission, every mode, and every Modern Warfare moment found on the other consoles two years back. If you've played it on other systems (or if you own other systems that have the HD source material) you might as well pass this one up, but for those that are Wii-only gamers and want to try their hand at the Modern Warfare series, this your first time to jump on in, and you're getting a nearly identical set of content.
For those that are new to the Modern Warfare series, Infinity Ward's now critically acclaimed shooter brings (for the first time ever) a Call of Duty experience set in today's modern age. Centered around the new weapons of warfare, and inspired by the still-applicable conflict occurring in the middle east, Modern Warfare shapes a unique and original story. You'll take the role of multiple soldiers within both U.S. and British special ops, and while there's obvious inspiration found in events over the last few years, the story itself is actually more of an action epic, following a few core characters, a rising Russian Ultranationalist group that's out to revive the Soviet Union, and plenty of blockbuster moments to keep things interesting.
Visuals are of course downgraded on the Wii due to the lack of HD and system horsepower, but when stacked against other Wii shooters Reflex still looks a bit too stripped down. Model textures are very simplistic and you won't find as many smoke and lighting effects as in World at War on Wii (a game that most likely had a much larger team dedicated to the Wii version) but the same scripted events and cinematic moments makeup the experience, and that alone gives the game a nice overall feel of intensity and a bit more life to it all. One downside though; the videos between levels are lower res and are poorer in quality than last year's Treyarch offering; again evidence of a quicker port.
When it comes to the overall options given to Wii users, Reflex is a step in the huge direction for Activision's line of shooters. Trumped by only The Conduit, Reflex allows for full tweaking of the aim area's bounding box, and plenty of sliders are included to let players switch up how fast the camera moves, how sensitive the cursor is when you move the pointer, and what buttons/motions are mapped to what actions. You can even change the cursor type, an obvious addition due to the user feedback from World at War. When it comes to pure customization, Reflex is definitely on the right track.
Unfortunately the ability to get COD4 running on Wii comes at a price, and it's a pretty big one. The framerate in Reflex is extremely inconsistent, and it impacts gameplay in a big way. The game constantly dips below the 30 frames per second mark, and every time it does the cursor goes right along with it. In fact, even when running with little action on the screen the cursor doesn't have the pixel-by-pixel precision that you'll find in nearly every other pointer-based game out there. One tap of the Wii remote's home button will instantly show you what you're missing, as the cursor goes from choppy and unresponsive when receiving slight movements in Reflex, to tracking every subtle movement you make in Nintendo's menus. Other shooters have nailed Wii's pointer control – Metroid Prime, Medal of Honor Heroes, and The Conduit to name a few – an even when swapping out Reflex for Treyarch's own World at War and Call of Duty 3 (a Wii launch game) the cursors were more reliable and accurate than Modern Warfare. In addition to choppy moments, and some very basic visual effects, I actually encountered a full-on crash bug during one of the larger moments in the game. During a sniping mission that overlooks a huge valley filled with houses and enemy soldiers the game dropped to black, and brought up a fatal error message. For as much potential Modern Warfare Reflex has, it just falls short.
This carries over into multiplayer as well, with the general feature set looking pretty strong on paper, but the overall experience pulled down in sheer entertainment value due to a sub-par control base. For those that warm up to the general feel of Modern Warfare on Wii, online multiplayer is a nice touch, blending plenty of modes with some pretty impressive overall online presentation. I didn't personally encounter any lag – though hits weren't always registering; evidence of random sync issues- and the levels are pretty true to their COD4 inspirations. I played COD4 up until the release of Modern Warfare 2, and I definitely felt some nostalgia running through the levels on Wii. What you won't find, however, is local splitscreen multiplayer or voice chat support. The "piggyback" mode from World at War returns though, so if you want your buddy to jump in for some drop-in/drop-out co-op, essentially acting as a second on-screen cursor, it's available.
©2009-11-11, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved