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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Reflex Nintendo Wii

Format:
Nintendo Wii

Genre:
Shooting

Style:
Firstperson
Competitive
Cooperative
Assistance
Sharedscreen

Buy/Support:
Support Sid, click to buy via us...

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Other GamePeople columnists have reviewed this from their perspective - huh?:
Frugal Gamer (Wii)

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Call Of Duty Modern Warfare comes to the Wii with a Reflex moniker. Once you adjust to the Wii-mote controls there beats a great game. But, as usual, I'm all about the multiplayer, and for Call Of Duty Modern Warfare Reflex this comes in both online and campaign modes.

This was going to be a cinch. I know I'd promised not to play any game's solo content, but with Modern Warfare I am already a dab hand due to playing the 360 version relentlessly. I knew the maps, knew all the places people tend to hide in, knew the best places to snipe from - in short, I felt I was a veteran before I'd even switched this Wii version on.

But I hadn't figured on one thing - the controls. Having the simple twin analogue controls of the 360 Modern Warfare etched into the back of my brain was absolutely no help at all. On the Wii, you point in the direction you want to go with the Wii-mote and push forward on the Nun-chuck's stick to go there. Moving around is complicated enough, but when you figure in the need to aim, jump, crouch, toss grenades, reload and switch between weapons, I am totally lost.

In my first online match I didn't even find the door of the room I spawned in. On the plus side, I didn't get killed either. But neither did I shoot anyone. I didn't even see someone to shoot. A total score of zero was an ominous warning of the problems to come.

Half an hour later I had actually worked my way up to level three, managing to shoot about five people while dying three times as much. So I cheated just a little bit and began the first solo mission, the one where you're on the training ground, just to configure the controls and see if I couldn't make it any easier for myself.

Here I found, to my surprise, a local multiplayer mode where a second player could jump in to assist the main man. This not only gave me more firepower but turned out to be a great way to get my other half invovled in the killing. I controlled movement and my firepower, and she controlled a second man's gun with her Wii-mote. Such a simple idea that made a lot of sense - a kind of more violent incarnation of Mario Galaxy's assistance mode.

Ten minutes later I had reverted back to the original settings, as any playing around with the controls just made things worse. After one hour of play, on maps that I knew, I had reached the heady heights of level four and could at least play around with my class and choose a different weapon and set of perks. But I was still utterly useless, spending a lot of my time with my nose pressed up against walls wondering which way was up and why I couldn't turn around.

After giving up any hope of being able to run and gun, and deciding my best chance was to go for that most hated of Call Of Duty multiplayer sins, camping, I started picking people off. While hiding in the corners and on balconies, I could watch and laugh as other equally bad gamers ran into walls or shot wildly at passing buildings before taking aim and putting them down.

Of course, I'd only manage to shoot one or two at a time before someone with the necessary tossed a grenade into my lap or simply ran into the room and shot me before I could even point my gun at them. But it was still more satisfying to finish a game with a few kills at least.

In comparison to the 360 version, Call Of Duty Modern Warfare Reflux is far less intense. Mainly because currently the online game isn't chock full of hardcore gamers who play it for hours a day, every day. That's not to say it won't happen in the future, but for now, there is a chance that you, me, and every other time-poor gamer has a chance to succeed.

Best Multiplayer Moments

Though it's not as full on as its PS3 and 360 cousin, it's still an intense shooter, and if you don't like being killed over and over, and have no skill with the Wii-mote, you're going to be shouting at the screen and throwing your toys out of the pram a lot. The assistance play in the two player campaign co-op is well worth a look though.

Multiplayer Verdict

Jumping straight into the multiplayer is definitely not the best of ideas. Play through three or four of the solo levels if you want to be at all competitive online. The gem hidden in the rough is the two player assistance mode where father and son can stand shoulder to shoulder and kill together.

Written by Sid Andrews

You can support Sid by buying Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Reflex



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Sid Andrews writes the Multiplayer Gamer column.

"Multiplayer modes are often the only parts of a game a play. Initially this was just because I was short on time, but more recently I've realised these are simply my favourite parts."

Here are the games I've been playing recently:

• Max Payne 3
• NeverDead
• The Darkness II
• GoldenEye 007 Reloaded
• Home