I don’t have a copy of Modern Warfare 2 and there’s a good reason for that; I haven’t gotten around to downloading it yet. The only reason I’m bothering to even download it is because the singleplayer sounds good as always…. for the whole 5 hours it lasts. However, having tried it on someone else’s machine, the multiplayer is unplayable, and I wouldn’t pay anything close to full retail price for a 5 hour  game not named Portal, let alone pay the higher than normal price you’re asking.

But it didn’t have to be this way.

Just 6 months ago I was a day one sale; I even considered pre-ordering it which something I almost never do, and now I’m glad I didn’t. I spent hours playing Call of Duty 4, and regard it is as probably my favorite multiplayer FPS game not produced by Valve. I skipped Treyarch’s World at War imposter, a game which was only really notable for its Nazi Zombie game mode, and waited with anticipation for your next masterpiece.

Then shit hit the fan.

No dedicated servers? Many consider CoD4 as one of the best examples of multiplayer gaming, and especially competitive gaming, a feat that would be impossible without dedicated servers. This change of heart was completely unexpected, but honestly wasn’t a deal breaker for me, as long as you include good matchmaking support.

Only 18 players per game? Sure, that’s half as many players as COD4 allowed, and almost a quarter of COD2, but as long as the maps are balanced for that number of players it shouldn’t really be an issue either.

No mod support? Sure, I can understand if this wasn’t a high priority in the development of the game, but you’ve managed to include mod tools for every other Call of Duty game you’ve developed. Hopefully you’ll just add this later, though I won’t hold my breath.

No developer console? I haven’t heard a good explanation for why you omitted a developer console, but I guess with no dedicated servers, a developer console is kind of useless most of the time anyway.

No lean? ……….Wait, what? Now you’re just ripping out features for the sake of pissing PC gamers off. I mean, why on Earth would the ability to lean be omitted when it’s been present in every game you’ve ever made? It’s not like it takes a lot of resources to include, or requires the whole game to be rebalanced around it. Though, again, not a major issue by itself.

Despite all these ridiculous omissions, I still wanted to believe you were doing this for a good reason, and that these decisions would pay off and produce a game at least equal to the first Modern Warfare, or even the first Call of Duty game. But it hasn’t. Modern Warfare 2 is essentially a backhand to the face of PC gamers; a backhand that wouldn’t hurt nearly as bad if it didn’t come from Infinity Ward.

We, the PC gamers, supported you.

In fact, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say we made you who you are.

Remember Call of Duty? No, not the one with the words “Modern” and “Warfare” behind it, I mean the Call of Duty, the original one, numero uno, the one that actually made World War 2 an enjoyable setting for a video game again.

No?

Well, it’s only been 6 years but I guess a lot has happened; I mean back then we didn’t even have World of Warcraft, I can barely recall such a dark age.

But surely you remember its sequel; Call of Duty 2? Everything you accomplished in the first game was refined and honed into the greatest World War 2 FPS of all time and we loved it. In fact the disk is still sitting in my desk as I write this, a reminder of the good times I had playing online with my friends and up to 63 other players on almost lag-free dedicated servers.

Then came Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (COD3 having been developed by Treyarch for consoles only), we were skeptical at first, but the change of setting worked brilliantly and while I consider COD2 the better game, we loved COD4 and again, jumped on board with open arms.

But we weren’t the only ones who fell in love with COD4; 360 and PS3 owners also bought the game in droves and all you saw were dollar signs. So now that two years have passed and the time has rolled around for a new installment, those dollar signs were still in your head and obviously you were more than happy to kick us to the curb in the name of profit.

Remember when I said the lack of dedicated servers wasn’t a big deal if you have proper matchmaking? Did you even try? As it stands, the game is practically unplayable online in Australia unless you’re only playing with friends in the same area as without dedicated servers, there’s just too much lag.

All the matchmaking needs to do is match up people from similar regions so that they have the best possible ping but it doesn’t seem like it even tries, as I never managed to join a match that was even close to playable on a T1 connection. Seriously, I’ve played much smoother games of Counter Strike on dial up in a time when most of you were working at 2015.

Because of this I have no idea if your game is even balanced for the size of the levels or the amount of players. As I’ve discovered, it’s impossible to take in the design of the game when you’re stumbling around the map like a German at Oktoberfest.

Honestly, at this point I just stopped. Even if you included developer console, mod support and the ability to lean, it wouldn’t make a difference. Modern Warfare2‘s online play doesn’t work. Full stop. End of story. It is broken.

But there is a silver lining. It’s been just a week and already people have hacked in a way to play on dedicated servers, patched in a developer console, and have almost finished adding in lean controls.

In spite of your efforts, I’m determined to enjoy this game’s multiplayer; but I’m simply not going to pay you for a product that requires random internet users to tear it apart and put it back together in a playable format.

Sincerely,

Chris

P.S. I know in about a month you’ll pull out a dozen figures about how piracy is why the game is bombing on PC and X many people have downloaded it illegally and Y many people are playing it online with pirated serials and blah blah blah. Piracy is the symptom, not the cause. Make a game that works and we will buy it, after all I’ve bought every other game you’ve ever made.