Every few years the Call of Duty series hits a new technical milestone - a definable moment where developers like Infinity Ward make a clear break from what came before. The 2019 Modern Warfare reboot was exactly that, its IW8 engine delivering an enormous boost in geometry, a new lighting model, updated physics, materials and a streaming system for large-scale maps. It was a breakthrough for the series, iterated on in last year's Vanguard and improved once again for the new Modern Warfare 2. Now dubbed IW9, Infinity Ward's custom engine offers up a wealth of upgrades, including stunning character rendering, improved water simulation and AI upgrades. However, it's the game's beautiful recreation of Amsterdam that has captured the headlines - and rightly so.
Modern Warfare 2's story gives the IW9 engine a superb workout. Each mission really is a vehicle - a self-contained showcase - putting each of its new visual tricks front and centre in ways the multiplayer modes cannot. Every set-piece escalates too, level to level: from upside-down shoot-outs to hopping between exploding cars, from dodging container units on a rocking tanker to swimming the Amsterdam canals at night - there's huge variety.
A huge highlight here is the Recon By Fire mission, where we see the IW9 tech pushing a vast, sprawling, misty landscape of green. It plays perfectly to its strengths. All linearity is thrown out the window in favour of a more open-ended design. You get to choose dialogue, you choose what points to strike first, and you choose how to do it: by stealth or all guns blazing. It's the classic All Ghillied Up mission from Call of Duty 4 taken to a new generation, a brilliant reinvention with multiple ways to attack it. And while there are certain missions that outstay their welcome - particularly the top-down gunning in Close Air - more often than not, its set-pieces at least hit the mark.