Modern Warfare 2 review

Most of the new equipment balances strengths with weaknesses - portable blast shields stop you from taking damage, for instance, but they also slow you down and stop you from shooting back. But when you put the right gadget together with the perfect Killstreak loadout, you get a depth of potential tactics that simply wasn't there before.

Alongside unveiling its customisation options, Infinity Ward is finally lifting the lid on two new game modes. CTF builds on World at War's blueprint but adds a few crucial seconds to the time it takes to steal the enemy's flag - thereby upping your vulnerability at the worst moment while ensuring that if you race in without backup and a decent game plan, you're toast.

Demolition, meanwhile, places two potential bomb sites on the map and divides teams into attackers and defenders. The former are tasked with infiltrating the enemy and setting explosives. Both games are turn-based (a necessity for CTF, as Infinity Ward hasn't built any symmetrical maps), and both scale well, effortlessly accommodating well-organised teams with good lines of communication yet without diminishing the ramshackle fun of being thrown together with an ad hoc collections of idiots.

Elsewhere three new maps suggest that, after the dusty greys and browns of COD4, Modern Warfare 2 is shaping up to be a more colourful game. Favela is the most traditional of the new offerings, a ravaged Brazilian town with shattered alleyways and piles of handy rubble where a familiar kind of street fighting is the order of the day. Matches play fast and bloody as bodies pile up against the stamped tin walls. In close quarters, it's up to your ears alone to alert you to incoming dangers.

Airy where Favela is claustrophobic and cramped, the second map, Afghan, is nestled within a brutal mountain range, a ring of craggy rock encircling an open space where a large aircraft has come down in pieces. Scrubby paths and forgotten bunkers litter the outer edges of the map, but the rusting hulk in the central area is both a natural congregation point for less cautious players and a source of unusual cover options: a combination that makes for some unpredictable encounters.

The third map unveiled marks a bit of a departure for the series -the usual shanty towns and factories have been rejected in favour of a distinctly posh urban cityscape, albeit one that's been comprehensively blown to pieces. Putting aside what it has to say about the kind of adventures Soap and Co will be getting into this time around, Highrise can be a hard location to get your bearings in initially.

Spawning inside of partially destroyed office buildings and penthouses, before exiting via a missing wall to find yourself in a Mirror's Edge world of cranes and lofty rooftops makes this one of the more incongruous COD maps. It's also one of the most complex in terms of blending internal and external spaces. The golden evening light ensures that it's a visual highlight, however, and, once you start to learn the strange rhythms it's a blast to play.

The waiting's almost over, then, but with further modes and maps still to be revealed, perks and Killstreaks to be finalised and no word yet on a strategy for DLC, there's a lot that remains unknown about Infinity Ward's sequel. One thing's immediately clear, however: from the familiar kick of recoil to the ominous flitter-flatter of an approaching chopper, the core of the experience remains gloriously intact.

This is still a game where you can kill or be killed with a patronising efficiency, still a game with the poise and winning arrogance to provide the better players with shiny new toys as its primary means of encouraging the weaker elements to improve. New and old hands alike will find plenty to enjoy here, while those who refused to migrate when World of War came along finally have a new game to play.