Well, the Wii gets a little love from the guys down at Activision in the form of "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Reflex Edition." No, this is not and perhaps much to the dismay of some Wii owners, any type of spin off of the colossal Modern Warfare 2 sequel. It’s rather a direct port of the original game re-engineered with the motion capture physics of the Wii system. While the idea seems to hold much promise, the results are actually a little less than stellar.
As said before, this is a direct port of the original game, so you can expect the superb storyline which floored all the fans and put a serious staple in the COD reign of the first-person shooter genre to be perfectly in tact with all of its compelling elements and memorable moments. Players can expect to find themselves thrown into all kinds of high risk and strategic military missions which will ultimately affect the state of things all over the world. Expect to live or relive some really daring and thrilling moments and experience the gut wrenching feelings of loss and betrayal. Yada, yada, yada, yup, it’s all in there.
What didn’t port so well is the superb graphics engine that made the game so beautiful in its first debut. Visuals have lost a lot of kudos, marred by an overall flat low-res presentation of graphics.
There are a lot of hit and miss moments in this department and the initial impression you get is simply one you can’t ignore. You could probably equivocate the visual quality of the game to that pale red color left in the ice of your cherry snow cone cup after you’ve sucked the juice out of the center. The taste is still somewhat there, but you know for sure something’s missing. Same deal here.
On a momentary bright note, though, the game is very solid in terms of audio. Great voice-overs, sound and sound effects, all complimented by a dynamic musical soundtrack do much to back up the latter statement.
The control scheme of the game is the real "make-it-brake-it" issue here. First impressions of the controls may prove to be both extremely frustrating and literally nauseating even for a FPS veteran. The view cam is overly sensitive and really challenges your hand-eye coordination. The odd mapping of the controls also doesn’t help, but adds to that awkward experience. It’s weird that games like Metroid Prime have nailed the FPS shooter genre with innovative controls and then you see a strong series such as this take a major setback in this area.
Things are not all a wash for game play, though, if you’re the persistent kind of player. While, yes, the controls are extremely frustrating at first you should be able to grasp things by either fiddling with different control schemes until you find the right one for you or by just enduring the awkwardness for a while and putting some quality time in. If you can endure these trials and tribulations then you may begin to enjoy the game in the way that it was originally intended.
The multiplayer experience is decent overall and gets better as you become more familiar with the controls. The game still feels very much like an online COD shooter and there is some real fun to be had here.
So here’s the deal. If you own multiple systems and already have version 1 or 2 of the Modern Warfare series on any other system besides Wii, you’re most likely going to be disappointed with the Reflex edition of the original game. The graphics are dull in comparison to the next-gen sister consoles and the control schemes are far more solid period. If you, however, solely own a Wii, and by some strangely odd circumstance you haven’t been influenced by other versions of the series then you may find yourself with a little something to cheer about at the end of your experience.
There is some fun to be had for the dedicated and persistent player in both story and multiplayer modes. So, the choice is ultimately in the hands of each individual player. Whatever your choice, though, ya can’t say that guy down at GiN never told ya so.