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Modern Warfare 2: Map Pack review

Damien McFerran

We review the Modern Warfare 2: Map Pack - an iPhone application that helps you make sense of the Modern Warfare world

Modern Warfare 2: Map Pack helps you find your way around the worlds of Modern Warfare

Published on Dec 21, 2009

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past month or so then you’ll be fully aware of the existence of a video game called Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

The title has sold millions since its launch and is likely to rank as the most popular game of 2009 by some margin.

Modern Warfare 2 predominately involves shooting bad guys with a dizzying assortment of deadly weapons (if you’ve paid attention to the controversy surrounding the game then you’ll also know that it involves shooting innocent civilians in a Russian airport, although we’ll not open that particular can of worms in this review) but arguably the most popular facet of the game is its online mode, where players can fight against (or alongside) other human players on a wide range of maps.

This is where Modern Warfare 2: Map Pack comes in. At first the connection with Activision’s game seems painfully tenuous as all this offers is bird’s eye views of each of the multiplayer maps, but you only need to spend a few minutes with Modern Warfare 2 to realise that many of these war-torn locations are a complete and utter pain to navigate, so any kind of assistance is welcome.

Modern Warfare 2: Map Pack shows each level as well as offering helpful textual hints which point out good 'camping' spots (this means a place where you can easily take out enemies and not, as you might assume, somewhere to erect your tent and travel stove) as well as other items of note that will help improve your overall performance within the game.

The trouble is that these maps are highly detailed and you can’t zoom in them in the application itself; you have to first save the map as an image on your phone, and then view it using the iPhone’s photo viewer, where you can utilise the trusty 'pinch-to-zoom' method.

Once you’ve done this it becomes apparent that the average quality of the map images causes them to look pretty rough on closer inspection. Also, because they’re displayed in 2D they fail to show interior detail and other elements of the environment; Modern Warfare 2 features some impressive, undulating 3D levels and a flat 2D representation doesn’t quite cut the mustard.

Of course, the biggest blow to Modern Warfare 2: Map Pack’s credibility is the fact that it’s almost impossible to play and consult your iPhone at the same time. The game is so relentless in multiplayer mode that if you take your eyes off the screen for as much as a second then you’re likely to end up face-down in the sand with a bullet in the back of your cranium.

A far more effective way of improving your skill is to simply put a few hours in on each map so that you begin to learn its arrangement off by heart. This may be more time consuming but it’s the only way you’re ever going to rise through the multiplayer rankings.

As it stands, this is a neat idea but it’s one that doesn’t actually function as well as you might think. Modern Warfare 2: Map Pack might be useful for familiarising yourself with the basic layout of the maps with in the game, but during actual play it’s of very little use.