Modern Warfare 2 Notes

The campaign starts with a credits sequence. Lots of maps with what looks like data communications flying around in green lines.
There is a recap of the story from Modern Warfare 1 as it plays in voice and little bits of cut scenes as the credits roll.
Moscow Russia
A voice over tells us that once one enemy is defeated another quickly takes their place.

Afghanistan
SSDD
Joseph Allen
We start the game in a makeshift base camp in Afghanistan. we are with several soldiers who are described as locals and giving them some training. In the guise of teaching we are show how to pick up guns by holding X. How to move using the analogue sticks. How to crouch with B and shooting with the right trigger and aiming with the left trigger. We have to shoot some targets and throw a grenade with right bumper.
We are then told to make our way through the camp to an objective marker. The ambience is good with soldiers playing basketball and men fixing jeeps.
Now we have a range to run through shooting the paper targets and avoiding the civilians.
We are now given our difficulty choice.
I choose hardened.
An alarm goes off and suddenly everyone is running around. We are going to a fight somewhere.
When we get there all hell is breaking loose. There are rocket teams on the other side of a river shooting at us and we must take them out using a grenade launcher.
Once that is done a bridge layer device comes and makes us a bridge.
We are told to go to a convoy which is forming up and take our seat as gunner of a humvee.
Once there we get an on rails gunning sequence where we use a chaingun to shoot at various buildings
The convoy is ambushed by rocket launchers on the rooftops and we have to flee until the convoy is wrecked. Abandoning the vehicles the troops flee into the houses and then into a school.
I have to fight through the school room to room and ten out into the streets. Where we fight until we make it to a rally point and regroup.
We meet a man named Shepherd and are drafted into his 141 unit.

Mission 2
We are on a  mission in a high altitude mountain range. The one seen in the demo at E3.
We have to use the triggers to dig the ice axes into the ice and climb up then jump across a gap. Once on the other side we are shown the heartbeat sensor which give a radar dot for people in front of us.
Under cover of the blizzard with Soap McTavish we enter the airbase and set about planting an explosives on fuel tanks and then we have to rendevous with Soap at a hanager to deal with a satellite.Inside the Hangar Soap takes out a man with style and then investiagtes a satellite sitting inside the hangar. We are to go upstairs and get an APC module. which I do with no resistance. On coming downstairs Soap has been caught by about ten armed men and is about to be shot. I get to detonate the explosives and then shoot at the men in the confusion Soap also joins in and we get out of the hanager. We have to run around on the airfield and head away. There are men appearing from everywhere and snow mobiles bringing more.
We get to a point where we take over the snowmobiles and have a chase through the snow and a frozen lake. We jump a huge gap and get to a helicopter for extraction.
If you are caught in the stealth sections you get about six troops to shoot then you seem to be free to carry on.

Mission 3
No Russian.
We are Roach and we have been inserted into the terroist cell as a deep cover operative.
We are now taking on the role of one of the terrorists, we are in an airport and are told to follow Makarov who seems to be the main villian here.
We walk out of an elevator around six armed men. There are loads of travellers milling around and security guards. Makarev starts firing into the crowds indiscriminently killing everyone. We walk through the airport with the men killing the innocent without mercy. It is actually quite sickening to see the injustice of it all. The total power they have over the unarmed and I found myself not shooting at the civilians. The guards start to rally as you make your way into the airport. By the time you reach the backroom areas resistance is mounting and swat teams can be seen coming in the distance. Heavily armed and riot shielded swat teams attack and you push out onto the tarmac for a big fight.
Back inside the airport backrooms again an extraction vehicle arrives and just as you are about to get on Makarov shoots you down. Seems he knew you were a plant and his plan was to lay the blame for this attack on the doorsteps of the Americans. After all one of the dead terrorists found at the scene is a genuine American agent.

Mission 4
The Russians are up in arms, they are blaming America for the airport attack. The plan is to go after evidence to clear the name of America for the atrocity.
The supplier for the attack was an arms dealer named Alex the red.
I start in a car watching two men meet another group, whatever happens it's not friendly and the men start shooting each other.
We chase them down the street eventually shooting and catching one of the fleeing men.
He is taken away to be tortured for information. We are to go after the other man.
We are left with another two men chasing down the man. There is heavy resistance as we enter a shanty town. The other two men are killed leaving us to forge on alone.
We forge on through the buildings which are full of enemies and it's hard going as you can be flanked from above and behind easily. I eventually get on the tail of Favela and watch as the rest of the team grab him.

Mission 5
James Ramirez
We see tactical sattellite displays go haywire, sending up bogus contacts for a large amount of unidentified aircraft over the USA. Seems this is an attack and the system is being hacked to display bogus data to divert attention to the real attack which is in Virginia and there really are aircraft there.
We are in a humvee driving through suburban streets, overhead there are planes dropping lots of troops by parachute. There is anti-aircraft fire everywhere. We are told to get out of our jeep.
We have to avoid a heavily armoured BTV as it plows through the street machine gunning and rocketing everything in sight including civilian houses. We follow it and having nothing to take it out with avoid it and progress to a rally point with other troops in the area. Of course there is heavy fighting all the way.
We regroup on the roof of a diner and have to fight off incoming waves of enemy soldiers. We have a protable autofiring machine gun to drag around the roof. After a few waves of soldiers the roof is targeted by a UAV and we have to get off the roof. BTV's turn up and our superiors tell us to get to the UAV controller and take the control box off him. His location is pinpointed for us. We have to run the gauntlet of the BTV's and get to the control box. After killing the soldiers in control of it we take it over and use the UAV's guided missiles to take out the BTV's
We are told by radio to regroup again at the resturaunt.
There is a VIP who we are trying to protect, he is being kept in the meat locker of the first resturaunt, however the burger joint is more secure so they move him there. Our objective to protect the soldier who is carrying the wounded man, once we are at the burger joint and the vip is safe in the meat locker we have to defend the burger joint against a huge assault. Lots and lots of soliders come from all sides and there are quite a few of our own men helping out here. Getting onto the roof of the burger joint is the best strategy and after several large waves, two helicopters and lots of fun the convoy comes in to your rescue and you and your men join the convoy.

Mission 6
we are back with Soap. Makarov has declared war on America and is going to kill a thousand Americans for every russian killed in the airport massacre.
A prisoner in a gulag apparently is someone the Makarov hates immensely. I assume this is the Captain from the last game who we supposedly saw die. we have to go and rescue him.
The scene picks up straight after the last chase through the shanty town.
We are now trying to get to an extraction point, however we have strirred up a real hornets nest and every inch of the way to the LZ is hard fought.
When we eventually get there the helicopter can't land as there are far too many enemies in the area. Soap tells the pilot to abort and try and get them on the rooftops.
We then havve to run up and onto the roofs where the game takes a leaf out of Mirrors Edge and we have to basically run and jump without our gun and make it to the helicopter, however we end up falling off a roof in cut scene and have to get back onto the roofs on your own. The route is simple and impossible to go wrong with but it feels like a breathless chase as you run through buildings and jump gaps to dive over a cliff for the ladder from the bottom of the helicopter. All very breathless action movie staging.

Mission 7
Back with Ramirez in Virginia.
We have to locate and neutralise anti aircraft guns.
We start following a armoured vehicle called Honey Badger.
We can use a laser designator to target areas we would like the armoured car to shoot at.
We progress along streets and through houses clearing out the enemy soldiers.
We come to a road block and have to pass through a house and then we can see the anti aircraft guns. We use the lase designator and they are blown up for us.
We now have to go to 4677 Brookmere road?

mission 8 The only easy day was yesterday
Back to Roach
We are assualting a havily defended oil rig which the russians are using as Sam sites. There is the possibility that the person Makarov hates is on the rig.
We are going in using a submarine.
We exit the sub through what looks like the torpedo hatch with three of us riding a small torpedo like vehicle. Another team comes from another sub in a similar fashion.
We come up under the rig and make our way up fighting as we go. There are sections where you go to a door and place a breaching charge reminiscent of rainbow six Vegas. When you go through the door you have a bullet time like sequence where you have to shoot the soldiers and avoid shooting the hostages in the confusion.
You free three sets of hostages, one on each deck of the rig.
Before the last set you have a section where the enemy use smoke and thermal vision goggle to get you, so you have to do the same.

Mission 9 Gulag
We are assaulting the fortress like gulag, there are helicopters and fighters in on the attack. We start sniping from the helicopter as we fly in and it's a nice sequence with Fighters blowing things up all over the place. We land and get out into the main courtyard of the Gulag and fight our way inside and to the control room where the computers are hacked to find the prisoner. We then fight our way through the cell blocks.
Here we fight our way through the empty cells to an armoury and get a riot shield, which is handy as we are essentially bottnecked in and guard pour in and give us a pounding, since I am behind the shield it's rocky but I survive.
We can hit people with the shield but can't shoot past it.
We fight through more cells, rappell down into a basement type area, breach through a wall into a large shower and locker room area. Here we encounter more riot shield men and find that they are only vulnerable from behind or using grenades.
This is aa farily hard set of rooms to clear. Once through we drop through a hole in the floor to a sewer type area.
Here we are told that the wall next to us is the cell of our prisoner. We breach the wall and the prisoner kills the guard for us.
It is Captain Price. We have to hot foot it to the chopper, the tunnel caves in under the battleship bombardment of the area. We go back to a hole in the roof where the chopper lowers a line, we all clip onto it and zoom up the hole and escape.

Mission 10 Of their own accord
Back to America It looks like things are going badly, we start in a bunker where there are a lot of wounded men.
Sgt Foley wants us to go and slow down the enemy to help with the evacuations.
We run through the battlefield and into a large building, which probably has some kind of signifigance but I don't recognise it. We are near the captiol building and the washington monument.
We climb through the building fighting room to room.
Then get to an enemy position which was being used to bombard the evacuation site. When we clear out the enemies we start using their own weapons against them and snipe some rocket launcher men and blow up some helicopters and vehicles.
We are then to go to the rooftop for extraction. We race to the roof with minimal resistance then get into a helicopter, taking control of the mini-gun we fly around doing as much damage as possible before being shot down ourselves.
In the wreckage we try and fight off the advancing enemy but our ammo is running out.
Everything goes white.

Mission 11 Contingency
Price talks to Shepherd, Price wants to do something fairly weird to end the war today, he likens it to putting out an oil fire by making a bigger bang next to it and sucking all the oxygen away. Shepherd thinks he is nuts and tries to order him to do something else. Price cuts the connection and we are going to it his way whether the Americans like it or not.
We are in a snow bound forest, we have parachuted in and our team is a little spread out. I am with Pri ce and we start making our way to the objective. We take out a few patrols using silenced sniper rifles When  you shoot at one target Price shoots another. After some trudging through the woods you come to a village and things start to hot up as you meet some more of the squad and a fight breaks out.
We fight through the village and then come to a large base. We get a UAV to assist us and storm the base. We are to get to a submarine. It is hard fought but I get there. Price goes aboard and we are to hold off the enemy until he does what he intends to do.
We go to the roof of a guard post and hold them off.
The subs missile doors open and a nuclear bomb launches.
We see the view from the international space station as the nuke goes off. in the lower atmosphere. The space station is blown apart like a dandelion cluster in the wind.
The resultant EMP blast knocks out all the electronics.

Mission 12
Back with Ramirez in Washington, about to run out of bullets with loads of enemies approaching. The EMP knocks a helicopter out of the sky right on top of the approaching enemies. Other friendly soldiers come and free Us from the wreckage.
We have to run for cover as more and more aircraft fall from the sky as if it's raining helicopters.
Inside a building the explosions finally stop.
We walk out after finding some ammo and meet a soldier who tells us to regroup at the Whisky hotel. This seems to be army code for the Whitehouse.
We make our way through an office building with some fighting in the cubicles.
Then back out onto the streets.
We fight some soldiers in the pouring rain and the dark. Then into another building, in the basement of this one we find a door to a presidential bunker.

Mission 13 Whisky Hotel.
We come out of the tunnels onto the gardens of the Whitehouse. We meet up with other soldiers who are trying to take back the Whitehouse from enemy clutches. It seems the whitehouse is the only building with power in the area as well.
we have to storm the building against heavy resistance, into the oval office and through onto the stage where the president would make his televised speeches.
The radio chatter which we can hear now suggests that our own forces are going to level the Whitehouse rather than let it be taken by the Russians.
We decide to get to the roof and show friendly flare colours to the incoming bombers to prevent them from blowing the Whitehouse. We have two minutes to run through the place to the roof fighting all the way. When we get there we are just in time.

Mission 14 Loose Ends
The war is mostly done in the US as a greater part of the russian war machine was rendered junk by the EMP.
141's objective now is to capture or kill Makarov.
He has been traced to two locations. We are sent to one while another team goes for the other.
The house is a nice log cabin type affair in the hills. As we approach jeeps try and make a break, they are quickly rocketed from UAV's
We fight into the house and take it floor by floor breaching into rooms and killing everyone.
Makarov isn't there. On the Radio we find out that he wasn't at the other safe house either.
We are told to hack a computer and while we are doing so a counter attack takes place.
We have to Protect the DSM device as it copies all the files from Makarov's computers.
This is a hard fight with enemies coming from all directions. Placing claymores helps a lot.
After the device copies everything we have to escape to the LZ.
This is a crazy run through loads of enemies. Eventually a cut scene cuts in when you get close to the helicopter. Shepherd shoots the character you place Roach and Ghost at point blank and takes the files. You watch as you are chucked in a ditch, doused in petrol and set alight.

Mission 15 Out of the frying pan
Shepherd seems to be either in league with Makarov or the orchestrator of it all.
Price is in similar circumstances in Afghanistan. His pilot is coming to extract him, however makarov and Shepherds men are fighting it out in the area as well.
We are in a large aircraft graveyard. We have a sniper rifle and it's great fun sniping everything in sight. We progress through the area and every inch is hard fought.
We come to a large open area and our plane flies overhead, the LZ is far too hot though.
Getting across this area is hard but great fun. We progress until we meet a jeep full of our team and have a real rodeo ride of a mounted gun session. We end this by driving the jeep onto the back of the rescue plane as it is taking off.

Mission 16 Just like old times
Soap and Price are on a mission to kill someone, not sure if it's Makarov or Shepherd.
We come across a patrol and it seems to be Shepherds men.
Taking out the patrol we rappel.
down and knife two guards from above whilst on the ropes.
Inside the caverns we find many armed men and lots of equipment. We sneak our way through the caverns only taking out those who get in our way. Eventually we are compromised and the lights go out and the tunnels flood with men.
Fighting our way through we have to use a riot shield to get across some catwalks on the side of the cliffs.
Then back inside the base.
We can hear on the radio that they are preparing to extract Shepherd.
Storming a cavern we have a huge fight before getting to a breach door.
Inside the breach room we have a few men to kill and must avoid shooting the tons of explosives which are being rigged to bring the caverns down around us.
We have to hack doors to escape and then run outside. Shepherd brings missiles down on his own men in an attempt to get us.
We give chase and get to some more caverns.

Mission 17 Endgame
This is a zodiac chase scene, lots of river boats copters and men to shoot at.
You have to give Chase to Shepherd anf avoid incoming fire for long enough.
Then you watch as Shepherd boards a helicopter. You have to hold the boat steady as Price shoots down the copter. Your boat goes over the edge of a waterfall and you land in a heap at the bottom. What follows is a quicktime style series of events where you see Shepherd climb from the crash and you follow him, you are injured yourself. When you get to Shepherd he knifes you in the chest. He is about to put a bullet in your head for good measure when Price jumps him and they fight.
As Price gets beaten to death you try and pull the knife from your chest when you do you throw it at Shepherd and kill him.
Price gets up and helps you up. Nikolai comes in with a helicopter and you are both saved.

Side notes
For the most part the endless respawing of enemies seems to be gone. Yes enemies spawn as you progress through the map, but once you shoot say someone at a window, he might be replaced once, but once the second man is down no more appear. This ends the recklessness which seems so at odds with real warfare. Yes you might need to be bold to progress in a real firefight, surely you wouldn't run headlong into hordes of armed men in real life though.

Credits roll with some weird scenes of office or a museum with scenes being acted out from the game. Is this supposed to be Infinity ward making the game?

15 hours on the in game clock, though I think it was less than that, seems to count time you spend on pause.
405 Achievement points for the first playthrough.