Modern Warfare 2 Analysis

So last night’s GDC Awards were fairly overshadowed by the first look at Infinity Ward’s follow-up to the highly successful squeal to Call of Duty 4. Many people were let down with the seemingly low amount of information or gameplay in the trailer. While the later might be true the former is far from it. The trailer holds a lot of sneak peaks into what is in store for us coming this fall. Keep in mind that these are only my opinions and views on the info. They are not necessarily correct.

Lets start this off with the first thing we hear, the intercom voice. It quickly becomes apparent that we are in an airport so the alternate language at the beginning is not that big of a deal seeing as how airports relay messages in multiple languages. However, in English speaking airports they usually start the message off in English then translate it to Spanish/ other language. It is the opposite in this. Leading me to believe this is not in an American or English speaking airport.

When the guys in the suits leave the elevator you can clearly make out 4 perk symbols over the Security sign. You can look at the picture for a reference. The first seems to be the “Stopping Power” perk from the first game. While many of the perks will inevitably get some tweaks it seems as though IW is telling its fans that Stopping Power may be getting a much greater change.

The second is an image of a foot with a wing on it. It seems to be very representative of the god Hermes from Greek Mythology. In Ancient Greece the god Hermes wore winged sandals and was the god of Speed and Flight. Leading me to believe that this may of something to do with a higher jump or a faster sprint/movement speed.

The 3^rd perk is what seems to be two crossed knives. This may have some correlation to the Modern Warfare melee system. Maybe it will have something to do with deflecting knives or having multiple ones. Your guess is as good as mine.

Now the 4^th one goes right over my head. It almost looks like a wine glass or an arrow pointing down a hole. If I can figure out what this might even relate to I’ll be sure to update.

Now lets get to the setting. There are 3 big set pieces shown in the trailer including the Christ the Redeemer statue, an oil rig and lastly a castle. At first glance these seem to have no correlation. Here is my connection between the three.

Lets start with the obvious one, the Christ Statue. This is a famous statue located outside of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. How does this connect to the other two? Well last November the Brazilian President announced that they found new oil reserves off the coast of Brazil that would produce an annual growth of 7% putting Brazil in the top 10 oil producers in the world. Could a war have started over these reserves in the land of Call of Duty? Possibility. So where does this leave the castle? All of the castles in Brazil share no resemblance in the one shown in the trailer. The closest I have found is the Castle of São Jorge in Portugal. For the uncultured reading this, the national language of Brazil is Portuguese. It all comes full circle.

I’ll keep looking at the video and update what I can find as I go.

LINKS:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_the_Redeemer_(statue)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castelo_de_S%C3%A3o_Jorge

http://www.brazzilmag.com/content/view/8908/54/