Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Entirely called for

"This is a camouflage carpet, not a red one," my companion notes as we step inside the Vue Cinema on London's Leicester Square, feeling the thrill of hyperbole on the eve of Modern Warfare 2's launch. There are men dressed as various kinds of Marine and SAS operative. There is also a smattering of minor and not-quite-so-minor 'premiere' celebrities, Activision playing up the venue's Hollywood pretensions and describing this sequel's debut as the "biggest entertainment launch of the decade". This makes for an easy opening paragraph, of course, but it also amply demonstrates the title's role as comfortably the most important release of the festive season, making child's play of Halo 3: ODST and Uncharted 2's respective arrivals.

Modern Warfare 2 does things on a different scale, not only when it comes to marketing oomph and ambient, mass market consumer awareness (The Daily Mail even had the good grace to get angry before the game's release), but also as a slice of interactive entertainment there is a sense of expensive, lavish investment here, coupled with developmental talent that is both creative and technically accomplished. This is a big budget, multi-platform extravaganza. It is James Cameron. It is Titanic.

Having bought into the excitement wholesale (a wry glance in the direction of Dom Jolly and Goldie playing team deathmatch, there), it is perhaps pertinent to note before we delve deeper that having experienced every facet of this multi-million seller, it doesn't reinvent the wheel. Infinity Ward seem to know instinctively why the original Modern Warfare became the undisputed genre champion, and as you take on the singleplayer game's nondescript middle-eastern tutorial it is like meeting an old friend who's just got a new job, a new girlfriend, and a new wardrobe. The controls are solidly familiar then, while the game reacts and evolves exactly as you expect it to. Everything feels like it has been tightened, heightened and given a shot in the arm - but this is not revolution for revolution's sake (Infinity Ward do experiment elsewhere, but more on this later).

The singleplayer campaign feels more dramatic, Infinity Ward using more detailed level design and set-piece action alongside more ambitious sound effects and expertly paced music to ensure that the atmosphere is near pitch-perfect, while the story also ups the ante over the first outing. The second level (start the game on Veteran if you dare, you owe it yourself) seeing you riding atop an armoured vehicle, moving through tight Afghan streets that could have been taken straight from the news reports of the BBC, before your convoy is attacked by militants and everything goes predictably haywire. Generation Kill has obviously been a source of inspiration, and this is no bad thing.

If you could practically feel the dusty heat and simmering political tensions in Afghanistan, things get altogether frostier in the stunning third level - which offers a snowy mountain assault in remote Kazakhstan. Switching from American Ranger Joseph Allen you're now in the hefty boots of soldier Gary Sanderson, working behind enemy lines with covert ops hero Soap MacTavish. The voice acting in this scene works a treat, and while the character development is far from Shakespearian you'll be glad of Soap's reassuring presence as this mission also heats up and threatens to spiral out of control. Speaking generally, the missions in the game seem a tad shorter (the singleplayer itself is certainly no longer than the original game's), but Infinity Ward seem to use this greater degree of control to pack in more density, more hugely memorable instances - the missions combining to create a coherent narrative of staggeringly diverse ambition.

Infinity Ward are clearly hoping to cement their own reputation as crafters of far more than solid singleplayer and inspired multiplayer fun, however, and the game's controversial fourth level (which you're actually given the surprise option of skipping, at the campaign's outset) certainly shows that those behind the title's script have some nerve - even if it will provide ample ammunition for those looking to assault videogames on moral grounds. Returning as Allen, now an undercover CIA operative, you're tasked with infiltrating a nefarious Russian terrorist group - and this is where things get really outlandish.