After the mammoth world-changing hit that was the original Modern Warfare, there was no way developers at Infinity Ward could give players a sequel that could live up to the astronomical expectations that followed the fourth game's release. Yet, surprisingly enough, they came mighty close. Expanding on the core multilayer experience that made the previous game so exciting, Infinity Ward recaptured the frantic magic of that original competitive experience. However, while some of these additions to the multiplayer side of things were golden, there were a couple of times where bigger wasn't always better. This same go-big-or-go-home mentality spilled over into the single-player portion of the game too, with a full-blown Russian invasion turning the game's campaign into a Michael Bay style spectacle that contrasted harshly with the smaller scale Black Hawk Down inspired grittiness of the previous release. By trying to capture the bloated cinematic scale of the worst action movies, Modern Warfare kicked off a trend that still plagues video games to this day.
