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We had the privilege to sit down and talk with Robert Bowling for a Modern Warfare 2 hands-on!

After we sorted out the many questions from our forums we jumped in the car for our meeting with Robert Bowling at Activision Benelux in Amsterdam. Because we were a bit early we sat down next to a life-size statue of Spider-man that looked so real we expected him to take a run with the game as soon as Robert would take it out...

Interview with Robert Bowling
Activision
The original plan was to do a casual meet-up at the FIRST LOOK event in Amsterdam but Robert thought it would be nicer to meet-up at Activision. Here he would have a dedicated setup to show us Modern Warfare 2 better and longer than at FIRST LOOK. This dedicated setup included a TV so big that Ghost (in the main menu screen) actually scared us a little. The great sound system was to make sure we were "feeling" the game. And we did.

When asked, Robert is very clear about the role Activision plays in the development of Modern Warfare 2 - “None”.

"Activision is the publisher and it is their job to handle the business side of the industry. They make sure to get all the games to the stores, worry about pricing and marketing. Infinity Ward is the one focusing on all the creative stuff. The collector editions we came up with are our own ideas and work. Only when the decision is made at Infinity Ward, Activision is contacted to work out all the logistics."
Now that we’re really getting close to launch, we had to ask Robert what he is most excited about for when the game is released on November 10th, 2009.

“Number one will be to get all 69 Special Ops stars. I just want to find me a co-op partner and go through it and beat it all. Because I haven’t played every mission in co-op yet. So i want to do that, but I also want to focus on unlocking callsigns. So I want to unlock the “My name is …” one that I used in one of the earlier promo video because that is by far my favorite - so I want to make it to that.”
Callsigns consist of hundreds of emblems you unlock while playing the multiplayer games the way you like it and it's completely based on your play style. You can get them by shooting down helicopters, making headshots, probably even for making double kills... There is no way of knowing what you will have to do for these callsigns, you just unlock them for doing things you do in multiplayer matches. It's a nice random rewarding system that will make every player unique because there are so many.

The Callsigns are the one thing in the game where I told them “Don’t show me the list of how you unlock them, I don’t want to know.”
Hands On
When we sat down, Robert first showed us around in the main menu. It was pretty exhilarating to see how many options there really were, the music in the background was great and the many different background images were awesome (for the lack of a better word). Robert launched the "Takedown" mission from the singleplayer campaign. Though we already knew what was going to happen, we were amazed by the amount of gore on the dashboard after your driver is taken out at the beginning of that mission. Funny side note, this driver is the character that initially was the one with the spark-plugs in his hands in the image to the left. Sucks to be demoted, but it does make sense now that Ghost is now holding the spark-plugs in the final build. Robert explained how in early screenshots dummy-characters were used when the final characters weren't done yet. In the same image on't the left, it's quite possibly the VIP from the Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare epilogue — Robert wasn't sure about that.

Special Ops
We were able to play some Special Ops ourselves and can confirm it will not easy to collect all 69 stars. Though splitscreen takes a bit from the graphics, it still looks great. But more importantly, the game runs like a silk robe dripping off Jessica Alba's body. It is sweet. The added elements all work out great and feel very natural, as if they already were there for years.
The fact that it will be possible to play Special Ops co-op with a buddy on two different difficulties brought up some questions about the possibility to maybe cheat your way through the highest difficulty by letting someone on a lower difficulty do all the work for you. Before Robert answered this question we first talked about why this option was added to the game in the first place.
As most of our readers are big fans of the Modern Warfare games, possibly the complete Call of Duty franchise, it’s highly likely you got many and many hours into these games already. Being able to play Special Ops on two different difficulties is great for playing split-screen with a friend that’s not as good at the game as you are - maybe even fired up the game for the first time. Now you can play on veteran while you set the game up on regular for him.


"What it basically does is increase the individual skill for you - because the enemy’s accuracy is better, bullet damage is greater for you, but not for him. When you change the difficulty in Special Ops it doesn’t only change the difficulty of the AI (Artificial Intelligence, as in: the enemy), it also changes the difficulty of the mission objectives. If you had to kill 30 enemies before on regular, you will have to kill 30 guys, plus dogs, plus have less collateral damage which will be different for each mission. So it changes the individual AI difficulties for you, but the objectives change for everybody. Even though your friend will be playing on regular, you - as a team - still need to kill the increased number of enemies and have the increased number of challenges, just the AI difficulties are different."
Still sounds like a bit of cheating to be done? Not really. You will only get rewarded for the weakest link. So if your buddy is playing on regular, this is what you will both be rewarded with. Even though you play on veteran yourself.
Special Ops is broken down in Alpha, Bravo, Charlie and Delta which will be unlocked when you’ve earned enough stars for each mission. When you have a friend that just picked up the game and haven’t unlocked anything beyond Bravo, you can still invite him and play a Delta mission that you have unlocked. However, when you completed the mission your friend will not earn any stars for those… So you can basically play locked missions with friend to gain some experience, not stars.
This is just two ways to balance Special Ops and make sure you will not be able to cheat yourself through Special Ops while you can still have fun just to play the game.

One other thing that seems to be working out great for variety in Special Ops is the fact that enemies are at complete random - there is never a set amount of any enemy. You could get lucky and only have to fight one Juggernaut in a mission, could be more. This does not change with the fact if you will be playing on veteran or regular. When you listen closely you can hear the music change to a much more dramatic sound when a Juggernaut is closing in. This is when you really need to be paying attention because they will not stop - until proven otherwise. While this is a great warning system, it’s easily unnoticed when in the middle of a big firefight as Robert found out the hard way...

Platforms
While the PC community often feels neglected by Infinity Ward, Robert ensures us this is not the case. Infinity Ward wants the Modern Warfare 2 experience on all platforms to be really unified and for everyone to have the same experience. This game, more than ever, is going to have that. The developers are working hard and have already added many things to the PC that gives it the extra benefits that the consoles already have build in on default. Lately it has become clear that there will be no dedicated servers for Modern Warfare 2, which scared the PC community. Robert however doesn’t share this fear because he trusts in the newly added “matchmaking” system for PC through Steam. It will run on IW-net, the new matchmaking network just for PC. You can now jump in and play against players that are around your rank and skill. If you want you can still jump in to a private match to customize your settings and play, just like you can do now on consoles. Maybe Infinity Ward has something up in their sleeves, but the news of no dedicated servers for Modern Warfare 2 didn't get a warm welcome in the PC community. They started a petition that you can sign here » to bring the dedicated servers back in Modern Warfare 2.
One of the other thing added to PC which wasn’t there before in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is the Prestige Mode. You will be able to prestige now where it didn’t before. This has all been done to unify the game and experience on all platforms.

One thing that has brought some angry faces on PC and PlayStation gamers is the fact that the (current) latest video had a Xbox 360 logo. While understanding, Robert ensures the fact that when they’ll be talking about Modern Warfare 2, they are in fact talking about the game on all the different platforms - including PC and PlayStation 3. All that marketing stuff is outside of Infinity Ward, they focus on the game itself.

Good thing to add is that Robert confirms that the PC version is NOT delayed and will be released on November 10th, just like the versions on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Multiplayer
Earlier Todd already talked about the fact that the Multiplayer has been rebuild from the ground up, which makes it look much more rich than ever before. Texture streaming and dynamic objects in the hugely interactive environment will be included into Multiplayer. Things will be exploding and changing visibility. Weather effects are also added in certain maps but only to the point that it won’t change every time you start a game. This has not been a technical decision but more like a gameplay decision to not make the weather at complete random in each map. People expect and want a certain level of structure in multiplayer, to make the map more fun and gradually become a master of the maps. While some veteran players will have no problems adapting to this, it’s the general community that would pay the price.

Something that Robert was not yet ready to talk about is new multiplayer list-modes, all we know is that there will be more modes than only Core and Hardcore.

Statistics
Call of Duty 5: World at War by Treyarch have added multiplayer statistics up on a website while Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare only shows those statistics in game and only for your friends list. To some degree, Infinity Ward will eventually try to integrate Modern Warfare 2 statistics into IW-net but Robert didn’t know if it would be ready at launch.

Clan Support
The clan support will be tied in with your callsign. So you have your gamertag, clan tag and your emblem but that is about it for clan support.

Killstreaks
Killstreaks are stackable in Modern Warfare 2’s multiplayer mode. In Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare you completely replaced your killstreak awards, like when you earned a UAV this would be lost in the woods when haven’t used that before you got to the 5 killstreak to call in an airstrike. In Modern Warfare 2 it will still replace it but only for that time being as you will not be able to toggle and you will not loose the other. So, for example, you are doing very good and you unlock your 9th killstreak (Pave Low, heavy armored assault helicopter) while a Care Package (4 killstreak) is dropped by one of your teammates, when you pick that up this one will temporarily replace your Pave Low - with whatever is in there. You can now call that one in, but still have your Pave Low in waiting to use at a later time. So you are not losing killstreaks, because you’ve earned them and should get the right to use them.

Mosh Pit
In an UncleGamer Podcast Todd Alderman talked about a gametype called “the mosh pit”. It is just like Team-Tactical was in CoD4:MW which was like multiple game types but only for 2 to 4 players - basically it’s a group of multiple playlists. Mosh pit will be like that but they doubled the amount of player to 6 to 8 players.

Balancing Multiplayer
Selective Fire Modes
While many guns in real life have a switch for the rate of fire (eg. single shot, burst, fully auto) that’s not something Infinity Ward chose to use in Modern Warfare 2:

We determine the rate of fire of a weapon based on balancing. That balancing determines when you will unlock it, it’s rate of fire and how powerful it is. If you want a single shot, unlock a single shot rifle (like the FN-FAL).
Balancing the Predator
In previous multiplayer gameplay footage at the Multiplayer Reveal Event we've seen the Predator Missile as a 4 kill killstreak. To us it looked like this killstreak was pretty imba, as it is such a quick and precise aerial attack that many had no idea what killed them. Robert ensured us that it's not as imba as we thought it would be.

"You pretty much need to know where need to shoot before you fire because it's coming down so fast. When a Predator Missile is inbound, a target of sorts (though it doesn't look like a target) appears on your mini map. So when you see it on you, you know you should leave that area a.s.a.p. And audio cue comes over your headset as well, saying 'Predator missile inbound' just as it tells you when an airstrike is incoming on your position. If you have the cold-blooded perk, then you will not show up. They can still see you but as you have no red bracket on you, you will look like a friendly to them."

After Release
While doing it a little bit for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, giving the player something more is something Infinity Ward is planning on doing much more after release. Coming up with new game types (Mike Myers anyone?) up to maybe even change up the flag positions and spawn positions if they do not work as well as they initially thought. The community will be there to help making decisions.

DLC
Downloadable content (DLC) is always something that is worked on only after the release of the game. That’s something that has been made clear in previous interviews with members of the Infinity Ward family. Now when Infinity Ward is developing the game, they prioritize things that will benefit the complete community over “cool feature” stuff like Video Sharing.

"It’s always a delegate balance to see what you will have to leave out to make time to put a new feature in. When it’s not worth it, that feature will be put up on the todo list which eventually may (or may not) be offered as downloadable content."
Examples of things on the todo list for DLC are leaderboards for Special Ops, more Multiplayer maps or Special Ops missions. When discussions for DLC start at Infinity Ward they will start thinking about that based on feedback from the community.

"It’s important to know that anything is possible with DLC and it’s not just all about new multiplayer maps, it can be new features to make the game more appealing after release. We can't put everything in but when the community feedback shows there is something that needs to be added it will be high up that list."
Video Sharing
The video sharing feature Todd Alderman talked about earlier is not something that is guaranteed to make it into the game, it’s something that the team is excited about. They would really like to see in the game but it will need to be really polished and without any bugs. It will be on the todo list for now and it will be prioritized against other stuff that they want to add into the game.

Gameplay
Two gameplay elements that have been added in Modern Warfare 2 we thought would have the potential to screw things up.

Knifing with Akimbo
We had to fire the game up once more to double check what would happen if you were knifing while equipped with Akimbo (dual-wield Uzi’s/Desert Eagles), we were slightly disappointed to not see a Hulk Smash but just a real quick switch between the left handed knife and re-equipping the Uzi’s. It could have been our mind playing tricks on us but it did seem to take slightly longer than a normal knife.

Double riot shield?
While still in the game we also had to check out if it would be possible to become a complete tank when equipping a second riot shield. Now that the riot shield is classified as a primary weapons that will be covering your back like a turtle shell when switched to your secondary weapon, you would be protected from the front and the back when you would switch out your secondary weapon for a second riot shield. This took us a couple of tries to check, as Special Ops is really not that easy as it might look. We’re happy to confirm you will NOT be able to pick up the second shield, it just let’s you swap your secondary weapon with the weapon that was used by late soldier.

Modded controllers
Robert wasn’t able to go into details on how they will fix the modded controller cheat in Modern Warfare 2 but it will be different from the quick fix in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. "It’s more about identifying the hardware than it is just capping the maximum fire rate." tells Robert. It sounds promising, let’s hope this works out as good as they think it will!

Final Words
This. Game. Rules.

It really does, you will not be disappointed by it when it's released worldwide on November 10th, 2009. It plays exactly like you would expect and we're even more excited about the game than we were before (which might make the coming three weeks unbearable...)! Thanks to both Robert '402' Bowling and Martijn of Activision for going out on a limb for us - it has been a blast.

Still wondering about that image on the frontpage? More about that in the coming days as you might become a proud owner of a Modern Warfare 2 canvas painting signed by Robert Bowling himself!