Many of the multiplayer issues which plagued Modern Warfare 1, were fixed when Call of Duty: World at War was released. These issues have now reappeared for reasons that seem to have no plausible explanation. The main culprit is the bizarre new match-making system that has been installed. The option to search for “Locale Only” games has been removed and now you are likely to be thrown into unplayable connection after unplayable connection.

On top of that, members of your party are often dropped from the server for no discernable reason. And for MOST of the game types, the “Party only” chat feature is not allowed so the members of your group who have been dropped from the game CANNOT communicate with the rest of the group to tell them so!! They will be unable to use the in game chat channel as they have been uncermoniously booted at the start of the game, and will be unable to use the party chat channel because it has been muted by CoD: MW2! Lame!

Not only does this cause problems when you’re trying to get into a game with a group of your friends, but it also removes a vital tactical element when your whole party makes it in. Being able to communicate with your team during matches gives your team a strategic advantage that should be preserved. I am quite sure that among all of the gear pictured on the helmet of the guy on the cover, at the very least he has a closed circuit radio channel to his squad. Why can’t I get this in the game?

You are also exposed to the chatter of the room/match, which, as anyone who has played an online match will tell you, can be highly annoying. It took no less than 10 seconds (TEN!) in the game lobby for a young man with a thick accent to start calling us (or someone in the room) “[expletive] stupid americans” among other things. This was never an issue in Call of Duty: World at War, because we could just use the party chat. Even when the discussion is civil, there is so much chatter going on at once you can’t really hear what anyone is saying. Disappointing indeed.

Another handy feature that was not ported over from CoD: WaW, was the option for the team leader to bring the entire party out of the game lobby. Now when another friend logs on and wants to play with your group, you each have to individually exit the room and then the party leader has to re-invite the entire party from the Xbox dashboard and reassemble the group. Why was this feature removed?? How hard would it have been to keep this??

These things make the multiplayer mode far less enjoyable than they should be. Yes, they do not completely kill the online experience, but they do make it a LOT less fun. How much fun is it to constantly play with a yellow or red connection?? The new maps are beautiful and complex, and the possible weapon combinations expansive, making me think that the underlying game could be a lot of fun, but the extreme difficulty of actually getting into one of those games with your friends is shocking.

If you’re looking to mainly play the campaign mode or just spec-ops with *A* friend, this is a solid game and probably worthy of 4 or 5 stars. However I believe the real draw of the Call of Duty series is it’s fantastic multiplayer mode; a mode, that for this release, is a huge disappointment.
Rating: 2 / 5