Modern Warfare 2 (2009), despite the early release date, has long been held in high esteem as the ‘King of Call of Duty’. Developers, Activision, however, broke the hearts of many a gamer, when they pulled the plug on the matchmaking system, leaving long-serving gamers in a state of bewilderment and disarray.

This decision is thought to have been made after the discovery of an exploit in Call of Duty: Cold War, that allowed people to see the IP addresses of those in the same lobby. After further investigation, it soon became apparent that this wasn’t solely a Cold War issue, with the having hackers had exploited many classic Call of Duty games. The decision was made to close matchmaking to protect players and the rest, as they say, is history. It’s a classic example of a few bad apples ruining a healthy crop.

Enter the Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing – Modern Warfare and Modern Warfare 2 Reboots

In 2019, Infinity Ward finally realized the significance of the earlier titles, they got to work and rebooted the Call of Duty branch. While using some of the same ideas, themes and characters for these later games, sadly they were poles apart from the beloved titles of the late-noughties’; causing a lot of disappointment from those that were expecting a complete word-for-word remake.

Despite the two later games both being commendable efforts, they never carried the same charm and allure of their predecessors and consequently received short shrift from the die-hard Call of Duty community. It was becoming increasingly clear that the Modern Warfare titles that we all knew and loved were to be treated as a thing of the past.

The Revival of Modern Warfare 2 and Friends

The news came suddenly and unexpectedly, causing a stir in the gaming world and sending many of up into our dust basements of up to our dusty attics to brush off our Xbox 360s or PlayStation 3s and booting up to take a trip down the familiar streets of Memory Lane – classic Call of Duty was back!

The switches have all been switched back to the ‘on’ position for all Call of Duty titles since Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare and we’re pleased to say, the games have definitely aged well.

Going back to an old treasure is always a warming experience and just about everything in Modern Warfare 2 sparked old memories and once again treading the old maps really does take you back. However, despite our love for familiarity, there is one aspect that sadly hasn’t changed.

Modern Warfare 2 Hacked Lobbies – A Warning

While basking in the memories and slowly building stats back and unlocking parts of our favorite loadouts, we found ourselves automatically connecting to a hacked lobby. The clues should have been noticed when we were transported from the mean streets of the Favela, to the confined spaces of Rust – the hacker’s preferred lobby.

Making the mistake of running around at the speed of light and actually managing to fell one opponent, I noticed that I was suddenly 9th prestige and packing ludicrously large numbers in my stats. This is all well and good for those that like to mess around, it’s not so good for those of us that like to build up our stats legitimately and just enjoy the game. If you find yourself in one of these lobbies, don’t make the same mistake; just leave the game and your rank and stats will be safe.

Summary

Despite the above, Modern Warfare 2 is still massively fun and feels great to go back to. With the hacked lobbies still springing up here and there, however, you need to tread lightly if you wish to progress properly.