Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 has a total of five difficulty options. These difficulties impact how you experience the game’s campaign. Get to know the differences between these difficulty settings, how to unlock “Realism” difficulty, and more using this guide.
| Difficulty | Description |
 Recruit | Damage is less punishing. Recommended for players looking to play the game only for the story. |
 Regular | Standard difficulty. |
 Hardened | Adds more challenge to the game by increasing damage dealt to the player. |
 Veteran | Significantly increases the damage that the player can receive. Bullets hit more often. |
 Realism | Removes the HUD like the compass and other threat indicators. Bullets hit harder and more often. |
For first-time players, the recommended difficulty of the game is regular as it is how the game was designed by the developers. It provides a good amount of challenge while not being too easy on the player. On the other hand, if you are only in it for the story, best select Recruit difficulty instead.
To unlock the more difficult version of Veteran, Realism, you need to clear the game first. After clearing the game, you can select any mission and replay it on any difficulty including Realism.
If you’re in for a challenge, you can try to complete all of Modern Warfare 2’s achievements. With that said, there are two achievements that are tied to the game’s difficulty. The first one, Time for Pints, requires you to simply clear the game. The second one, Cutting heads off snakes, requires that you beat all campaign missions on the hardest difficulties namely, Veteran or Realism. Note that you can get both at the same time if you beat the game on your first time on Veteran difficulty.
Read the Modern Warfare 2 Achievements list for more info.
