GAME REVIEW: Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
Xbox 360/PS3
½ (out of 5)

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (MW3) is the latest in Activision’s best-selling series and developer Infinity Ward - despite taking a large hit in personnel recently - wanted to try something bigger, more explosive, and more intense than ever before. Did they hit this ambitious goal? You can definitely see they tried.

First off, I’ll give you my Call of Duty (CoD) background. I have played through every CoD title, including both Campaign and Multiplayer. I have enjoyed the franchise ever since Call of Duty 2 brought us its fantastic iconic multiplayer experience.

But now the WW II era has long gone, we’re fighting battles in modern combat scenarios, and the game has some serious competition. Arguably, this is the most important release in the history of the franchise.

Campaign
The campaign starts us right off where Modern Warfare 2 (MW2) left off, with no sign of a tutorial anywhere. Infinity Ward must assume everyone looking into MW3 has already bought MW2, so why bother - right?

They do follow modern FPS trends by popping up button help when it’s required of you, however, so that’s something. But if you haven’t touched the Modern Warfare series before, you’re going to have to check the game's manual if you want to learn how to control your character effectively.

Don’t be too worried about button prompts; unlike that other modern war game, they’re not frequent. Instead, in MW3 the scripted sequences in the campaign just...happen. Breaching doors, like in previous MW titles, just necessitates a single press of ‘Square’ and bam - you’re in the room, slow-mo kicks in, and you can take everyone out with carefully-aimed shots.

If you run into a corner and a guy jumps out at you, you can see everything that goes on without having to fumble for a button to save your life each time. They do have some BF3-like sequences too, but as I said - not as frequently.

The story continues the series tradition of following several characters from different perspectives of a modern war scenario - in this case, hunting a crazed maniac who started a war through deceit and betrayal. Delta Force, a group of marines trying to save a kidnapped Russian President and his daughter on their way to peace talks with the US, and a father on holiday with his family in London... how that ties into the narrative I won’t spoil, but it’s a part of the game that’s been causing some controversy.

I mentioned earlier Infinity Ward obviously wanted this story to play out in a bigger, more explosive, and more intense manner than ever before. The Hollywood-style moments in this game are fantastic, way above my expectations.

As an example, early in the game you play a section where the Russian president’s plane is hijacked. You find yourself trying to get the president to a safe room aboard the large airliner, while trying to take out the terrorists on board.

Once the plane starts hitting turbulence the intensity kicks in, you’re thrown about the cabs like your slippers when the dog gets a hold of them - hitting the ceiling, then the floor, then floating in zero gravity for moments as the plane hurtles to the ground; all while still shooting at the hijackers.

These moments are so exciting and masterful it would make Michael Bay blush.

While stuff like this makes me want to continue through the game, the bits in between let the game down a little. In a game like this, the gunplay and general flow need to be balanced with the set pieces. There is just so much going on in the general gunplay of MW3 that it’s hard to actually concentrate on what’s happening; there are more enemies, more events going on around you, and it's happening all at once. Be prepared to say this sentence a lot: “What the heck just happened?”

I played through the campaign on Hardened as I am very familiar with previous titles, but it’s not the difficulty that makes the general gunplay frustrating, it’s the chaos of so much happening at once. Buildings fall down, 30 soldiers running around behind you, a constant spawn of enemies in front of you (until you reach that invisible line that progresses you through to the next sequence of rinse and repeat), and you die over and over just trying to get 20 meters down the street, or 10 meters to the next room - either by stray bullets or a grenade that’s on its final tick.

Visually, there aren't many improvements since 2009's MW2; the only notable improvements, in fact, are in the animations and particle effects. One effect in particular I liked is a chemical dust residue which flows around soldiers feet as they run through it. Explosions and structure damage also benefit from these new particle tricks. But the textures and general grey / yellow look is all the same.

While the game hasn’t improved much in the looks department, the framerate is superb. I found little to no noticeable dip - even in the most intense moments, with so much going on. The game holds up brilliantly no matter what's happening, which I think is a good trade off against fancy lighting and texture effects.

Sound, well, you’re not going to hear anything new here. In fact a majority is recycled from MW2; even some of the dialogue while running around with Price is from the exact same script. In fact, the online seems to sound worse in my opinion; I have a pretty decent setup, including 5.1 surround, and yet grenades have this muffled, dull pop to them. Guns in the same class all seem to sound identical. I guess the layoffs were mostly in the sound department or budget went elsewhere - but if I were to close my eyes, I’d think I was playing MW2.

Overall the campaign is good; it will take you roughly 4 and half hours to complete. I won’t play it again just out of the share frustration of the main fire fight sections, and I won’t go back to collect all the Intel collectibles like I did in MW2 - I value my sanity too much. But it was a thrilling ride all the same.

Multiplayer
Ok chaps, time to talk about the real meat and potatoes of MW3. Can I put CoD: Black Ops aside, now I have a new MW to take charge? Let’s break it down.

Spec-ops is back, this time with some new flavour: the co-op missions offered in MW3 are a lot more diverse. One in particular I took a liking to is the IED defuse mission. One player covers you as you don your Heavy Armour and seek out IED’s across the map, all the while being attacked by an endless stream of AI soldiers.

Survival Mode is a new Spec-ops mode. Similar to Black Ops' Zombies, but instead of hordes of the undead it starts out with easy guerrilla fighters. As each round is completed, more difficult enemies come into the fray - including dogs, Special Forces, air support, and the dreaded heavy armoured Juggernaught soldiers. Between each wave, you can take the 10 second reprieve you're granted to find armoury creates dotted around the map to restock or to purchase point-streak rewards.

The tried and true TDM makes its return, and it’s pretty much MW2 all over again. MW2 was the best FPS multiplayer since Halo, so that’s not necessarily a terrible thing. One of the key improvements is a change to the way you spend the XP you earn, with weapons able to gain Proficiency XP for upgrades. My favourite SCAR with kick proficiency and red dot scope is a beast!

The multiplayer map designers for MW3 obviously had close to mid-range combat in mind when laying out the arenas. There is always something in the way for those who prefer the long rifle, be it a building, a hut, a car, another building, some scrap - just as long as there is something in the way between you and your opponents.

Unless you’re a quick scoping legend, the maps are so tightly structured with multi-tiered, closed-in halls, there is no point in traditional sniping (camping). This will be welcome news for some players, but hated by others.

Kill-Confirmed mode strengthens my claim that Infinity Ward took on the campers, by creating a game mode where you have to run around using "spray and pray" tactics. I may sound like a camper myself, but I’m not; I just feel it is (was?) a legitimate strategy, and that it’s a part of the community.

Team Defender is a new mode where one player must hold on to a flag for as long as possible, while his team mates defend him. Similar to Capture the Flag, teams are awarded points for killing the enemy. However, the team holding the flag receives double points towards the match score. The team to reach the score limit first, or have the highest score when time runs out wins.

The other Multiplayer modes from MW2 make a return also, including Demolition, Hardcore, Sabotage, etc - the only difference is the map selection, all of which are designed around close to mid-range fire fights.

Perks and Strike Packages return, but Strike packages are now sorted into three groups: Assault, Support and Specialist. Some are old and some are new, but my favourite has to be the Juggernaught, where you put on heavy armour and become nigh-on impossible to kill. You're armed with an M60 machine gun, which is a beast - especially if you wander into the middle of a team fight.

Call of Duty Elite
This week's release of MW3 also marked the official availability of Activision's new social networking service, Call of Duty: Elite. In a nutshell, it's an external platform you can use to guage and improve your performance, as well as networking with CoD players that you share interests with. On PS3, it’s available as an out-of-game application that you download separately (68MB).

You can sign up for free access to the service, which limits what you can see of the above, or you can choose to go premium ($79.99) which not only gives you full access to Elite, but also gives you the DLC released for the next year at no extra charge. If you plan on sticking with Modern Warfare 3 for its competitive online play, the premium option looks like pretty good value.

Signing up for the first time also gives you free Prestige points which you can use to unlock one of the Prestige Shop unlocks straight away.

Conclusion
To sum up, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is a small evolution in multiplayer and a definitive end to the story. Despite being a solid, well-rounded experience, I felt there wasn’t enough difference or progression in use of technology to really rate the game higher.

Modern Warfare 2 changed the game and paved the way for the FPS genre today; Modern Warfare 3 just does more of the same and feels more of an expansion than a brand new title - albeit a good expansion.
 

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Trailer

By Luke Percy