TITLE: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3PLATFORM: 360, PS3, PC, Wii
DEVELOPER: Infinity Ward
PUBLISHER: Activision
ESRB: M
RELEASE DATE: November 8, 2011
By Seth Miller
Staff Writer, Part-Time Ninja
Staff Writer, Part-Time Ninja
Oh, Call of Duty, I remember when you started out and were just a challenger to the Medal of Honor games that were pretty popular at the time. Now, you are one of the largest video game franchises in history and will have gamers wait outside stores for hours in cold November nights to get a copy of your latest game, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. With the creative shake up behind the scenes, how does the latest game hold up?
Modern Warfare 3 picks up right where the last one left off; Russia is still at war with America, Price and Soap are recovering in a safe house, and the hunt for the terrorist Makarov is about to begin. Makarov is making moves behind the scenes to cause even more destruction, and it is up to Price and Soap to take him down or the western world will suffer.
For me, the best part of the Modern Warfare franchise has always been the single player campaign, and the latest game continues this trend for the most part. The combat is the same as before but loses none of its intensity. The cinematic style, the incredible moments in combat that shake-up the way you play, the slightly unexpected twists in the story; everything that built the franchise is used in this game. I still enjoy how the game switches the protagonist you play as from time to time to make the events that happen to them that much more engaging. The narrative has stayed consistent throughout the series and comes to a very satisfying end.
The Spec-Ops portion has returned to the series as well. The layout is the same as before, with players tackling single player missions from a different angle at varying difficulty levels. The changes to this version include the ability to complete it solo and a Survival Mode where you face wave after wave of enemies designed for each level. While it may lack originality, this facet of the game is still good fun.
Multiplayer is still the thing that many players will judge this game on and Modern Warfare 3 sticks to its guns on this one. It’s pretty much the same as the last game, but with some new game styles to choose from and more customization options to create your own type of soldier. While it’s fun, there are no real significant changes. The first set of maps are not the best the series has to offer, and come up as lacking when compared to multiplayer like Battlefield 3.
The biggest criticism anyone can levy against this game is the lack of originality. Multiplayer and Spec-Ops are essentially the same as before, and even the single player campaign lacks that special something the other games had. It got so bad that I felt like anybody who watches a slasher movie. I knew what was going to happen when a certain character was going to open a door at the end of a level and the thrill of playing was diminished. The single player campaign is also shorter than it has been in previous games.
Overall, Modern Warfare 3 is still a game that is great fun to play, with enough extras to keep people occupied, but its lack of truly original gameplay and the fact that it seems to be relying on its pre-existing material could be a sign of things to come. With competition finding new ways to improve on what the Call of Duty series pioneered, the series better step up or be left behind.
