Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Review

16Dec11

Game Title: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

Genre: Shooter

Platform: PlayStation®3

ESRB Rating: Mature

Developer: Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer Games

Publisher: Activision

Release Date: November 8th, 2011

Overall Score: 89/100

Review Author: Brrnout

<< WARNING >> This review contains spoilers

You had a long day and you just got home. Your tired and stressed out, but have no fear as Modern Warfare 3 is here! The action packed first-person shooter series that has sold enough copies to cover the surface of the moon is back with another copy of it’s planet covering creation. A new game comes out every year, so the question is: can this series keep this pace up without tiring the masses?

This is the third series game to this series within a series and it’s apparent right from the get go (if you still follow me). Modern Warfare 3 doesn’t take any chances as everything you see here has likely all been seen before. Even a building in a later mission was 100% identical in every way to a building from the Call of Duty 4 map “Pipeline”. The game looks, feels, sounds and wows the same way we all know and love. This could be a bad thing or a good thing according to how picky you are. Need less to say Infinity Ward did not want to take any chances and it shows in the games strut; but rather then damper one’s spirits I felt nothing but excitement as I opened my new copy (at 12:01 naturally). The thing is Call of Duty does not need to explain itself because… well, it’s Call of Duty! It sells more copies each year to cover that aforementioned moon and when it comes down to it. Who cares?

The campaign itself continues right where MW2 left off. With a critically wounded John MacTavish bleeding on the floor after shoving his weapon of choice in an unlucky souls eye at the end of MW2. The problem is, the world is still screwed up. Makarov is on the loose and his plans to create chaos in the world are on a 6 o’clock train to WW3. Needless to say (to anyone who watched the trailer) it happens and your thrust into the boots of yet another new character, Yuri, as you try to help the old timer’s keep the world from going to hell. Most of this you’ve now heard before: stuff blows up, people die, revenge is taken, and cake is eaten as your twisted and turned down this roller coaster ride. Once again it is a pity it is so short, but the game makes up for that by being awesome for every short second that it is around. But my biggest annoyance with the story is WHY does Infinity Ward need to make Russia look more evil. I mean, really? Invades Europe, uh, right… anyways let’s just say that anyone who followed the story through the 3-game trilogy will feel rather content with the final result.

Then again, how many people REALLY care about single player. We all know that half the world lives on the servers so lets talk about multiplayer! Giving people nothing better to do since 2007! The biggest problem is that not a whole lot has changed. Sure you have new guns, maps and a few new modes but the core game is basically the same. Of course the formula was selling well for a reason. So why fix what isn’t broken? With that being said there are many minor tweaks. Killstreak rewards are now called point streaks as you can earn credit to your next one by completing objectives as well. Another thing is that you can choose how you want to play with point streaks. you now have 3 types of point streaks. Assault, which are you traditional style rewards where the reward dies with you. Support, where you keep the credit you have earned, but most of the rewards are not as lethal. As well as specialist, who can earn more perks rather then munitions. This change is massive because now if you choose to help your buddies all game you can opt to run and gun and still help out with a support package. Allowing you to claim the objective and still get a potential game-saving bag of ballistic vests. This single change makes the online feel truly different. As well, Infinity Ward has opted to remove such annoyances like last stand, stopping power and juggernoob; creating for a less annoying warfare experiance. The problem is, many may not think new maps and modes are enough to warrent a new purchase and it is an easy argument. Nearly everything here you have seen before. So let’s try to look at some other things.

Spec Ops mode is back and this time he brought a friend: Mr. Horde-mode! It is true this is not really a new concept and it’s probable I do not need to explain this to half the people reading this, but for those who don’t. On top of the similar style spec ops missions we had with MW2 players now get to play survival which puts either themselves alone or with a buddy against increasingly harder waves of AI controller characters. These enemies will be anything from Russians (as this series hates them so much), Dogs, Suicide Dogs (really?), Suicide Russians (I see a pattern here) Juggernoobs, and a few vehicles tossed in for good measure. Although this sounds bland it is anything but as all this missions are played on multiplayer maps! Playing on maps you know really well against AI while with a friend is a real thrill as well as addicting to play; even though a single match averages around 20 minutes. With many difficulties to choose and the waves getting harder you will see the enemies using better tactics and number in an attempt to over whelm you. But as well as being with a buddy you also have access to several vending machines in order to survive. These machines include one for ammo and guns, one for air support, one for explosives and of course one for pastries (Cheesecake is on sale).

The graphics in MW3 are near carbon copied from the previous Modern Warfare game but are still nice to look at even if you have seen all these textures before. The sound is still top notch delivering the same great sound of gun fire and explosions we have all come to enjoy. Although some signs of cheating have been spotted such as the PM-9’s exact same report AND reload animation as the UZI bringing up the question as to why they bothered to replace it at all if they kept everything else. So there are for sure many short cuts, but nothing that will truly damper your experience of destroying lives.

The problem is, since this game is so similar in nature to the last one I have run out of things to talk about. So I think I will address something rather important: why is Modern Warfare 3 so popular if it is such a clone? Well, that is easy. It is because you pay 60 bucks for a game many people will spend half the next year playing. Why wouldn’t you enjoy a product like that? Bringing up the question: is it fun. Yes, it is really fun and you should buy it because we all could use a game that we can rely on for months to come. Either that or get Battlefield 3… or some cheesecake, or both!

Verdict: RENT – BUY – SKIP

Graphics                – 8.10

Gameplay/Controls – 9.10

Story                     – 7.10

Atmosphere           – 10.10

Funfactor               – 10.10

Longevity               – 10.10

SFX                      –  9.10

Soundtrack            – 8.10

AI                          – 8.10

Online                    – 10.10

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Overall                   – 89/100

The Good – Great coop, intense and addicting multiplayer, short but sweet story, amazing longevity

The Bad – Short story (no more then 4 hours), we have seen it all before, graphics and animations are near carbon copies from MW2

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