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Fast Facts

History Is Written By The Victor. History Is Filled With Liars. If He Lives, And We Die, His Truth Becomes Written And Ours Is Lost

Call of Duty has been a pillar in the gaming community since 2003 and has since been the go-to game for all my multiplayer needs, the number of times me and my friends would battle it out on maps like Rust is countless and has left me with many fond memories. With a huge following of over 250 million players worldwide and streamed online by millions there has not been a game that has come close to anything like COD in the first-person shooter genre.

Call of Duty has had a new release every year since the beginning and continues to do so with its newest instalment, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3. The question we are all wondering though is whether this game is a hit or miss. Did it live up to its name as the king of first-person shooters? Does Sledgehammer Games still have what it takes when it comes to Call of Duty? Read on to find out.

It Doesn’t Take The Most Powerful Nations On Earth To Create The Next Global Conflict. Just The Will Of A Single Man.

The Campaign.

When it comes to Call of Duty campaigns you are looking for action, suspense and emotions based on what you are experiencing. You want a cunning story that has you thirsty for more and has you sitting on the edge of your seat struggling to do anything until it’s finished. Unfortunately, Sledgehammer Games’ newest addition to the franchise did not have that same effect. Modern Warfare 3 takes place after the events of Modern Warfare 2, you play as a squad sent to an unknown location to break out a prisoner in what seems to be the Gulag. You must use stealth and your equipment to navigate through the prison and take out the patrolling guards that stand in your way of completing your dangerous mission.

Clearing the path is your first objective, using what you have at your disposal so the rest of your squad can drop in. The area soon turns into a huge battlefield, where you now need to open fire and secure the hatch near the helipad to enter the tunnel under the prison. Using your night vision goggles you must descend the prison walls, shooting any soldiers that try to take you down. A riot breaks out in the prison, giving you the perfect opportunity to distract the guards defending the cell. After that, a cutscene triggers which reveals that the person you have come to retrieve is no other than Vladimir Makarov. For anyone who does not know who this is, well, let’s just say this is a man you do not release from prison under any circumstances.

The Mission

Now your mission is clear, help Makarov escape and fight your way to the boats. The news of Makarov’s escape reaches Captain Price and the rest of his team. So now we have our main antagonist. What an entrance to start the story off right? Wrong… The story is only around 7 hours long or maybe 3 to 5 hours depending on your skills. This is one of the shortest campaigns in the franchise to date and unfortunately a disappointing one. I have always been a huge admirer of the campaigns in Call of Duty, thoroughly enjoying every moment but in this instalment, I did not enjoy it. Don’t get me wrong everything about the game looks beautiful, from the graphics to the sounds, but that can only get you so far.

AI Warzone?

Modern Warfare 3 introduces a new style of mission which honestly feels like I am playing Warzone with A.I. bots. Welcome to Weapons Free Open Combat Missions. You start the level as any other mission with a cutscene, a bit of dialogue, and the characters telling you what your objective is. Then that ends, and you are told you must find weapons, equipment, and armour around the map as you proceed to complete your mission. These modes were pretty much half the game and I get the idea of making it feel more realistic but when it comes to Call of Duty campaigns, we enjoyed how we had it before.

This new style just felt rushed and not thought out, it sort of felt like they ran out of ideas and needed something to fill in the gaps. The Free Open Combat Missions let you choose the style you want when it comes to completing your objectives, rather than going through the mission in stealth you can go full-on guns blazing, it is your choice but still, they are lacking something.

To Scavenge or not to Scavenge?

Scattered across the map, again, very much like Warzone, you will find weapon crates and containers. Half the time I just felt in these missions that I accidentally changed over to Warzone and was fighting for survival rather than playing the campaign. I feel like they could have spent more time perfecting and designing the campaign rather than giving us a dull and shallow story that felt more like an overpriced DLC than a brand-new game. When it came to Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3, coming in with the price tag of £70, you would expect to get a hefty, quality-made campaign and with this game, you get a lot less than that. For a game as big as Call of Duty that is embarrassing.

Be Careful Who You Trust Sergeant

Multiplayer

When Modern Warfare 3 was first released everyone was excited to jump back into the battlefield with their friends, shooting their way to glory and enjoying some good old competition. Now when Sledgehammer Games announced that you would be able to revisit full remakes of your favourite maps from the original Modern Warfare 2 a lot of the fans jumped for joy. Again, memories of old Rust moments kind of sound like a dream come true right? Let me clarify this, the maps were all remakes with no new maps at all. Players were probably eager to return to a game from their childhoods as was I.

One problem with creating the same maps is the fact that the spawns would remain the same, and I mean the same. Unfortunately, people used this to their advantage and spawn-trapped the locations they knew from the original Modern Warfare 2 and this was so frustrating. I got sick and tired of spawning and being shot before I even had a chance to move. I must give credit where credit is due, Sledgehammer Games noticed this issue and put out an update that fixed this but now you can spawn pretty much anywhere, even in front of an enemy, which is not ideal but at least you aren’t getting spawn trapped anymore.

New Features?

Modern Warfare 3 multiplayer has introduced a few new features and mechanics including different aiming modes, these also work with the sliding mechanic so you can slide and shoot from the side. Another welcomed feature that destroys the whole “camping” style is the timer. Those who camp can now will be kicked from the game and will be labelled as having “Toxic Behaviour”. This is caused by a player being in a small area for longer than 2 minutes, even if you are moving. If you remain in that area for too long it will be counted as inactivity causing you to be removed from the game and sent back to the menu. This now gives snipers or anyone trying to get a few kills whilst camping the reason not to camp anymore.

One thing about the new era of Call of Duty is microtransactions, millions of fans spent thousands maybe even more on new skins, guns, and operators back in Modern Warfare 2. Like I said before though, yes, this is a new game but it is also not as you are still able to use the guns you have unlocked or bought as a cosmetic from older COD games. The battle pass system is still pretty much the same as it was in Modern Warfare 2 having no huge changes and being the same as before. The overpriced version known as Black Cell is still a feature for you to buy too.

Killstreaks and Aiming

New kill streaks and perk customisation options seem to be the only new features and when it comes to choosing your perks, instead of it being just scavenger or overkill, you are presented with different styles of uniforms and boots which would affect your playstyle depending on what you choose. It is not a massively new thing, it just looks different. Honestly, the only ‘real’ new feature is the new list of unlockable streaks to help you in your fight. There are a few new weapons, attachments, and pieces of equipment to grab but that’s a given in a new shooter. You also go into Warzone but again, other than a few minor changes and events it is still the same experience as before.

I fought many great battles for the glory of our Nation, I later learned my victories were…. Unwelcome. We’ll fight side-by-side back-to-back, even if it’s for the last time Nikolai. We will do it, as one we are, now and forever

Zombies

Now I know what you are all thinking “Modern Warfare 3 Zombies… WHAT?!” Activision had Treyarch create the zombie mode for Modern Warfare 3 and instead of it being like it was in the past, it was very different. Gone are the very enclosed, medium maps with no open-world features. No more train of zombies following you through hallways and buildings or the rounds of zombies jumping off roofs and climbing through windows, The Zombies mode has been completely reimagined! Now zombies has been given the sandbox treatment, giving you full access to a whole new open world set on the Urzikstan map.

You will be deployed in squads of 3 with your mission being to survive and take on missions such as transporting supplies, defending zombie purging machines, and clearing out infested locations. Once you’ve had enough of taking on the undead just like the DMZ, you can choose to extract with the current loot you have picked up and keep it ready for your next run. Honestly, Modern Warfare 3 Zombies is probably the only good thing going for the game and Treyarch proves once again when it comes to zombie modes, they still know exactly how to impress the fans. Who doesn’t like spending all their hard-earned points on a mystery box, hoping for the perfect gun to pack a punch, the perfect weapon to just mow down zombies, sounds perfect right?

Final Thoughts

Activision has kept the franchise going for 20 years but whether it can continue to do so is the big question. Maybe behind-the-scenes things were complicated, especially with the whole acquisition by Xbox and all the setbacks with that but maybe this was just one game that struggled and hopefully can be improved moving forward. All questions for another day I suppose but I still have hope in Sledgehammer Games when it comes to Call of Duty. Let’s hope that they can put this nightmare behind them. All in all, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 was not the best in the franchise and has a glaring lack of content. Let’s hope Sledgehammer Games can learn from this and in the future doesn’t make the same mistake again. We all want them to deliver the Call of Duty we all know they can.

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