The Call of Duty franchise has become somewhat of a star unto itself, like the Beatles or the company Apple, and because of that going into this review of Modern Warfare 3 has its own set of difficulties. Can Infinity Ward / Sledgehammer Games and Activision continue to improve on what have become the standard for first-person shooters in the industry? What can they add to a video game that’s annual release is near-perfect in review scores and sells millions upon millions of copies? I came into this review doubting those answers, and after spending nearly three days with Modern Warfare 3 I continue to be amazed at what the team at Infinity Ward creates. Everything from the single-players intriguing story line to the improved multiplayer to the feature-full Spec-Ops/Survival mode - this game is not only more of the same but it’s better, yes you heard me right, better than any Call of Duty game thats come before it. There are moments that will shock you, and moments that make you jump up and scream in joy - and this is just the campaign. The development team once again pushed the boundaries (ESRB and virtual entertainment) to the limits and again it payed off, there wasn’t a moment where I thought to myself, I could have done this better, and that means something coming from someone who has played games as long as I have. I would appreciate you reading the rest of this review but let me start by saying if you only have $60 to spend this Holiday season it should be on the best Call of Duty game every created, and that game is Modern Warfare 3.
The campaign in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 features two main players, the team of Price, Soap, and Yuri (British and Russian); and the American special forces team of Frost and Sandman. You continually switch between these two teams as the story of World War 3 unfolds, thanks to someone most of you are familiar with, a really bad guy by the name of Makarov. This won’t be one of those reviews that spoils even one single point of the story, so don’t worry there - so much of the enjoyability of this game has to do with the story and because of that I won’t be talking any specifics. What I will say is that I came away very impressed by the diversity of levels in Modern Warfare 3. For those trilogy nuts there is plenty of story tying-up and retribution that happens in MW3, could this be the end of certain characters story-lines; only time will tell. Levels like an airplane that goes upside down mid-flight, or the London subway system, or the cities of Berlin, or the sandstorm filled streets of Africa; there are night missions, rain and snow locations, the list could go on and on but hopefully you get the point. Something the development team also did with MW3 was to try and differentiate the missions, some are spec-ops style while others are full on warfare shoot anything that moves missions. This diversity helps the single-player campaign move along at an amazing pace and by the time I had finished it I felt as though I had received a full gaming experience, not just some sneaking around or run and gun.
There are shocking moments in Modern Warfare 3, one in particular that you have the ability to skip if you’re into that sort of thing; it’s more of an emotional moment than a blast civilians in an airport moment but it gets the job done regardless. Once that turning point happens (actually there are a couple) you will want to destroy the enemy and might even sign up for the actual military if it gets you riled up enough. The campaign is long enough and that’s all I will say about that, maybe you can speed-run through it in 5-6 hours but play the game like it’s meant to be played and you can easily get a full $60 experience out of the campaign alone; my recommendation is to play on Regular difficulty and if that’s too easy start over on Hardened; hell you can always play through twice. The AI (artificial intelligence), both friendly and enemy, seem to be vastly improved in Modern Warfare 3; something I noticed multiple times while playing the campaign and Survival mode (more on that later). This may sound like a small thing but when your AI partner comes up and grabs a grenade laying at your feet and tosses it away seconds before explosion it feels good, and realistic. That’s one example but there are plenty more, especially with the way the enemy AI reacts to your tactics and changes on the fly to make things more difficult for you and your team.
Graphically Modern Warfare 3 looks fantastic, to be honest video games are looking so good these days the ones that get it right look great, and it stands out here just as it does with the others. Considering the game runs at a staggering 60 FPS (and has 3D support, if you’re into that thing) it took an impressive amount of coding to fit this game onto an Xbox 360 disc without any sort of texture or graphical improvement install. The rain and snow look great, as do the night-time levels and underwater moments; there are also some moments that I don’t want to spoil but are on a massive scale and at points had me actually saying the word “wow” out loud; there are also some moments that are just such a joy to play (I’ll say Juggernaut but nothing else); there just aren’t that many video games that do that these days - this was fun and exciting. The same story goes for the audio in Modern Warfare 3, the music fits perfectly as do the sound effects (hopefully they have gotten that right by now), but what really stood out was the voice acting. As with previous Modern Warfare titles the development team made sure that the actors who played the in-game characters fit those characters perfectly, if you don’t believe me just wait until you hear Makarov’s voice, or Price, Soap, or Frost. The basics (controls, gameplay, graphics, sound, etc) are everything I could ask for from a video game in Modern Warfare 3 and while nothing is perfect this came pretty damn close.
Now let's get to the multiplayer, which is probably where most of you are going to head straight into, since the campaign will only take you so far. This is the place where Modern Warfare 3 primarily earns its worth, as you could spend hours, weeks...hell, months...leveling up and gaining access to a number of goods that will make you more talented in combat. Create-a-Class once again makes a return, unlocking after reaching a certain class level, and as you proceed, you'll also unlock a variety of emblems and badges to customize your online profile with. Some of these are really weird, too. What the hell is a pink whale doing here? Nevertheless, Activision knows how well Modern Warfare-based multiplayer is supposed to work, and this game fires on all cylinders in that regard. The action is fast and brutal, and if you're not careful, you could easily wind up as someone's knife fodder or, worse yet, the victim of a called-in air strike. Even campers may have nowhere to hide on these maps. Depending on your speed of connection, you'll get into a match in a matter of seconds and prove your mettle against all sorts of folks. And even if you're a noob (like certain gamers are), you can pair up with lesser skilled players and literally earn your stripes. Now, as for the match types, they're nice and varied. Several from Modern Warfare 2 make a return, but we have a feeling the one that will addict you the most is Kill Confirmed. This new addition has you chasing after tags that are dropped by fallen soldiers. It's not enough you shoot a guy, but you have to run and collect his tags to add a point boost to your score. Miss out and have the enemy pick it up, however, and the kill is dropped from your stats and they get the points. It's clever, and though you might think it's an ideal mode for folks to hide out and shoot anyone that goes after tags, keep in mind that there's always a way to frag that jerk and collect the tags you deserve. This is sweet stuff.
This feature review concludes on the next page, please click Page 2 below to find out our final thoughts on Activision's Modern Warfare 3.
