Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

Developer: Infinity Ward

Publisher: Activision

With the leviathan of a PR machine, and inevitable fan boy war that comes with the release of every Call Of Duty game, it is increasingly difficult to remove ones self from the masses of hate and love gushing from the respective camps. The waves of the internet are inevitably strewn with battleships, intent on blasting anyone that doesn’t agree with their opinion, condemning them to the bottom of the ocean for all eternity. There is no neutral ground when it comes to the Call Of Duty Series, and in the mind of every troll that scours the waves of the internet it is only possible to love, or hate the franchise. So whilst everyone sensible ducks for cover, running off to Sweden to wait for the blitz to pass over them for another year, A Winner Is You bravely charges into the firing line to defend it’s cause. Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 3 is a brilliant but flawed game.

Unsure about which side this places us, we will have to be content just to shoot everyone we see. Beginning with the single player campaign, payers will get exactly what they have come to expect from the Infinity Ward iterations. It is short, fast and full to bursting point with explosions. Spanning around five hours in total, the player will be whisked from continent to continent blasting everyone that they come into contact with. The aim of this instalment is to tie up the loose ends from the first two games into one neat and conducive ball. Sadly though it only manages this to an extent. That’s is no surprise, given the madness of Modern Warfare 2, but it attempts to strike the same plot notes of the original Modern Warfare, and fails at every turn, resulting in players not caring at all who lives and dies. Theres even a part clearly meant to shock in the same way as the “No Russian” level did two years ago, however these moments have lost their spark along the way and just feel bland.

Who are we kidding though, most of the gaming public don’t care about the single player campaign. What they really arrive in their flocks to play is the multiplayer. As ever the usual modes are back, and the familiar Call Of Duty feel that players have come to know and love. Maps are as well designed as ever with the level cap being increased to seventy, and prestige is now available ten times over. This gives players plenty to get their teeth stuck into.

Small tweaks have been made to the leveling system to keep things fresh. Not only does the player improve their level, but the weapons have their own sort of leveling system as well. The more players use a particular weapon, the more unlocks become available to them. This does away with the Treyarch model of earning dollars for this iteration, and in reality it works extremely well. From the outside, it is possible to say that it makes no real difference, as the unlocks come at about the same speed anyway, however these unlocks can be made mid game, giving the player the constant feel of progression whether they are kicking ass or not.

Players will also be delighted to see the return of spec ops from MW2. For the most part, these are fun, but run of the mill. Players are put into various situations with a friend and asked to kill waves of enemies or reach objectives. For many, the most notable of these are a wave based mode not unlike that of zombie mode from the Treyarch games. Players along with a friend should they wish are placed in a map and matched up against increasingly difficult waves of enemies. These include run of the mill troops, dogs, dreadnoughts and even helicopter gun ships. Brilliantly, Infinity ward have also introduced a leveling system for these modes as well, adding yet another reason to become addicted to the title.

Unlikely to have changed enough to win over the few people left on this planet who aren’t playing Call Of Duty, on the multiplayer front at least the developers have improved upon an already fantastic model. Players will constantly feel as if they are progressing, and the introduction of varying streaks on top of the already well established kills streaks go a long way to achieve that. Where Modern Warfare 3 falls flat however, is the single player. Bland and short, it is fun but unfulfilling. The series has moved on a long way from the original Modern Warfare, and on the single player front at least, it has taken a few steps backward. Visually the game also looks, at least for the most part, broadly similar as all Call Of Duty games, as far back as the original Modern Warfare release. For most people however, this will matter little, as it’s the multiplayer the come for, and as ever Call Of Duty leads the pack. A truly fantastic multiplayer experience that will be hard pushed to top.

3 GOOD POINTS

• Multiplayer is as good as ever, with Infinity Ward showing us why they are top of the industry when it comes to playing online.
• Spec ops is as good as ever.
• Controls are just perfect.

3 BAD POINTS

• Single player is a bit pants.
• Pretty much no graphical improvement on previous games.
• Starting to feel as if the developers are resting on their laurels, paving the way for its competitors.