When it comes to Call of Duty, you can easily expect that it will be something similar to the prior year with some modified changes. This year, Activision & Sledgehammer Games’ Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 takes a different approach to the renowned franchise and changes everything we know about Modern Warfare; well at least to the story’s lore. Since Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 utilizes remastered Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 (2009) multiplayer maps, we decided to bring in someone who has a deeper love for the original MW2. Our MW3 review was tackled by TDX069 aka David England and Killerkdemons (myself).
Gameplay
Below, we will be breaking down the game based on Campaign, Zombies, and Multiplayer. After that, we will go over some of the other important details.
Campaign
Zombies
Zombies is now an open-world map similar to Outbreak in CoD: Coldwar and DMZ in Warzone. As you get closer to the center of the map, the threat level of the zombies increases; this increase ranges from tier 1 to tier 3. Before deployment, you can select which operator you want to use; the game allows you to have up to three different operators that you can pick from. If you extract with certain items or kill streaks, you can keep them on that specific character. This enables players to work their way up to or move to the higher tier zones earlier or from the start.
This mode allows you to start the game with perks that are in your stash that you have earned in the previous game or games before. Players can also bring back Contraband guns from their deployment; these weapons will stay with the operator unless unequipped or discarded for another weapon. The rarity of each weapon as well as the pack-a-punch level are removed once the player has exfilled.
Perks and Crafting
Perks and other schematics can be earned by completing missions and completing each Act of the story. Some of the mission objectives and zombie hunts are a little bit random and luck-based. This can be considerably frustrating since you cannot have multiple missions equipped and you must finish that one before it will change during your deployment. This can be aggravating since some require you to find certain items or weapons. These missions often grant schematics as your reward while also granting single-use items as well.
These schematics in zombies allow players to craft perks, upgrade tools, pack-a-punch crystals (Etherium crystals), and even the Raygun and WG-2. Each craftable item has a cooldown timer with the Raygun and Wonderwaffle schematics having a 48-hour cooldown before you can use them again.
Multiplayer
Multiplayer Changes
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 still features a weaponsmith but attachments for each gun can be unlocked in multiplayer or zombies. Yes, you can choose a basic loadout of a gun and jump straight into multiplayer or zombies if you’d like, but customization is still an option. Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 features a variety of changes compared to its previous counterparts. The Time to Kill does feel a little bit quicker; because of that, some may not like the increase in pace but to me, it’s more or less like the Call of Duty of old with the quick kills for faster matches.
The perks in MW3 are very interesting this time around; instead of the traditional setup, they are now replaced with gloves, boots, and gear including your vest, that can change different aspects of how you play the multiplayer. The gloves you choose can increase weapon swap time, change jumping accuracy, and even impact the time to ADS. The boots can be changed to lightweight boots that enable players to climb faster; meanwhile, good old sneakers can impact your movement sounds similar to Dead Silence. With your gear you can switch it to have a tack mask which is a headset that makes it easier to get kill streaks; players can also equip a Ghillie suit to work as Ghost. Some perks within the game you have to unlock by completing challenges rather than leveling up.
Graphics & Sound
Modern Warfare 3 is very beautiful and eye-catching especially when it comes to water and rain. The way the water looks and sounds raises the bar. The graphics and sound are good like they always are especially when it comes to Call of Duty MW3 campaign. The Modern Warfare 2 (2009) multiplayer maps have been remastered expertly to allow fans of the original to experience their nostalgia while introducing new players to their glory.
Controls
The Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 controls feel smooth and precise. You have a lot of speed and control when you’re moving in multiplayer and when playing the Campaign or Zombies it doesn’t feel clunky or non-responsive. Players can choose to switch the controls so that the assisted aim or the aim assist in general works to their needs. The game features a variety of control layouts including the Black Ops button layout. The controls are completely customizable in order to meet your needs; this can help with avoiding dead zones or working around any drift your controller might have.
The game also features control settings to make playing a little bit easier especially when you play Zombies. Instead of pressing and holding the left stick in, you can set it so that you are always running. Additionally, you can program it so that you do not have to hold any buttons, you just tap it once in order to interact; this means you can instantly grab the material that you’re trying to grab. The only downside to this is that it can affect your aim down sight or make you grab the wrong item.
Replayability
When it comes to Modern Warfare 3‘s replayability, it is a Call of Duty game, you know what you are getting when you buy it. The game offers a variety of chances to grind out weapon camos through challenges while achievements can only be earned by doing specific things in each story’s mission.
Personally, I am not a fan of Modern Warfare 2 guns carrying over to Modern Warfare 3. I feel like people are going to cling to the Modern Warfare 2 Guns a lot more than they are to try out the new guns in Modern Warfare 3. This carryover will most likely hurt MW3 with people burning out quicker due to being unwilling to try the new weapons and having less to do; introducing a way for these guns to be unlocked by using the Modern Warfare 3 guns would have been more practical.
Additionally, I am not a fan of Cross-play. What makes matters worse is that you have to go into your actual Xbox settings in order to turn it off. If you do turn it off, you have to enter a code each time you want to play.
Verdict
At the end of the day, Call of Duty fans will pick up Modern Warfare 3 because they want to play the latest version. If you have skipped the last few Call of Duty, then it is fair to wait for the game to go on sale; the multiplayer is just a remastered version of Modern Warfare 2′s (2009) multiplayer so if you loved that then you will have a good time. The Zombies mode can be a lot of fun but once you run out of missions, you can very easily get bored. Overall, the gameplay is meant to keep players grinding and spending their time and money on COD.
COD Modern Warfare 3 is a beautiful game where the developers have gone out of their way to polish last year’s model. Yes, there are a good bit of bugs in Zombies but the multiplayer is fairly solid. The game has some accessibility options to make the gameplay easier but does not offer much to help those who are visually or auditory impaired.
If you are a fan of Call of Duty, then you will have fun with Modern Warfare 3. If you are on the fence, then hold off and wait til it goes on sale.
A review copy of Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 was provided for review purposes. A special thanks to TDX069 for assisting with this review and sharing his thoughts.
