Review: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

CommentNovember 8th, 2011 14:31

Failure isn’t an option when it comes to Modern Warfare 3. For whatever combination of reasons, there is a tangible “Love to Hate” mentality that underscores this latest instalment of the biggest shooter franchise of our age. The truth is, for all the millions of gamers who will pick up Modern Warfare 3 from day one and love it, there are many who would love to see it underwhelm and invariably fail. Let’s face it, Activison aren’t exactly everyone’s cup of tea. Then there are those who won’t like a game or buy into a franchise like Modern Warfare just because its mainstream penetration is unequivocal, explicit and total. Modern Warfare 3 suffers from a subtle doze of Manchester United syndrome. Those who love Modern Warfare, LOVE Modern Warfare. However, the same way that so many football fans dislike and begrudge Manchester United because they win everything and continue to overachieve, many gamers looking down that scope at MW will automatically hate it based on the fact that it is invariably the best and most popular shooting franchise on any format. It’s all too easy to hate the best that life can give you, that’s why we clamber to support emerging underdogs like Battlefield 3 and Manchester City. The Modern Warfare franchise can rest easy though. If MW3 is anything to go by, it will be a long time before the Modern Warfare brand gets knocked off the top of the FPS Premier League.

MW3 is a real spectacle from the word go. Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer have pulled out all the stops on this one and it shows. By comparison to most contemporary shooters it’s not particularly fundamentally different and it’s certainly not unanimously revolutionary, but it’s not supposed to be. Radical changes would most certainly discredit the tried and tested formula that has worked this franchise into the billion dollar entity that it is. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. In saying that, subtle refinements and shifts in impetus and momentum both in terms of gameplay and online play really compliment Modern Warfare the third, enough to justify itself and all but reclassify the franchise as the definite shooter series of this generation.

Part 3 wraps up the storyline from the previous MW games with franchise regulars Soap and Price returning once more to unload copious amounts of bullets into the usual plethora of unruly foreigners with gruff accents and silly motives. The story is hardly inspiring, the characters are as transparent as ever and it’s just as throwaway as you think it is, but who cares? You never played MW for the story to begin with. So what the campaign lacks in terms of story and plot, it more than makes up for it with sheer entertainment value and shooting gratification. It’s superbly satisfying. There’s some really creative level open design that, despite being ultimately tethered to a linear play path, really ups the intensity and spontaneity of the fire fights that will define your progress as you playthrough. Gone are the anonymous insular airports and ubiquitous shackled suburban backstreets of the previous games. Now you’ll find yourself at the feet of some of the world’s biggest cities and most famous world monuments with enough firearms and explosives to topple them all. It’s all more than a little bit epic. They’ve cranked everything up a notch. Same goes for set pieces. Now, while there’s nothing in there that could ever come near the controversy and contention of the “No Russian” mission of MW2 infamy as such (bar an ill conceived sequence in London), there are some real stand out action sequences that will really set your heart racing and your thumbs into a frenzy. These sequences are never over cooked and really make up for the story’s shortcomings, although sometimes you might have to actually remind yourself why it is that you are actually undertaking said epic actions to begin with.

Modern Warfare has long maintained the status of industry standard in terms of FPS multiplayer and MW3 is no different. When I say no different, I literally mean “no different” in terms of how it plays. Again, Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer haven’t exactly overhauled or changed how multiplayer plays and the gameplay modes available, they’ve literally just taken MW3’s head and put it on MW2’s body. Multiplayer however has been subject to a number of key refinements that most certainly enhance the accessibility of the online MW experience. Modern Warfare can be quite an intimidating (and unforgivable) experience online and MW3 crucially attempts to hone the connected experience to reward everyone, irrespective of ability or play style, with the best of what the game has to offer. MW3 introduces three new Strike Package systems, Assault, Support and Specialist, the latter of which will be of more interest to established MW purists, the middle and former to players who need a bit of encouragement on the playing field. All are effective at layering the online play and give you any number of achievable goals and rewards even if you’re one of those people who dies more than you kill, which most people are to be fair. You will be rewarded for consecutive kills as per the norm but the Support package will allow you to retain your kills even after death. It sounds like cheating but the balance works. Those who choose to go Specialist will have to work hardest and as such, they will reap the ultimate rewards in terms of perks and specialist offensive measures. MW3 is the most accessible online Modern Warfare experience to date and this is down to the hospitable and rewarding nature of these new Strike packages. While some might frown at how accessible it has become, you cannot argue with the method behind the change. This one alteration all but revises the system that underpins MW online. It strikes an appropriate and reciprocal balance between what a MW veteran will do with the game and someone who is new to the brand. The usual gameplay modes are catered for, although there are two new modes in Team Defender and Kill Confirmed, the latter of which sees you collecting the dog-tags of the players you have downed online. Its last man standing stuff and its bloody brilliant. The brilliance is in its simplicity. Of course, it would be remorse of me not to mention Call of Duty: Elite, MW3’s in-house stats aggregator. For what it’s worth, you can probably get exactly what you want from Elite without having to fork out any additional money. It’s quite an impressive stats service and an essential frame of reference if you take your MW serious.

Spec Ops and Co-op returns, the former of which is actually rather subtly linked to the single player campaign. It’s not as incidental as MW2. Missions are standalone, have diverse objectives are ultimately quite rewarding. With co-op you can take the game’s Survival mode for a spin. Think horde mode meets Modern Warfare and you might have some idea of where it’s going. It’s certainly worthy of your time, particularly if you can get a buddy to jump on and play with you.

Modern Warfare 3 is a triumph. It’s the most refined and accessible MW experience to date, defined by jaw dropping set pieces, clever gun play and accessible multiplayer. It’s a worthy successor to MW2 and ties up all lose ends with distinction. However, you can’t help but wonder, given the resources available to them between infinity Ward and Sledgehammer, just what MW3 could have been if they took a calculated risk and were a little more brutal in their refinements and alterations. It’s time for a change. We know this formula works; it’s worked for about 6 years. It’s time to usher in the paradigm shifting shooter the industry so needs. Whenever it does come, you can be sure that the Call of Duty and Modern Warfare brands will have had some sort of a say in it.

TGL SCORE 9/10