After Call of Duty: Black Ops was released in November 2010, I was excited for Infinity Ward and Activision to release another Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (MW) title. With the game being released the same month in 2011, I was worried that IW would rush to get it done and just sell the games with the idea that people would buy them because of the title. I hate it when I’m right about these kinds of predictions, but this time I was wrong. Despite small flaws, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is an enjoyable game that gives my Call of Duty fix a boost.
I can admit, I’m a Call of Duty fan boy (calm down Battlefield fans, I like those games too). I loved the WW2 era Call of Duty games, Modern Warfare 1 and 2, and even Black Ops. These games got me excited for the release of Modern Warfare 3. Modern Warfare 2 was fun, but it needed some improvements, so I was excited to see how Modern Warfare 3 was. After I got my game at Gamestop, I drove back to my apartment and put the disc in my Playstation 3, eagerly waiting for the game to load. After playing the game for a couple of hours, I was not disappointed with it at all.
Let me start off with the single-player campaign of the game. It picks right up from the ending of Modern Warfare 2. Like MW 1 and 2 (and other Call of Duty games), you switch back and forth between the missions to play as different characters. The United States at war with Russia and an elite team of soldiers led by Captain John Price is on the hunt for Vladimir Makarov. With Makarov playing a small role in MW 2, he is now the primary bad guy for MW 3. Somehow, he became responsible for tricking Russia into attacking the United States, which I still don’t understand how the Russian army managed to bring together a gigantic army to attack Washington D.C. in MW 2.
After the U.S. army beats back the Russians in New York City, Boris Vorshevsky, who is the fictional Russian President, sets up a peace conference with the U.S. However, Makarov arranges to have the President captured to hold off the peace conference. After the kidnapping, Makarov manages to have Russia invade all of Europe after a devastating chemical attack in the capital cities. Again, it’s really unrealistic for Russia (or any country as a matter of fact) to have the manpower and capabilities to invade ALL of Europe in a single day, but it’s a video game, what do you expect?
With the adrenaline rushing action of MW 3, it’s a disappointingly short game even on the hardest difficulty. Despite being played on an older game engine, the game is still visually appealing. The lighting and the graphics makes the player believe they are fighting a hopeless battle in Paris against an army of Russian soldiers. However, with today’s Call of Duty games, it’s all about the online multiplayer. Multiplayer in any Call of Duty game is dangerously addicting, and Modern Warfare 3 made some great changes.
The “killstreaks” have also been designed into strike packages to bring an equal balance to all types of players. For all the non-Call of Duty gamers out there, killstreaks are rewards players get for killing certain amounts of enemy players without dying. Killstreaks include attack helicopters and UAVs (which pinpoint enemy locations, stealth bombers, etc).
You still unlock abilities in strike packages by getting kills, but now you can focus your killstreak rewards so they suit your play style. If you’re not the type of player who goes on high streaks and not always caring about your kill/death ratio, you can take a support strike package. This package doesn’t have rewards that are as offensively focused as the assault package, but all kills carry over between spawns. This gives new players a way to positively contribute to the match. This new feature in multiplayer provides a more enjoyable experience for the player, and increases replay value instead of constant frustration.
Another new feature which I enjoy is a type of match called “kill confirmed.” This type of match changes how the game plays, encouraging teamwork in ways the Modern Warfare series never offered before. In this type of mode, everyone drops a dog tag when they get killed. In order for the kill to count and to get points, you have to not only kill the person, but also collect their tag (you can take away enemy kills by collecting the tags of your allies before the opposing team does). This type of game creates an entirely new type of gaming, where players must coordinate, play as a team, and attempt to use the dog tags as traps for enemy players.
“Spec Ops” is another type of mode that was featured in Modern Warfare 2. In Modern Warfare 3, there are new missions and objectives that you have to complete. For example, you might have to quickly take over a plane, while in another mission you’ll be tasked with disarming chemical weapons. If you need help completing these missions (I know I do), you can have a friend help you so that you can get through the missions without a scratch, or bullet holes in this case. Additionally, there’s a “survival mode,” where two players try to survive against endless waves of increasingly difficult enemies. Even though “survival mode” is very similar to Black Ops and World at War’s “zombie mode,” it is still very fun to play with a friend.
With all these new features for Modern Warfare 3, I’m glad I made the purchase for this game. They allow players to enjoy the full experience that Call of Duty currently has to offer. I know that I will be playing this game for a really long time…or at least until the next game comes out.
PHOTO COURTESY of digitaltrends.com
