Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Review

[Start a Riot]

This Fall we have seen several big titles released for the Xbox 360. Co-developed by Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is yet another game that can be added to this list. Between the campaign, co-op missions, and multiplayer, Modern Warfare 3 has lived up to the expectations that many of the core Call of Duty fans set for it. This game uses the concepts that make the Call of Duty franchise so popular and builds upon that with the introduction of Survival mode, two new multiplayer playlists, a different Killstreak reward system, and a revised Unlock and Ranking system in multiplayer.

First and foremost I have to give a big thanks to Activision for providing RUL with a review copy of Modern Warfare 3. I knew upon receiving it in the mail that this would be a big game with a lot of various elements that needed to be talked about. With that being said, the campaign was the first thing I decided to spend several hours playing through, and I do have to say that overall the campaign is quite enjoyable. The campaign picks up where Modern Warfare 2 left off, and I found it really easy to get immersed in the story line and lose track of time while playing. There are three Acts, each consisting of several different chapters where you take on the role of various characters as you ultimately scour the world through iconic cities to help Captain John Price find and put an end to Vladimir Makarov. You’ll be fighting enemies in the dark of night and the light of day as you run to complete objectives in each mission. Per usual you also get to take over different equipment, call in airstrikes, and plant explosives to get yourself out of some tricky situations. Honestly, those were probably some of my favorite moments from the campaign. Generally speaking, most Call of Duty fans buy the games for the online experience and while the campaign does not provide anything spectacularly new from the other Modern Warfare games in terms of gameplay style, it is still pretty fun and is something you can get through in a relatively short amount of time if you want to focus your attention on the online multiplayer.

With this game we see the return of Special Ops from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and I can honestly say this was the part of the game I enjoyed the most. I went through this section with a partner and was surprisingly happy to see just how team-oriented it was. To get through certain missions you definitely had to work as a team and communicate with one another to complete the objective. All 16 of the multiplayer maps are available to play on whether you choose to go with Spec Ops or the new game mode called Survival. This mode lets you fight endless waves of enemies alone or with a teammate. While playing you will earn cash that lets you buy weapons, ammo, and support as you continue to fight through the waves that will increase in difficulty as you progress through them. And trust me, you’re going to need all the help you can get as you fight against A.I. Juggernauts and enemy air support.

Multiplayer is by far the most popular aspect of any Call of Duty game, and Modern Warfare 3 is no exception to this. Whether you like to play for fun or more competitively, there are a lot of different playlists that cater to the different types of gamers out there. In the multiplayer screen you can choose between the standard or hardcore list that each have over a handful of different game types to choose from. In the standard list you will find the return of your typical types of games like Team Deathmatch, Ground War, and Capture the Flag. With the hardcore list you will find Team Tactical, Most Pit, Barebones, and other advanced playlists. Like the previous Call of Duty games, this multiplayer experience definitely focuses on the gun-on-gun combat that keeps you on your toes with how fast the matches go by.

With multiplayer for Modern Warfare 3, we see the introduction of two new playlists. Kill Confirmed is a gametype whose objective sounds exactly like it’s name. In order for your team to receive a point for any kill you’ve made, you or a teammate must obtain the dog tags left behind by the enemy after they have been killed. Because of this, you can also run to grab the tags and deny a kill that the enemy made against your team. All of this makes the gameplay quite fast-paced and forces you to risk your life a bit more to run out and confirm your kills. Kill Confirmed is definitely something you’re going to want to try out, as it has easily become my favorite playlist in multiplayer. The second playlist added to the bunch is Team Defender. In this both teams race to capture a flag that will be dropped on the first person that is killed in the match. The team currently holding the flag will receive double points for each kill while the other side only receives the normal amount of points per kill.

One of the best parts about multiplayer is that they have completely changed the Killstreak rewards, which are now called Pointstreaks. You get to choose from one of three different strike packages named Support, Assault, and Specialist. The Support package works to help out your team as a whole by providing you with rewards like Sam turrets or Remote Turrets. One of the greatest things about this is that it is the only strike package where the pointstreaks do not reset upon death. You can continue to accumulate them over the course of the match regardless of how many times you bite the dust. The Assault package works similar to that of the one seen in Call of Duty: Black Ops and provides you with rewards like Strafe Run, Reaper, or Assault Drone as you build up your kills. Through the Specialist strike package, players are rewarded after each second consecutive kill with extra perks and after the eighth kill all 15 of the perks are activated. In the past many have complained that when playing games like Search and Destroy or Capture the Flag they never received rewards for actually completing the objective of the game, while those running around as if it is a Deathmatch game rack up the rewards from their kills. All of that has changed in Modern Warfare 3. Now, you can actually receive points towards your Pointstreak in these types of games as you complete the objective. So for those of you who actually help out the team in objective games, you will be rewarded accordingly.

Within the multiplayer, there is also a revamp in the Ranking and Unlock system. While your player ranks up through gameplay, your weapon ranks up separately alongside this as well. As each individual weapon levels up, it will unlock different proficiencies, attachments, and camouflages that will ultimately let you customize your gun to your liking to optimize your gameplay. When you have fully leveled up a weapon, you will be able to equip a golden camouflage and show off your hard work.


In the end, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is a good game. However, it does lack the “wow” factor that I was looking for to push it over the edge and make it a great game. With that being said, I still think Modern Warfare 3 is a game that can keep you entertained for hours on end with the campaign, spec ops, and multiplayer. Even though it may not be a vast overhaul from its predecessor, it still has a lot of great elements that make the game worth buying.

Overall Rating:
8/10

[Zolner MD]

Excellent review, Riot. I figure there must be a few MW3 returns after the holidays are over, so I'll pick up a used copy and give it some more play time then. Spec Ops was definitely a favorite of mine back in MW2, as well. I'm glad to hear that it came back in full force.

[Smore ninja]

Fantastic review! I personally really enjoyed the Spec-ops the most as well for the same reason you said. It felt like a huge overhaul was made to improve it.

[Spillanya]

Flawless review, Riot! :3 I still have yet to check out Spec Ops but, thanks to your review, I'm definitely going straight home from work to do so!

[Jawwi]

Very good review Riot! Finally someone gives MW3 the credit it deserves. Its a great game and is way different MW2.

[IdiotFalcon]

great review and I definitely agree with you that it wasnt such a great overhaul that everybody expected from MW2 and so far a long the line this is ok if slightly disappointing for me but its still a good game.
however having heard just before reading this that CoD 9 or Black Ops 2 has already been confirmed for 2012 kinda gives me a bad feeling that there will be not much improvement at all and knowing that people will still be playing MW3 for a while makes the new release seem pointless and just proves that CoD is now just a franchise that comes out annually for the soul purpose of making money
CoD should slow down and focus on making sure that the game is made to the best of their ability before selling it which, in my opinion is not what they did for MW3