Review: ‘Modern Warfare 3’. It’ll Bang Your Mom While You Cheer!
Looking at video games like a high school class, we see all the tribes are represented. You have the Jocks, sports games. You have the artsy kids, Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, Okami. You have the music section with Rock band and similar music titles. You have the nerds with their RPGs. And finally we come to the FPS genre. These are like the jock’s jocks. They are the inner circle of meatheads that control their respective flocks. Where does this leave Call of Duty? It’s the captain of the wrestling team; all aggressive and arrogant.
Call of Duty is more than a game. Its an institution. Gamers come in shapes and sizes, and one thing they have in common is an opinion of the greatest selling franchise in history. Love it or hate it, Call of Duty is here, and its here to bang your sister, steal your girlfriend, break up your parents, foreclose on your house and other seemingly douchebag things, and you will thank CoD for it.
I don’t intend to spoil anything, so if you want to stop reading at any point, this paragraph would be a good end on. Suffice to say I liked it. If you liked previous incarnations of the CoD franchise, you’ll like this too. The campaign is a decent length, and I like the special ops modes more than the zombie modes of Treyarch games. The biggest difference comes in the form of multiplayer. It seems all the weapons are super powered and encounters are over in the blink of an eye. Gone are the days of prolonged firefights, if your enemy sees you before you see him, it’s over, and you’re dead.
The campaign picks up seconds after MW2 ended. Shepard is dead, Price and Soap are disavowed, The US is under Russian attack, and Makarov is still at large. From the moment it starts, the campaign feels like a roller coaster. I would equate it to a Michael Bay movie, but I like Call of Duty far too much to insult it like that. The story itself is pretty straight forward; find Makarov, end the war (All doable in 5 hours). There are a couple of plot issues that complicate matters, but I won’t get into those.
CoD has always given us a multitude of protagonists, and MW3 is no different. In MW 1, Soap was the main character, and in MW2 you played as Roach. With Roach not making it to game 3, we need a new guy. You play mainly as Yuri, a Russian Special Forces veteran that Price and Soap meet though Nickoli, and Frost, a Delta operative. The voice acting is top notch and well done by actors who are not known for voice overs. If you’ve played any of the campaigns before, you know that the playable characters are not immune to dead themselves. I’m not going to say if this rings true or not this go around, but if you must know, look it up online.
On line play feels a lot different. Combat is faster and it seems the maps were made with the intention of cutting down on camping. There are multiple access points for almost every chokepoint, so if someone is holding down an area, you can change your approach. The biggest change comes from the kill streaks. There are three kill streak trees to select from. Assault kill streaks are the most powerful, dealing with things like predator missiles, air strikes, attack choppers, and strafing runs. They are the classic kill-more-to-unlock rewards. The support package offers an alternative to those who can’t rack up an impressive kill streak. With weaker items like care packages, UAVs, and even the Juggernaut armor, death does not reset your tally towards earning your reward. The last kill streak load out is the Specialist. The specialist packages kicks in at 2, 4, 6 and 8 kills. At 2, 4 and 6 kills you get additional preselected perks. At 8 you get every perk (even gun perks), turning you into a super soldier.
Another great new addition to multiplayer is the inclusion of gun level. The more you use a weapon, the better it becomes. You can unlock and select a gun perk that gives the gun less recoil, lets you put two attachments on it, increases your movement speed, and so on. There’s some new equipment I haven’t tried yet, but I’m sure I’ll experiment. One final note on multiplayer, if you’re like me and you loved to snipe in MW2, and hated it in BO … its back. The hit detection is a lot better for those who like to deal death from a distance. The down sides are that no map is particular great for sniping, and quick scoping is back. Since I like to use sniper rifles, I think the tradeoff is worth it.
The third mode that MW3 offers is Special Ops. These were included with MW2 and have been expanded upon. In addition to missions that you can carry out solo or with a friend, there is a horde mode. These take place on the multi-player maps and pit you against waves of enemies that steadily increase in variety and toughness. Once you get to about wave 25 they send dogs strapped with C4. I guess that’s just a giant middle finger to PETA. My only complaint is that horde mode only supports two players. It would be much better with up to four, but even alone, it can be very satisfying.
With the rise of Battlefield, it seems popular to hate Call of Duty. Fact is, despite their similar settings they are very different games. At this point, you’ve either chosen your side, or play both. As far as those that don’t like Call of Duty because of its gameplay, well, you’ve had 8 games to figure it out. If you hated Call of Duty 1 through Black Ops, this isn’t going to be the magic one that gets you into it. If MW3 is your first CoD game, this means you’re joining friends that already play, or you just turning 12 and have convinced your parents to buy it.
GRAPHICS — 9
SOUND — B
CONTROL—✓+
REPLAYABILITY—Thumbs up
OVERALL—4/5 STARS