Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare III
Stuffed to the ghillies with issues, COD is looking battered
Well, this is a fine mess they’ve gotten us into. While the core multiplayer experience has received a shot in the arm, everything around it has received a shot in the foot. With a rocket launcher. Online has been Call Of Duty’s main draw for decades, but that doesn’t prevent the overall package from feeling like a spectacularly missed opportunity.
It’s unlikely that you’ve missed the criticisms of the campaign that have been spread far and wide, and chances are everything you’ve heard is true. The relatively short length (perhaps four hours) isn’t a problem for us, even if it is out of step with recent entries. It’s the number of mistakes made within that short period that we take issue with.
The odd thing is, there are signs that the original plan was to have a campaign on a grander scale than usual. Makarov, the villain of the storyline that included the infamous No Russian mission, returns in a tale with a similarly globetrotting plot. Multiple missions have intros that make a point of referring to different characters taking different routes, yet you only ever take control of one character along one path. Speaking of routes, we have to talk about those Open Combat Missions.
FIRING SQUADDIE
These are essentially sections of a Warzone map with campaign objectives and AI enemies thrown in, and even feature Warzone’s scavenging element. Rather than missions that offer exciting possibilities for unique strategies and freedom of approach, they very much feel like bits of gaming Blu Tack hurriedly thrown in to bind the rest of the missions into something resembling a story. The Open Combat Missions are a strong indication that the rumours of rushed development are true.
The linear, more traditional missions are better, but not by enough. Story and action alike keep hitting dull notes that we’ve heard countless times before (usually in other COD games). To the
There are signs that the plan was to have a campaign on a grander scale.
game’s credit, however, the story ends with an event that catches us completely off guard, and one late section particularly sticks in the mind. Here, it’s intentionally difficult to kill enemies without hitting civilians (for which you are punished with a restart), and all of the enemies are dressed as police officers. The story’s clearly trying to say something, but whatever it is, it’s drowned out by the sound of executives yelling at their underlings to get the product shipped in time for Q4.
Zombies returns, but it’s a half-arsed revival. Gone is the tense atmosphere, along with the bespoke levels and soundtrack. Instead, Warzone is dressed in an unconvincing zombie outfit and kicked out of the door to land in an untidy heap. It’s an open world with zombies and other supernatural nasties (and sometimes, oddly, human enemies) full of uninteresting and repeating objectives to grind until you get bored enough to attempt exfil. It is, like the campaign, a series low.
MATTER OF CORPSE
We’re relieved, then, when PvP proves to be a complete contrast. It’s an odd situation, for sure;
Online play, meanwhile, wants to normalise Nicki Minaj shooting Skeletor in the head.
this is the first entry in the series to launch with precisely no new multiplayer maps, with the ones available at launch famously being drawn from the 2009 Modern Warfare II (and there will even be maps from the 2022 Modern Warfare II). There are obvious advantages for the developer in terms of saving production time and guaranteeing audience familiarity, but there are advantages for the players too.
For one thing, it means that the core modes such as Team Deathmatch are on a rotation of 16 maps from day one, avoiding the issue some past games have had of having too few maps for too long. There’s also the undeniable nostalgia rush that longtime fans of the series (us included) get from revisiting remastered versions of maps from what is widely considered one of the best online experiences of the series. A large number of subtle tweaks have been made (a piece of scenery moved or removed here, a change in smoke density there) but these are essentially the same maps that we loved all those years ago.
It’s not only the environments that hark back to COD’s glory days. Rejecting the series trend of recent years, movement is fast and snappy, without sacrificing that all-important gunfeel. We wouldn’t necessarily say that this faster play is better – 2019’s Modern Warfare was an incredible experience online with weightier movement – but it’s an alternative that we’re more than happy to see make a comeback here.
BULLET DANCER
Unfortunately, this means that players who insist on sliding and bouncing around everywhere like overexcited toddlers are back. This isn’t a side-effect, either, but something Sledgehammer Games is clearly encouraging with perks that enhance aiming while jumping and sliding. It’s a dent in the
online experience, but not a significant one.
Perhaps encouraging this sort of behaviour was inevitable, as Call Of Duty has become sillier and sillier over the years, and not just by introducing zombies. Offline play wants you to engage with gritty pro-military stories, galvanised by a group of working-class characters who would do anything for one another. Online play, meanwhile, wants to normalise Nicki Minaj shooting Skeletor in the head while Lara Croft bunnyhops nimbly around a corner to throw a Molotov cocktail at Snoop Dogg.
All of the skins we’ve just mentioned either are or were available to purchase in MWII, and therefore carry over to MWIII – as do any unlocked weapons and attachments. This is great news for anybody who played the previous game before this one (ie virtually everybody). While you’ll need to rebuild your custom loadouts, and some equipment needs unlocking again, it’s essentially a great way to sidestep the traditional new COD blues where you need to wait several hours for a decent range of weapons.
If you’re in the minority who enjoys playing Call Of Duty but not for the PvP elements, you’d better steer clear of this one.
The rest of us are left with a frustrating package where multiplayer is the best it’s been for years, but everything else – which is included to help justify the cost, remember – is insultingly poor. Once is bad enough, but if this becomes a trend, Activision is unlikely to find its audience forgiving.
A series high for PvP, a series low for Zombies and the campaign. Worth it for multiplayer, but paying for the whole package leaves a sour taste. Luke Kemp
6