You are Here
News

Games Review: Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 may have smashed the sales records set by its predecessors but in every other aspect shows that the franchise is finally stagnant.<--break->“></p> <p>The concluding instalment of the phenomenally popular Modern Warfare games marks the culmination of the events started in 2007’s Call of Duty 4, as well as the latest iteration of the multiplayer component.</p> <p>Picking up from the final mission in Modern Warfare 2, we find the preposterously named ‘Soap’ McTavish and Captain Price reeling from events which are igniting a third World War as the terrorist Makarov continues to manipulate events to his own design for global domination.</p> <p>The original Modern Warfare seemed to have a message. The characters represented countries and cultures; SAS officers worked for the good of the nation in the background while gun-ho American soldiers ran headfirst into Middle Eastern conflicts. With the expansion of the plot, however, we find the characters to be morally contemptible individuals who ruthlessly murder people without a second thought in scenes of crass, self-indulgent violence.</p> <p>The scale of the spectacle in Modern Warfare 3 is unparalleled. The player is constantly compelled to look up as planes and helicopters fly overhead or buildings explode and crumble around you. The entire game has the feeling of being in the cinema watching the latest Michael Bay film.</p> <p>Unfortunately, taking the analogy of the cinema a little further, passively viewing a film is often the feeling you will be left with during the single player game. The set dressing and spectacle are hugely impressive, however, it often feels that the more interesting aspects of the game are happening elsewhere while the player is subjected to repetitive and familiar gameplay.</p> <p>Remember the sections from Modern Warfare 2 where you sneaked around with sniper rifles with Captain Price, or sat in the gunner seat of a tank, or fell through a roof while running away from the enemy? Despite one memorable section which takes place in a sandstorm, the majority of the game feels shamelessly copied from the previous games.</p> <p>The multiplayer component of Modern Warfare 3 has seen substantially more work than the single player since the last game. Added is a horde-mode equivalent entitled ‘Survival’ which pits players against hordes of enemy terrorists, attack dogs, enemy air support and less tastefully, suicide bombers. ‘Survival Mode’ joins the returning ‘Spec Ops’ as the go-to co-operative multiplayer option which can be taken online or played locally.</p> <p>Competitive multiplayer will feel very similar to anyone who has played a previous Call of Duty game. Concessions have been made for less skilled players with the removal of kill-based bonuses in favour of a points-based system which allows players who lack precision an alternative way to experience the game.</p> <p>Multiplayer maps have been scaled back such that they are all of one average size, eliminating the possibility of playing for several minutes at a time without bumping into another player. While this has been called for by the community, the result leaves each map feeling similar to next, so that no one particular environment stands out. Despite this, the gameplay is everything you would expect from a new Modern Warfare game, and will doubtless prove extremely popular over the coming year.</p> <p>Given the<a href= troubled production Modern Warfare 3 has had, it is unsurprising that the single player has suffered and that so much of the game feels old. At only six hours though, the repetition and distasteful story are over pleasingly quickly, allowing you to move on to the multiplayer. This thankfully maintains the standards expected from the series and, at the end of the day, is the real reason to buy the game.

+ posts

Related Posts

Verified by ExactMetrics