Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, the Cure for Black Ops

After a carpel-tunnel inducing, twitch-fest Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 marathon - my ears are still ringing from the machine gun and artillery fire. But I’m thoroughly invigorated and pleased to report that the latest installment of the Modern Warfare franchise is the best yet. Unlike the lateral movement that was Black Ops, Modern Warfare 3 is a clear step forward in depth, game options, weapons, builds and overall polish from its predecessor Modern Warfare 2. The all-new MW3 engine is no slouch either, bringing lighting, detail and overall graphics quality that are just a tiny cut above previous Modern Warfare games.

Single Player Story (No Spoilers)

Opinions about the single-player Modern Warfare story vary from blasé to thrilling. Count me on the totally enthralled side of the spectrum. While it's true that the details of the story are a bit sketchy, we may not know or care exactly why we're on these missions - but they're absolutely captivating. MW3 doesn't disappoint with more of the plot and timeline twists we’ve become accustomed to with this franchise. But the best part of MW3 is the gloriously rendered, absolute destruction of so many of the world’s major cities.

MW3 picks up moments after the boat-ride at the end of MW2. The main characters are all there, Price, Soap and Nikolai endeavor to save Soap’s life after Price killed General Shepherd. Meanwhile the war spawned by Russian terrorist Vladimir Makarov rages on in the United States.

No game does it quite like Modern Warfare! The feeling of being thrown into visceral vat of sweaty, bloody mayhem- complete with out-of-control moments where your very environment seem to envelop and try to crush you are masterfully executed. The game features tight knit checkpoints to allay the frustration of having to do sequences over and over and over. That’s especially helpful if you like to play on the higher skill levels - the game lets you play with minimal frustration. 

As for the aforementioned rendering of urban annihilation - you’ll not only bear witness to the destruction of major cities, you’ll be part of it. From New York City, Paris, Prague to Hamburg, London and African villages – you’ll travel to exotic, distant lands and meet exciting, people beautifully rendered with the all-new MW3 engine - and kill them.

The MW3 Engine is an improved version of the IW 4.0 engine used in previous games. Graphically it’s not a head-and-shoulders improvement over MW2. However, the MW3 engine allows for better streaming and larger regions at a max 60 frames per-second.

On PlayStation 3 the performance was liquid smooth except for a scant few transitions from gameplay to cut-scene. When there was a lot going on on-screen I did notice hints of hesitation in the framerate.  But that’s only a small quibble, overall it’s a remarkable achievement to get so much performance from a system that’s pushing six years old.

Visual Feasts

There are moments in MW3 to be immortalized in your memory’s video-game pantheon: 

• Seeing the Eifel Tower come crashing down in front of you
• Being aboard a doomed Russian Presidential plane you miraculously survive – you’ll want the sub and surrounds turned up for that mission to truly come out of your skin
• Approaching the Manhattan skyline in helicopter and taking a few seconds to take in the devastation – it’s scary
• A wild ride in the London subway where you’ll learn to “mind the gap”
• The only real disappointment to the single-player campaign is that it’s so short. But then, you’ll want to dispatch it early to get into the multiplayer and cooperative game options available.

 Spec Ops

This co-operative or solo mode of play is vastly expanded from MW2. The menu system is even a pleasure to navigate after months of Black Ops and its annoyingly repeated animations and delays at accessing various parts of the game. The polish and fine tuning to the details is refreshing.

Survival Mode is limited to solo or two-players fighting off endless waves of enemy. The waves vary and can include dogs, helicopters and increasingly more difficult infantry all the way up to the feared Juggernaut.

I can’t wait to get into some long games of Survival. If you’ve ever played Zombies from the previous Call of Duty games you have the general idea of what this is about. But Survival Mode has its own interesting weapon and customization upgrade system.

Missions are two-player games with specific objectives. These are the Special Operations from MW2 with a deeply expanded weapons customization.

Multiplayer

This is what we spend an overwhelming majority of our time doing – and so far it looks better than ever. The familiar old games are there; Free-for-All, Team Deathmatch, Domination, Demolition and Capture the Flag. New games include Team Defender and Kill Confirmed.

Team Defender is like capture the flag except you only have to defend your flag.

Kill Confirmed is an interesting twist on Team Deathmatch. Instead of just racking up kills you collect dogtags. Every player has dog tags that are dropped where they go down. The killer can pick them up and score a Kill Confirmed or an ally of the fallen player can pick them up to deny points to the opposition.

My first impulse is that snipers would have a hard time collecting dogtags. Generally a sniper is far from their kills hence collecting tags would be more difficult. But then, one tactic might be to remain scoped into the place you scored a fresh kill so you can dispatch any tag-collecting allies of the fallen.

There are 16 multiplayer maps so far and of course more are coming in the way of downloadable content.

Retail Versions

You can buy MW3 on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 in either a Standard or Hardened version.  Standard has the game and manual only while the Hardened version includes a game disc with unique art, a one year membership to Call of Duty: Elite as well as special founder status on Elite. You get an exclusive in-game emblem, playercard and weapon camo just in case you want to proudly display to others that you bought the more expensive version of the game.

Call of Duty: Elite

Is  a subscription servi

ce that entitles you to any map-pack updates. You also get statistical and social-media integration and tournaments that include real-life prizes as well as pro-analysis of maps, strategies and more extras if you’re so inclined.

Overall

Graphically the new game isn’t a quantum leap. The storyline, weapons and gameplay are becoming quite familiar territory to those who buy subsequent versions of the game year after year.

But these aren’t complaints, Modern Warfare has set the standard in multiplayer first-person shooters and even its Call of Duty franchise rival, Treyarch can’t match the solid product from Infinity Ward year after year.

We heard the news about controversial staffing changes at Infinity Ward, the developers of Modern Warfare, which threatened the release of a Modern Warfare 3. I purposely avoid this information simply because the politics of a software company is not my concern as a fan of the game. We’ll never know if the staffing changes hurt the game or helped it in the long-run. In my opinion rumors about what happens at game companies is just fluff for gossip columns. I’ll be here to judge any game on its own merits.

As one of the best selling games ever you won’t have any problem finding online games with plenty of players. I look forward to exploring the nuances of the new multiplayer perks and builds. But I know enough about gaming that nobody can tell you if efforts to balance the game will pan out, we’ll only know in a few months of hard play.

But the game looks to have maintained the addictive and high action and frenetic pace of the previous installments. The single player campaign and story was highly entertaining, it literally blew me away along with anyone else in range of my LFE-channel.

Modern Warfare is back, baby. PSN users might see me online - but not if I see you first!