I’d easily have to say Modern Warfare 3 would have to have been the most hyped-up game of 2011. Not the most anticipated, but the most hyped. In fact, since the Call of Duty series rose to worldwide fame between the first two Modern Warfares (mainly the second I’d say), each new game is insanely hyped up.
Now, unlike the several thousand people who got the game within the first few days, I left the series’ addicting multiplayer for later, and jumped into the campaign, which starts immediately after the events of Modern Warfare 2. Soap is gravely injured, Russia is attacking the USA, and Makarov is… Well, he’s not massacring people every time he goes to the airport. You don’t play as Soap this time, and Foley has been given the sack by infinity ward. Instead, you play as Yuri, alongside Price and Soap, and as Frost, part of an elite USA team.
There’s no doubting the games contain some pretty awesome moments in some pretty awesome locations, and Yuri, Frost and team rock up some serious frequent flyer points, travelling to New York, Russia, Africa, Germany, England and France. And while that’s pretty cool, I find it ruins the overall feeling of the game. What I liked so much about 1 and 2 was the American missions. While the stealth of playing as Soap/Yuri annoyed me, I would much rather the urban warfare seen in the American missions. In 3, the Americans you play as are also jet setting across the globe. After the first two missions, you’re never really in the same location again.
But it is a call of duty game after all. You’ll be driving through occupied Paris in a… Postal van, have the helicopter flying next to you shot down (shock horror), drive a tank into a parking lot and still not find a park, and of course, have several characters killed off, like a bad drama show. You’ll get halfway through the campaign with most main characters still kicking, but, true to tradition, they’ll drop like flies.
The game looks the same as Modern Warfare 2. It plays the same as Modern Warfare 3. lt’s like the world’s most expensive DLC. The new Modern Warfare offers many thrills, but it’s really quite typical of a Call of Duty game. There was a particular part of a level in London they could have left out, as it tugs at the heart-strings quite a bit. While it’s no airport massacre, the impending sense of knowing something’s going to happen makes it far worse in many ways.
Story wise, it hasn’t really brought anything new to the game. Sure, you get to see the sights, mainly in a particularly awesome French level with an AC-130, and fighting towards the Eiffel Tower. The AI is just as stupid as ever, getting in your way and missing the one enemy that always kills you on your Veteran run-through, however all completionists have in ways of getting 100% completion in the game are the intel items scattered across the game, giving little replay value to the campaign.
The big question is, will Battlefield 3 trump Modern Warfare 3? We’ll have to find out when I get it.
My Rating
Music: 9
Gameplay: 8.5
Creativity: 6
Graphics: 8
Other: 8
Total: 39/50
Wait, What? 