Long Time No See- Modern Warfare 3 Multiplayer Opinions

It’s been a while, I know. That multiplayer review for MW3 never came, and for good reason. Here it is in a nutshell, and I know many people have said this, but it feels like Modern Warfare 2.5. The single player and co-op at least have differing levels, but on the plain, claustrophobic and incredibly circular maps MW3 just feels boring and too similar to its predecessor. The only real changes are moving the on-screen text and a slightly different killstreak system. And with death streaks, Infinity Ward’s excellent balancing skills are at it again. Hated Martyrdom and Last Stand in MW2? Well, both are present, but they also combined the two with a resulting death streak that is rage-inducing and leaves you with no possible escape – Dead Man’s hand.

Tragically, the weapon balance is atrocious. The assault rifles are all hopelessly outclassed due to the tiny maps, in which SMGs rule. While shotguns have been beaten senselessly with the nerf stick (now more or less much useless), machine pistols are again hideously overpowered. The FMGs (like G18s in MW2, but worse), despite getting a nerf, are still an “easy mode” of sorts.

Oh, and the spawns. They give me nightmares sometimes. Team Deathmatch isn’t too bad, but Free for All and Domination are atrocious. For a start, several maps are too small for three flags, and then spawning on those results into your immediate demise. Dome is the worst for this.

As I said earlier, the maps are all bland, excessively circular and none of them really stand out as amazing, but more instead stand out as terrible, and the DLC or ELITE don’t really seem to make matters much better. ELITE was delayed severely at launch for PC, and offers monthly content for a set price. Not only does this not encourage well-made maps, as the money hungry Activision already has its dosh, it punishes those without ELITE by making them wait months longer for content. And now, Battlefield has followed suit (but more on that later). I haven’t bought into ELITE or any of MW3’s DLC, and I’m not missing anything.

In the end, my fun in MW3 was really quite limited. It offered very little to the series and the small maps were killing me. Despite my hatred for snipers, I longed for maps such as Wasteland or anything that didn’t involve running around in a circle dropping people with overpowered weapons. In fact, it was the desire for large maps that resulted in myself swapping franchises to Battlefield 3. The DLC seems to bring more boring, small, circular and uninteresting maps and I only really played the game due to the addicting leveling system that has made the Call of Duty games so popular. Personally, I’d rather enjoy my games as well as being hooked by them. No thanks, Black Ops 2. I’ll pass.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Image via Wikipedia

If you follow this blog, you’ve probably seen my massive bitch about Steam in one of my previous posts. Steam’s grown on me now, and if it weren’t for Steam, I never would have discovered this brilliant game.

Valve’s marketing strategy is pretty clear. If you preorder THIS game, we’ll give you THESE items for Team Fortress 2! Deus Ex:Human Revolution (from now on called DEHR because it’s so much easier to type) was one of these games. A handful of Deus Ex items made their way into game, and led me to discovering the game. Now, I feel guilty for not actually buying the game (I’m not going into that any further), but there’s no doubting it’s a good one.

I’m new to the Deus Ex series with this game, so keep that in mind.

The game is based in the not too distant future, where humanity has begun stealing fire from the gods with human augmentation, making themselves better (and some believe losing their humanity). Set before Invisible War and the original Deus Ex, augmentations are only really available to the rich. You play as Adam Jensen, head of security for Sarif Industries. He’s ex-SWAT and wear sunglasses inside, and at night. In fact, you only see his eyes in two cut scenes in the whole game. Adam starts off the game unaugmented, but due to a story event which I won’t ruin for you ends up partially mechanical. After a group of augmented soldiers break into one of the labs, he is left with more questions than answers, and travels to many different locations throughout the game, including Detroit, Singapore, Montreal and China.

The game is a first-person shooter fused with a role-playing game. It contains sidequests, weapons and ammo carry over between missions, a leveling system (with experience points) and there are two hubs in the game, Hengsha (China) and Detroit. There’s a social side to it as well. In certain situations you have to convince people to do your will, and give you what you want. As you play through the game you unlock Praxis points, which are used to unlock augmentations. Augmentations range from greater accuracy, reduced weapon recoil, stealth, jump higher, resist poisonous gases, EMP grenades and flash grenades to fall from any height upgrades (which is a godsend) and various hacking upgrades. There’s even an option to see through walls. Weapons can be upgraded throughout the game, adding the usual damage and clip size upgrades, laser pointers and silencers, to lock-on systems and explosive rounds.

One of the game’s many trailers shows 3 different ways to play. Stealth, adaptive (hacker) and aggressive. Stealth is pretty much self-explanatory. Don’t be detected. You have to use cover, non-lethal takedowns (or silencers) to get past the guards and security systems. There’s no doubting the game encourages stealth. You get more XP for non-lethal takedowns, and not being detected in the level. Aggressive is my favourite. I try stealth, but ultimately end up failing and come out all guns blazing. Ammo is quite annoying to find in the game, and while aggressive is possible to finish the game it not the best way to play. Adaptive is a nice method as well. Hack into the security hub, turn their toys against them. It’s quite simple really.

The game is fun, that’s for sure. The combination of genres work a charm, but I have two problems with the game. The first, is boss fights. Boss fights in a FPS don’t really work, and require you to pump out most of your hard-won ammunition, regardless of your tactics. The second are the load times, but that’s been fixed in an update.

My Rating

Music: 8 (check out the main theme, Icarus on youtube. It’s brilliant)

Gameplay: 9

Creativity: 7

Graphics: 9

Other: 9

Total: 42/50