By Jonathan Jones | Observer Contributor
As a longtime supporter of the Call of Duty franchise, I was very anxious to get my hands on the latest installment, Modern Warfare 3. So anxious in fact that I reserved a copy months in advance and stood in line at midnight to secure the game. When I finally returned home around 1 a.m. and popped the disc into the drive, I was instantly blown away.
MW3 is by no means the greatest game ever made, nor is it the “perfect” first-person shooter. However, with a revamped graphics engine and more emphasis placed on different playing styles, it is the best game in the Call of Duty franchise. In the past when a multiplayer map took place in an arctic environment with snow, the snow was in fact limited to covering the ground and that was it. In one particular map in MW3, the player is thrust into a blinding snowstorm that affects visibility in ways not seen in previous installments. This small detail may be lost on the average gamer but it just goes to show the extent to which programmers and developers wanted to improve the look of this game compared to previous versions.
The single player aspect of the game picks up right where Modern Warfare 2 left off and thrusts the gamer instantly into a war-torn New York City where World War 3 has already begun. The first mission is to disable a Russian radar jammer placed on top of a building so as to allow the United States Military to begin the task of reclaiming the harbor from the opposing force.
Gamers experienced in the style of play of Call of Duty will have no problem picking up the controls and completing the task at hand and finding some new twists to the regular experience. For those that are not familiar with the controls, fear not, the simplistic layout of buttons will have you retaking New York City and eliminating enemies very quickly. Overall the missions are widely varied and for those that have not completed the single player missions, no spoilers will be included in this review. One should expect, however, to traverse the globe to repel the true enemy to the US, Vladimir Makarov.
The Spec Ops missions, which are a great way to hone your skills before jumping into multiplayer, have returned and been beefed up tremendously. With the all-new Survival mode, gamers can stave off an endless wave of enemies with a gradually increasing level of difficulty. This mode supports up to two players teaming up and using strategy and skill to fend off the enemy. Much like the zombie mode for Black Ops, you can compare high scores between friends. With the inclusion of a ranking system that parallels the multiplayer ranks (but is completely separate from multiplayer), this mode will keep players engaged in the game and provides a replayability factor that developers want. Also included in Spec Ops is the ability for you and a teammate to play several missions varying from stealth, obstacle courses, and aerial support. The only part of the Spec Ops that is a major letdown is the fact that you can only play with one other friend. In Black Ops, players could team up with up to three other players and coordinate strategies in the zombie mode. Alas, one can hope for an update or in the next installment of the series this might be remedied.
Lastly but certainly not least, the multiplayer mode has returned and puts the previous Call of Duty’s to shame. New strike packages have been included and with the all-new support package does not require players to maintain a kill streak, but rewards team play. Unlike previous installments players had to chain together kills to receive air support. This shift towards a team focused reward is sometimes critical in certain game modes for the overall success of the team. For players that are focused on personal success, the developers have rewarded you with a varying degree of kill streak rewards, provided you can chain enough kills together. Also new to multiplayer is the ability to receive extra perks instead of support in the form of the “Specialist” rewards, where a player can receive extra perks such as quick draw or sleight of hand, when chaining kill streaks together. In addition to new equipment and weapons the overall feel of the maps has been revamped, most likely to eliminate the dreadful “camper”. For those new to first person multiplayer games, a camper is a player that prefers to sit in corners, out of sight, and wait for an unsuspecting player to run by. These players usually do not get very many kills (as they are not moving) but are great at ruining a good chain of kills that you have going. The maps have been revamped by making them much smaller and rather than have a map horizontally large, the maps are now compressed and more vertical. This creates a situation where players are constantly moving around the map and eliminates the opportunity for players to sit in corners (see camping) for very long. While this can be seen as a great game play tweak, the ability for a player to be “quick-scoped” has not been addressed. This involves a player with a (usually overpowered) sniper rifle running around the map and when they go to zoom in, the trigger is pulled prematurely and you are hit with a bullet that was never aimed. This requires no skill and usually is met with obscenities and broken controllers. This however is a simple gameplay mechanic and should be addressed in the form of a patch in the near future. Overall the multiplayer mode is the best in the series despite the minor problems.
As a whole, Modern Warfare 3 is a game that is very capable of breaking all the sales records of the previous game, Black Ops. Players that have experienced the Call of Duty series from its inception will appreciate the attention to detail as well as the focus on a wide variety of play and skill styles. I’m not a big fan of rating a game with a number but I will say this, if you are a fan of first-person shooters, this is a game you will enjoy for months to come. If you aren’t a fan of the shooter genre, then give this game a try, I guarantee you will be hooked.
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