Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Review: Cynical And Soulless
Modern Warfare 3, the latest installment of what started as an Infinity Ward-led effort to reboot the infamous sub-franchise, by many accounts, started life as a DLC pack for last year’s Modern Warfare 2. It was heavily rumored that last year’s entry into the storied franchise would be the first game in over a decade to not be immediately followed up by an annual sequel the following year, with Activision supposedly intent on ditching the annual release cycle in favor of building out Modern Warfare 2 and affording the next studio a longer development cycle.
If you’re to believe the various reports doing the rounds, however, this all changed when Activision decided they needed a full-release for 2023, which resulted in Sledgehammer Games being brought in to turn what had originally started life as an expansion into a full-fledged mainline entry. We now have the results of that decision in our hands, and, honestly, it’s a choice that has resulted in one of the most soulless, obvious cash grabs that Activision’s juggernaut of a series has ever produced.
Story? What Story?
While I fully appreciate that the campaign is rarely the main reason anyone purchases a Call of Duty title, I’ll put my hand up and admit that I’ve always enjoyed them. Sure, they’ve always been more style than substance, but the impeccable gunplay the series is known for, along with the sheer spectacle of the immaculately crafted set pieces, always gave me a few evenings of cracking entertainment. Video game comfort food in its purest form. At the very least, I hoped that Modern Warfare 3 would continue the rebooted series’ trend of spectacular campaigns, but the end product here is an insult to the adrenaline-pumping outings that preceded it.
I’d give some detail on the narrative, but, truth be told, there isn’t one. The campaign opens with the infamous villain, Makarov, being broken out of prison, and it’s a serviceable opening mission, filled with the spectacle that you’ll have come to expect from the series. You may even leave that first mission thinking that it’s business as usual for a Call of Duty campaign, such is the competency on display. However, beyond that first mission, you’re propelled straight into the first of what Sledgehammer has marketed as Open Combat Missions, a new feature for Modern Warfare 3 that sees the traditional linear format of previous campaigns ditched in favor of a more open-ended approach that does nothing to propel the narrative forward from there.
On paper, opening things up sounds great. In practice, though, it’s clear that these Open Combat Missions are little more than large chunks of the Warzone map dotted with a few mundane objectives for players to tackle in any order they like. So obvious is the leeching from Warzone, that you even have to loot load-outs and gear in the same fashion as you would in the series’ battle royale entry. You’ll be dropped into a map with very little in terms of gear, loot your way through the first few minutes, complete the objectives, which rarely amount to more than having to traverse the map and interact with something, and then be done with it. It’s so underwhelming, so half-baked, that each time you’re forced into one of these missions, it becomes increasingly difficult to muster up the motivation to see the campaign through.
Worse again, is that this mission type accounts for over half of the 14 missions that make up the campaign. The remainder do follow the more traditional, set-piece-focused approach the series is known for, and these do fair slightly better, albeit still not up to the pure thrill rides that the series has previously produced, but it’s painfully clear that these more scripted missions were supposed to be the focus of a much smaller DLC campaign. That’s the only reason I can think anyone would sign off on the absolute shambles that Open Combat Missions are – someone at Activision decided that a full campaign was needed, the developers didn’t have enough time to create another 5 or 6 fleshed out campaign missions, so Open Combat Missions were the route taken towards padding out the campaign into something more substantial. All in all, you’ll spend around 3 hours with Modern Warfare 3’s campaign, and save for the opening mission and a couple of highlights thereafter, it’s a miserable time. The fact that when it’s all said and done, the story has barely progressed from where things ended with Modern Warfare 2 speaks volumes – this was intended to be a stop-gap until the real Modern Warfare 3 was supposed to drop.
Braaaaaains? More like Braaaaaaaainless
You could forgive the completely botched campaign somewhat if the rest of the package were up to snuff, but, unfortunately, Modern Warfare 3’s zombies mode also suffers from the same lack of imagination and sense of being rushed, resulting in a mode that feels as soulless as the hordes of brain starved undead that you’ll be mowing down.
What was once my favorite part of each yearly release, the creative maps and hardcore easter eggs drawing me back in year after year, Modern Warfare 3’s zombies mode, titled MWZ here, is little more than a DMZ reskin. The introduction of DMZ last year was a fantastic addition to Call of Duty’s ever-increasing number of ways to play. The mission-based, casual take on the extraction shooter genre was a breath of fresh air and provided me with many tense nights of entertainment as I competed against other players for loot and exfil choppers. I don’t believe I’ve heard one DMZ player turn around and say, “You know, I’d really love this mode a lot more if you removed the PvP element and replaced all the enemies with zombies,” but that’s exactly what has happened here. Drop in, loot, complete a few contracts, exfil, and that’s it. Complete enough of the overarching tiered objectives that you can select from before each match, and you eventually trigger a story mission that you can take on, but when the story used to be unveiled in this mode through the community coming together to crack cryptic easter eggs and brain teasers, this approach feels like a huge step back.
The fact that it all plays out on the upcoming Urzikstan map which is about to form the basis for the new season of Warzone is also a baffling choice. Zombies is at its best when navigating tight maps, designed to instill panic while forcing the player into cramped, claustrophobic shootouts against seemingly insurmountable hordes of undead. Moving that action to an open-world setting is a massive misstep, removing the tension that was inherent to the mode almost entirely. As you get towards the center of the map, where the difficulty increases through harder contracts and spongier zombies, things do get a touch more exciting, but by that stage, you’ll be so bored from the opening routine of gearing up and completing overly simplistic contracts that you’ll already want out if you’re anything like me.
A Saving Grace
Despite the campaign and zombies being nothing short of a disaster, the multiplayer suite is thankfully much more enjoyable, if still a little too reliant on recycled content.
Gunplay, unleashing killstreaks, picking that perfect perk loadout, and navigating tightly designed maps are still capable of providing the same enjoyment now as they were when Infinity Ward took the series down this path of constant progression and RPG-like unlock systems with the original Modern Warfare back in 2007. Call of Duty just feels good to play, there’s a feel to its gunplay that few other shooters have managed to rival, meaning the multiplayer will always be capable of providing a decent time.
There’s been a few welcome changes made by Sledgehammer this year over last year’s Modern Warfare 2. The in-game map, always visible on the HUD, has been returned to normal, returning to the reliable source of information and player locations that it had always been prior to Infinity Ward, removing almost any useful functionality. The movement has also seen an upgrade, with Sledgehammer’s signature movement speed leading to a Modern Warfare 3 that distances itself greatly from the slow, campy affairs that the previous reboot entries had turned into. Speed demons will also be delighted to know that slide canceling has also made a return after being controversially removed by Infinity Ward in last year’s predecessor.
Truth be told, it feels like Sledgehammer listening to the complaints that Infinity Ward ignored for a full year, and walking back many of those controversial changes. The map works, the movement feels great, and even the time to kill has been adjusted to be slightly more forgiving – you now actually have a chance to react to that camper who got the drop on you, rather than dropping within a couple of bullets hitting you. These changes, when taken with the impeccable gunplay, result in a multiplayer offering that feels better than it has in years. Why, then, does it still feel lacking?
The answer to that is simple: it’s yet another portion of the game that feels all too familiar due to the use of old content. Adding more strength to the reports that this was intended as an expansion, all of Modern Warfare 3’s standard multiplayer maps are classic maps taken from the original Modern Warfare 2, meaning, at least until Season One drops, you won’t be playing on any maps that haven’t already been around in some form since 2009. One of my favorite parts of any new Call of Duty is the feeling of stepping into the unknown, the thrill of learning the intricacies of brand-new maps, figuring out optimal sight lines, and understanding where shortcuts to objectives are. While there are minor changes to some of these maps, a door here that was previously locked, and a new alleyway there that enables you to get the drop on a spawn point, it’s hard to deny that the reliance on old favorites robs the player of that excitement that comes with jumping into a new annual release.
That being said, it’s worth noting that I use the term “old favorites,” as, despite that sense of familiarity, these are cracking maps. Back in 2009, Infinity Ward was at the top of its game when it came to map design, and it’s genuinely great to see this classic suite of maps make a return. Stepping onto the plane on Terminal, scaling the rig at the center of Rust, perching on a cliff overlooking the entire map on Afghan – these were impeccably designed PvP arenas, free from a lot of the clutter and noise that made later installments a bit harder to get to grips with. Their design holds up incredibly well, and the fact that Modern Warfare 3 performs brilliantly while being utterly gorgeous, along with audio that makes each map an incredibly visceral experience, makes returning to these fan-favorite playgrounds a pleasure. Here’s hoping, though, that upcoming seasons vary things up a little by giving us something fresh to break things up a touch.
Conclusion
Despite a solid, if slightly too familiar multiplayer offering, it’s hard to look at Modern Warfare 3 as anything other than a cynical, soulless cash grab – a product that the developers were likely forced by the publishers to produce out of financial necessity and greed, rather than love and passion for the medium. Don’t get me wrong; I don’t place any of the blame for this year’s disaster on the development team themselves, and, in fact, you could actually heap praise on them for being able to turn something competent and functional around in the timescales they were reportedly given. But we need to call a spade a spade – Modern Warfare 3 should not exist in its current form. This world, these characters, and modes such as zombies deserved better, especially after Modern Warfare 1 and 2 laid the groundwork for a spectacular third entry with two carefully crafted reboots. If you’re purely in it for the multiplayer, then there may just be enough here in the nostalgia of revisiting old maps to warrant a purchase, but that is the only grounds on which Modern Warfare 3 might prove an acceptable product. For anyone looking for their next action-packed campaign fix or hoping to see the zombies mode return to its former glories, you should absolutely avoid this year’s entry.
Final Verdict: 2/5
Available On: Xbox Series X/S (Reviewed), Xbox One, PS4, PS5, PC; Publisher: Activision Blizzard; Developer: Sledgehammer Games; Released: November 10, 2023; Players: 1-32; MSRP: $69.99
Full disclosure: A review copy was provided by the publisher.
