The biggest selling franchise is back. Developed by Sledgehammer/Infinity Ward, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 continues its dominance in the first person shooter world.

War is hell

The main idea of the story centres on world war three. The story continues directly from Modern Warfare 2 featuring Makarov as the villain with Price, Soap and Nikolai as the heroes. To put two and two together, Makarov is the reason behind making the situation unrecoverable and it’s up to the heroes to stop him. As usual the game lets you play as a variety of different characters for the full perspective on the story. Such characters include Yuri, an ex-Spetsnaz man and Nikolai’s best soldier with a grudge against Makarov, Delta Force operative Frost, SAS operative Burns and a Russian federal security agent by the name of Harkov. You also get to play as Price in the final mission but Yuri is essentially your main character out of the bunch for the rest of the game.

Most levels are simply about getting from start to finish and killing a lot of enemies along the way. There is some variety though with one level involving driving a boat through hostile waters and another about being in control of an AC-130 and providing cover for your team on the ground. I actually enjoyed those two levels, the latter in particular because it was mixed in with the ground action view so it was quite fun to have both perspectives. Another level also featured a drone which could be used to take out surrounding enemies while you were in the action and of course I’m not forgetting the standard stealth mission – that’s in there too.

I don’t think the campaign was very long. I completed it on veteran in about five or six hours with the main challenge being on the last level in which I thought the game was quite punishing on a certain point. In terms of overall difficulty, the game is not as bad as previous instalments although some parts can feature some grenade spam as well as infinite enemy respawns. One feature that I really didn’t like on veteran was the on-rails vehicle shoot outs. It’s painfully frustrating when you can’t get into cover and have to suffer many deaths before you work out the order of shooting so you don’t die.

It’s all about first impressions

Each level features a loading screen video before each mission which features as part of the story. It remains a nice touch to the levels to help give the feel of what each mission will contain. Although still nice to look at, the graphics look the exact same as the game’s predecessor with there being no noticeable improvements. Even the main menu looks like the one from previous games although it is still quite clean and tidy so why fix what’s not broken. However, I would still love to see a new Call of Duty game run on a different engine just to see how much further it can go.

Boom!

The controls are still a joy to use with everything feeling quite fluid and easy to manage. Hits are accurate and the sound is even more spot on. I have to say the sound of the guns and explosions seems to be an improvement over the previous games. It really does sound like you’re directly in the battle and I believe that’s something you need in these types of games. There’s also background music that plays on nicely timed moments. One in particular on the last level made me feel invincible and I loved it

Tango spotted!

The spec ops mode is makes a return and still remains a nice challenge with them being even more fun to tackle with a friend. A new mode, survival, was introduced which as the name suggests, features surviving against many enemy waves. A nice new feature of spec ops is that there’s a levelling up system in place which allows you to earn experience and then use the points to purchase items to help you in conquering the mode. Unfortunately the levelling up system in spec ops does not tie in with the multiplayer.

The multiplayer element is still as good as it ever was, and even features some new modes. Unfortunately as a newbie, don’t expect to have access to everything when you first load up the option. A lot of the modes are locked out until you reach a higher level but the good news is it doesn’t take a horrendously long amount of time to do so. As you level up you get new items and upgrades but (and perhaps like most multiplayers), the longer you wait to start, the more difficult it will be for you since you will be a new player amongst established players with better setups.

Light one up

Overall, this game is very much almost the exact same as Modern Warfare 2, just with a fresh coat of paint. There are some new features thrown in but not enough to make a distinctive difference. If you were in any way growing tired of the series, this one doesn’t do anything to make the game new and refreshing. However, if you do indeed enjoy your Call of Duty, you’ll love this game all the same.