Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Review
- Posted November 8th, 2011 at 08:03 EDT by Don Oliveira
- 18 Comments
Review Score
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
- PSU Review Score
- 9.0
- Avg. user review score:
- 4.0
Summary
Modern Warfare 3 doesn't reinvent the wheel by any means, but there's no denying it's a damn good action-packed blockbuster, and maybe the best Call of Duty to date.
We like
- Multiplayer has been refined to a tee
- Surprising amount of co-op content
- Well-paced, action-packed campaign
We dislike
- Visuals look dated and unimpressive
- Doesn't break free from the Modern Warfare mold
- AI can sometimes feel sloppy
See PSU's review on Metacritic & GameRankings
Oh Modern Warfare, how you’ve shaken up the video game industry so. Starting its reign over the first-person shooter market back in 2007, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare brought us a new, addictive take on multiplayer that would since be imitated, and in this case, iterated upon. Modern Warfare 2 achieved nothing short of overcoming the hurdle that was surpassing its predecessor in 2009. And now, Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games have co-developed Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 in an attempt to take fans on one last ride, and put an end to this trilogy-long story arc.
It’s important to remember, however, that Sledgehammer Games had just as big of a hand in the development of Modern Warfare 3 as Infinity Ward did. After the falling out with Vince Zampella and Jason West, two of the founders of Infinity Ward, Activision brought on Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey, whom are both responsible for the critically acclaimed Dead Space and are co-founders of Sledgehammer. After much speculation about the future of the franchise after Infinity Ward lost about half of the Modern Warfare 2 team, I’m happy to report that not only is the franchise in good hands, it may be in the best hands it’s ever been in.
The single-player campaign in Modern Warfare 3 opens up just moments after the end of Modern Warfare 2, with protagonist Soap bleeding out due to a gunshot wound to the gut. Being dragged to safety by Captain Price, Soap winds up surviving and being an essential part of the campaign you are sent on. In traditional Modern Warfare fashion, you’ll alternate between playing as multiple characters throughout the game, like Soap, Yuri, Frost, and even a surprise character or two. In an attempt to keep this review spoiler-free, I won’t divulge specific plot points, just some of the scenarios.
Modern Warfare 3 will at times be very reminiscent of the previous game, just as Modern Ware 2 was to the original. You’ll end up doing a lot of what you’ve done in the previous two games, but it somehow manages to still feel fresh. Sure, you’ll be the gunner of an AC-130 again, switching from the birds-eye-view of the battlefield, to your squad of special operatives on ground level, awaiting orders to proceed or hang back. If you’ve played any other Call of Duty before this, then you know exactly how Modern Warfare 3 plays from beginning to end. But it’s hard to dispute that the production values and attention to detail have never been higher.
There are certain moments in Modern Warfare 3 that are just as jaw-dropping, disturbing, and awe-inspiring, as the infamous airport scene from Modern Warfare 2. Upon initial boot, the game even asks you if you’d like to have said content appear in your campaign playthrough, just like Modern Warfare 2 did when asking about the airport scene.
As advertised, MW3 is in fact a look at World War 3, or what it would be like for actual modern warfare across the world’s nations. Watching a structure as iconic as the Eiffel Tower come crumbling down to the ground was just as breathtaking as seeing the Whitehouse overrun in Modern Warfare 2.
Sure, the story is every bit as balls-to-the-walls as previous Modern Warfare entries, and the campaign only lasts for about six hours, but all that should be expected by now. Whether or not you’re on board with the over-the-top action and set pieces in the recent Call of Duty games, Modern Warfare 3 houses multiple memorable moments that can at times seem familiar, but fun to play nonetheless.
Graphically, Modern Warfare 3 is pretty stale, and looks pretty close to what Modern Warfare 2 looked like. However, at a healthy constant rate of 60 FPS, the game looks good in motion. You won’t stop moving and take in any gorgeous scenery, or examine anything particular, which is a little disappointing. There is enough going on at all times to stimulate you visually, but it could look better.
Along with the review copy, Activision also provided a 5.1 surround sound system for the single-player campaign portion of the game. The new MW3 engine does incorporate better directional audio, so if you have the luxury of a 5.1/7.1 surround sound system/headset, ... (continued on next page)
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Comments
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Tony_Isaza
- 12:17pm EST - November 8th, 2011
- 5
Killer article dude !
I wasn't too crazy about the fact that I got every achievement in MW2 in like 2 days, but I'm hoping this will last a tad longer!
And hey, the godforsaken avalanche of AAA games is can finally start slowing down!!
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markwesker
- 2:02pm EST - November 8th, 2011
- 6
Reviews are not an opinion,graphics,story,gameplay,sound,all have a standard of quality and if you really think this is 9/10 which is just half a point off uncharted 3 ,then your just COD fanboy and your not doing the industry any favours by making a bad game look good. Its dlc priced as a full game release,its a disgrace n should not be rewarded.
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Xdeth
- 2:22pm EST - November 8th, 2011
- 7
Any other game that had less then impressive graphics/ sloppy AI/ and gave you the same old stuff again would be penalized with a score of 7 or 8. Yet for some reason the reviewer seemed to not factor that in for the score, but instead just list it. PSU score 9/10... Current user score 4/10... The exact reason I never base my purchasing choices from reviews.
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shiftey
- 4:46pm EST - November 8th, 2011
- 8
all this game is a $60 map pack with some tweeks to the sound. gameplay is the samej camp in a corner and get your killstreaks. I was a fan of the COD francise until it got hacked and took all the fun out of the games plus after 10 hours it just got boring to me maybe cause the COD series are geared more for kids then grown up's, I give this game a 3 out of 10.
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Tony_Isaza
- 4:57pm EST - November 8th, 2011
- 9
Man, lotta CoD haters here or what! People... no one put a gun to your head and forced you to play it, yes, some of your points are valid, do these points make this a bad game...NO. To each his own, different strokes for different folks, you guys should stop hating because it makes you look very childish!!
On a different not, if you guys like Don's work, here's a little known fact... He used to write for our site, trendkilleronline.com, before he got snared by PSU!! I say this so you can all come check out our site, of course. And if you think this is some underhanded thing to do, please take note that I just put up a post on our site telling folks to read this article!
Long live shameless self promotion!!!
www.trendkilleronline.com
And again, good read....zzz...ZZZ...zzz
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Don Oliveira |
Other_- 5:45pm EST - November 8th, 2011
- 11
Thanks for the support (some of you). To all those who feel ticked off by this review at all, please save your harsh criticisms until you’ve actually played the game thoroughly. It was only released today, after all.
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corrupted1
- 6:05pm EST - November 8th, 2011
- 12
omg i think the user rating should be the actual rating because this game was downright horrible the only reason it got that score is because of the stupid fan boys.
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Minimoose117
- 6:42pm EST - November 8th, 2011
- 13
Normaly I enjoy reading reviews on this site do to most being pretty unbiased but every CoD game gets a stellar review from this site. As someone in here pointed out if any other game had those Cons it would get a different score in than a 9 which is fairly high for something that has not changed in a couple of years and doesn't even carry some of the big differences from Black Ops like a theater mode or CoD Points. Although I honestly knew it would get a 9 from this site I am still quite disppointed in this review :(
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Andy_Walker93
- 9:44am EST - November 9th, 2011
- 15
i thought soap was stabbed not shot even though good review just wish the ump wasn't so overpowered:)
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NY_Young1
- 8:43pm EST - November 9th, 2011
- 16
I used to be such a COD head until this game came out. There is barely anything new about this game and for the features that are new, it isn't enough to make this game new, fresh, and deserving for a 9.0. It seems like now COD has finally hit a wall and not coming up with anything that leaves room for a "Wow" factor that made this game better than its predecessors. It's MW2 2.0 with new maps. It does have a slightly different feel than previous COD as far as movements but the gameplay general feels like a merger of World at War and MW2. An honest score for this game would be 8.0 and even that's giving the game some credit. It's also amazing how this site gave Battlefield 3 an 8.5 when that game deserves a true 9.0 score. BF3 is now my go to shooter this year (as far as FPS) and really is under-rated. BF3 in my opinion is the best FPS out there to date and MW3 is just a mashed up clone with new maps.
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Bones311
- 4:07pm EST - November 10th, 2011
- 17
like @16 said, to give this game a 9.0 when BF3 got an 8.5 truely shows the fanboyism of this article. I've never seen an article on here that had such a drastically lower user review score to site review score. BF3 is an 8.5 on this site but users rate it a 9.7, however users rated MW3 a 3.7... and some how the writer of this article argues that the game is only a day old so you should give it some time. How long did the writer have with the game before his 9.0 rating? What does it matter whether you played it for a day or a year, you can still see whats new or not new, you can still see the graphics are crap. Try being non-biased and call the game for what it is, a recycled POS that was made so the companies involved can make more $$$$$
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