INTRODUCTION
Many have said that the Call of Duty series is being stretched, with one game hitting the shelves every year. It’s like a ritual for every gamer, the poor ones download it and the rich ones buy it. But no one ignores it, because every game in the series promises and delivers Michael Bay-esque thrills and scenes that keep you hooked ’till the very end. After all, not every game lets you walk around in a bullet proof suit, control AC-130 gunships that rain down withering fire from the skies and engage in warfare of epic proportions. The latest installment in the Call of Duty series, Modern Warfare 3, delivers that and much more.
Modern Warfare 3
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past decade, you are probably familiar with Call of Duty, so I’ll skip the basics and launch into the review. Spoilers ahead in case you’ve ignored the previous CoD games. If you haven’t then I suggest you skip this part, it’s just a recap of events that took place in the previous MW games.
Modern Warfare 2 saw a grievously injured Soap MacTavish being escorted to a helicopter in the desert sands of Afghanistan by Captain Price and Nikolai. Soap and Price had killed the rogue General Shepherd and were on the run, pursued by both Uncle Sam’s army and the mercenaries of the ultra-nationalist terrorist Makarov. With the help of Nikolai’s men, including one Yuri, an ex-Spetsnaz, and the help of a Delta Force Unit, they hope to stop Makarov in his plan to destroy the United States of America and almost all of Europe. It’s a fantastic journey that takes you through India, America, Berlin, France, the United Kingdom and the Middle East.
Gameplay
The gameplay is more or less the same as MW2 and MW1; move to place X and kill all who stand in your way. Although it’s not innovative, it is definitely fun. Old weapons like the Desert Eagle and the M4A1 are back, reliable as always. Then there’s the new upgrade to an assault rifle, the hybrid scope. Your rifle is fitted with two scopes, aligning both of them lets you see far off enemies. My favorite, and yours too probably, has got to be the L86 LSW machine gun. It’s lightweight, chambers 200 rounds, and reloads just as quickly as a regular assault rifle. It’s great for mowing down a congregation of soldiers, and if outfitted with a long range scope, serves as a machine gun/sniper.
That said, you do the standard stuff that you’ve been doing since MW1; disable certain machines, breach doors, toss grenades, and shoot the bad guys ’till your clip runs empty. However there are certain points in the mission where you get to do something different, like control an AC-130 gunship, or use a Predator drone to rain down missiles. You don’t get to drive vehicles though. There are interactive cut scenes where you have to press certain keys on your keyboard. For example, you’re lying on the ground and a pistol is just a few feet away from you. Your monitor prompts you to press the left mouse button, you do so, and your characters inches forward slowly.
After you’ve finished the campaign, you can head over to Special Ops, where you replay certain parts of the campaign but with different objectives. For example, one level is set in France;you collect samples of a deadly nerve agent whilst wearing a bullet-and-poison-gas-proof suit. Completing each level successfully gets you points for automatic leveling up. The more points you have, the more you level up, and the more weapons and gadgets you can exploit in the survival mode, which is a sub-mode found in SpecOps. Here you face endless waves of enemies. So it is a good idea to complete the regular levels, earn points, level up, and theb face the survival mode.
I haven’t had the pleasure of trying out the multiplayer, but if the online reviews are to be believed it’s pretty good. Not as good as the multiplayer of Battlefield 3, but it can hold it’s own.
Graphics
This game was never meant to be open world-oriented. It’s a linear game, you go from point A to B and shoot the bad guys in between. There are many scripted events. Now that we’ve understood that, let’s read on.
The game uses the same engine as MW2, which in turn used the same engine as MW3. The engine has undergone some noticeable changes, like better character animation, facial texture and better lighting. But on the whole the game looks like its predecessor. Weapon animations remain the same, and some things like building models and character movement have been recycled from the previous games. Hurray for recycling, Infinity Ward cares for the environment! I’ll let the screenshots do the talking:
Like, and yet unlike the previous games. I would have liked to see some 3d objects in the far off distance, instead of a static wallpaper as can be observed in the first pic. The mountains are 2d. Also, some destructible environments would be nice. Battlefield games allow you to destroy everything in sight, while in CoD MW3 you are limited to window panes and objects that must be destroyed to progress in the mission. Maybe the next CoD game will have graphics that can hold their own against Battlefield.
CONCLUSION
From the looks of it, this is the last game in the Modern Warfare series. Infinity ward and Sledgehammer games have tried to sure that their trilogy goes out with a bang. And they have succeeded.
Like a good story with many “Oh god did that just happen?” moments? Like to mow down endless waves of enemies with your fancy military hardware? Then this game is for you.
Promising about six hours of single player gameplay, followed by many hours of fun in the special ops and multiplayer, Modern Warfare 3 is one of those games which you simply can’t ignore. If you haven’t played this game or haven’t tried the CoD games yet, please go and get it. You will not be disappointed. Just don’t look for too much in the graphical department.