Modern Warfare 3: Is the impressive, movie-like campaign let down by an underwhelming multiplayer experience?
Zoë Ainscough on how the campaign in the third iteration of Activision's seminal first person shooter 'exceeds expectations', whilst multiplayer is underwhelming, glitchy and is a waste of money if you've bought the game soley as a good multiplayer FPS
It was one of the most hyped up, anticipated games of the decade, and with a fan base that falls into the millions, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is guaranteed to be one of the biggest selling games of 2011 and a definite contender for many Game of the Year awards. With 13,000 stores opening at midnight, more than 6.5 million copies of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 were sold in the first 24 hours after the game’s release, breaking records for a video game launch.
Campaign
The single player campaign does not disappoint, in fact it exceeded my expectations (this might have something to do with the game being developed this time by Sledgehammer Games, alongside the original developer Infinity Ward). Whether you’re tackling an underwater minefield; a sandstorm shootout in Somalia; or a chemical attack across Europe, this game is a constant thrill ride from start to finish. The explosive action scenes are incredible, the attention to detail is near perfect and at some points you think you are watching a Michael Bay Blockbuster film. But what really made the game such a thrilling experience for me was the sense of ‘urgency’ in the each situation I was faced with. It created an extremely rushed and intense atmosphere, which gave the game a great sense of realness; this is the first Call of Duty game to have this effect on me, I believe that’s the reason I found this particular gaming experience so rewarding.
There is a certain scene in the game however, which caused a lot of controversy, and by now you’ll probably already know what I am talking about, the ‘MW3 child death’ scene. Yes, it is shocking, horrifying, and borderline disturbing, but above all that it’s realistic, this scene shows the true consequences of war and it really does hit home. The creators of the franchise are certainly not new to controversy. There was the shocking ‘Nuke’ level in the first installment, followed by the extremely controversial ‘No Russian‘ level in Modern Warfare 2, but in my opinion, this one is the worst out of the three simply because you have no control over the situation. Whilst the Creative Director at Sledgehammer Games has defended the scene, what are your views on this particular scene? Do you think it tops the controversial ‘No Russian’ level from Modern Warfare 2?
Overall, I really enjoyed playing this campaign; it’s certainly been one of my favorites of 2011. The game is fast paced, intense and thrilling, but above all that, it was fun. A truly enjoyable gaming experience!
In what was dubbed 'Modern Warfare 3’s 'No Russian' Moment' a young girl is killed by a truck blowing up in London
Multiplayer
Like most people, as soon as I got the game I went straight onto the online multiplayer, and almost instantly I was underwhelmed by it. There’s nothing special about the online, in fact I have given it the more suiting name of ‘Modern Warfare 2.5’. You will almost always find yourself being spawned near enemies, and you’ll often find them being spawned right behind you, which, let’s face it, is just plain annoying! The maps (and there are a lot of them, 16 to be precise) are nothing special and are on the small side, they are well balanced, but apart from that, I can’t find anything positive to say about them. There is no improvement graphics wise, which I was highly disappointed about, as I was expecting at least some sort of improvement from a game as big as this!
One significant change in the game is the new ‘Point-streak‘ system, and this is a great advantage for the less skillful players, also known as ‘noobs’ to the more hardcore players. Instead of being rewarded for kills, you now gain rewards by points. You can receive points from a number of actions including: Plants, defends, assists, defuses, kills, head-shots. If you’re one of the people who can’t get more than 3 kills on the run, then you’ll love the ‘Point-streak’ system. I, however am not overly impressed with this new feature, it’s so easy to get a reward now that it feels like too much is going on at once. I much prefer the Kill-streak rewards system, for me it made the online experience a lot more challenging.
My overall views on the multiplayer are mostly negative, I found it to be a huge anti-climax, yes this may be down to me expecting maybe too much, but wasn’t everyone? In my honest opinion MW3 is basically what Modern Warfare 2 should have been. I can’t help but feel the online is just glorified DLC for Modern Warfare 2, and for the people who bought the game just to play online, well you’ve just wasted £45.00.
Special Ops
With a fantastic campaign, it’s a shame the multiplayer is such a let down. However the Spec Ops saves the online experience from being completely dire. With a choice of mission scenarios, and a new Survival mode it’s a fantastic addition to the game. In the new Survival mode you’re up against enemies that are fast, smart, and increasingly difficult to beat. You can take part in the missions individually, in an online co-op or on split-screen. The action is much more intense and exciting than the previous installment. Unfortunately I haven’t spent a lot of time playing the Spec Ops mode, but from what I’ve already played, I can already tell I’ll be playing it numerous times. This mode provides a very enjoyable experience, especially when paired with a reliable partner, and to be successful, communication is essential!
What are your thoughts on the campaign, multiplayer and game as a whole? Does it live up to your expectations? What are your views on the franchise as a whole?
Modern Warfare 3 is currently widely available from Comet.co.uk (£44.99), TheHut.com (£42.95), Gamestation (39.99), Blockbuster.co.uk (£39.99), Best Buy UK (£39.49), Toys R Us (£38.89), Base.com (£36.99), Play.com (£35.99), Tesco Entertainment (£34.99), Sainsbury’s Entertainment (£34.99), Amazon.co.uk (£34.91), HMV (£34.91), Zavvi (£34.85), eBay.co.uk (from £34.95 at time of publishing).
Zoë Ainscough is a musician, drummer and lover of Iron Maiden. A PS3 gamer, her favourite games are Uncharted, Tekken, and the Call of Duty games. She is based in Liverpool, has interests in gaming, music and football and Tweets regularly at @ZoeeA.
1:23 pm 12th November, 2011
Excellent review, concise and informative without giving anything away. It’s certainly ensured I’ll be buying the game – for the campaign.
2:39 pm 12th November, 2011
I think the multiplayer is great… I’m not the best player in the world and found it frustrating that I had to stick to killstreaks under the 10 kill mark to ensure any rewards (which meant I missed out on some of the more hardcore/impressive killstreaks)… With the point streak system I feel comfortable going for the escort airdrop etc (I don’t always get them before the game ends, but hell, I stand a good chance) and it feels good knowing I’m helping the team out along the way with my recon drone and advanced UAV (or whatever).
So to summarise, I love (most) the maps and the knew point streak system (it gives ‘noobs’ like me that can’t get a 28-3 every game a fighting chance without getting owned by AC-130′s and then totally wiped out by a Nuke just as we’re getting on a roll.
7:32 pm 12th November, 2011
Great review, couldn’t agree more.
Having been a follower of the Call Of Duty franchise since Finest Hour, the Campaign mode goes from strength to strength, and Modern Warfare 3 is no exception. Unfortunately, the Multiplayer hasn’t changed at all.
Once again, great review, and it’s also good to hear from a female gamer.
3:10 pm 12th November, 2011
Great read, well written article actually! I have an alternative point of view though.
First off, I want to point out that I don’t own the game myself, I’ve only seen the game being played through at a friend’s house, so take what I say with a grain of salt here. I could by all accounts be wrong with everything here.
Okay, Modern Warfare 3. An “Impressive, movie-like” campaign. A “Michael Bay blockbuster”. Wow. As a guy who has studied the film industry for some years and has grown up playing and enjoying games alongside that, seeing parallels drawn like that between the two industries brings up a few thoughts.
The first one is, why is a Michael Bay experience a good one? I watched someone playing the campaign from the start and from the very first level it was exactly as I expected. Explosions, military jargon and things flying around everywhere. It’s “explosive” for sure, but is that really impressive or immersive at all? To say the military shooter hasn’t been done to death this generation would be an understatement. So as things get more and more heated with each instalment as studios try to outdo each other, there’s only one way you can predict it’s going to go. Things are going to be ramped up with more and more explosions, shock tactics and nonsensical action. If you’re in to that, then all the more power to you.
But I’ve seen this trend done to death by American filmmakers, Michael Bay included, who is a particular offender in that his films are basically cut really fast like music videos and feature “explosive” action & stories so paper-thin that they could be blown away by the wind at any second. This formula for creating film is a far cry from the basic fundamentals of storytelling, which is what film is, or rather is supposed to be; an art form and a means of storytelling. I steer well clear from Michael Bay films because of that, so I don’t see why it is any more acceptable for a game studio to forgo any creativity and instead rely mostly on action-packed explosive scenarios. This isn’t just MW3, it’s an issue I have with the genre and you could even say industry as a whole! It’s something that really bugs me these days and I’m finding that fewer games excite me because of it. Perhaps I’m just reading too far in to it but again, if it’s the kind of thing you’re in to and you enjoyed playing it, then that’s great. I’m not going to try and take away from that.
The multiplayer might be different this time around, but perhaps the fact that the groundwork and most of the features are the same as MW2 justifies going with a pointstreak system instead of killstreak? If the two are really so similar, then it shouldn’t pain people too much to go back to MW2 and play on that system which will have the veteran players and along with them, the better competition. I’m not a big multiplayer guy to be honest, so I’m always underwhelmed by these components of most games. Because of that, I can’t really comment too much on this, but in a nutshell, MW3′s multiplayer to me just looks like a slight refinement of MW2′s multiplayer.
Something else regarding the single player that bugged me with MW2 and is now bugging me with MW3 is that it’s not very good value for money. Taking in to account my points earlier, why would I (or anyone for that matter) want to buy a game of this nature that only lasts 4-5 hours? Sure there’s extended playtime if you play it through on various difficulties, but is it worth experiencing twice? Is the impact lessened because you already know what’s coming? I wasn’t impressed the first time around so I probably wouldn’t play it a second time. Honestly. I went in to this thing with low expectations, I don’t particularly care for the series as much I do the impact and influence it’s having on this industry, which is in my mind no doubt a negative one. Yet it was exactly as I pictured it being and I was left underwhelmed.
What doesn’t help the series is that it’s a product of Activison, a company that runs on zero innovation and focuses on milking everything for what it’s worth (which I suspect COD is it’s next target for) as well as dirty money saving tactics (the firing of West and Zampella) and is run by a man who could be described as no less than the George Lucas of the games industry, a tyrant who upon entering the industry, made it his goal to “take the fun out of making video games”. It’s not a very good image for the series, but again I’m probably reading too much in to this.
I could go on about a few other topics, but I risk sounding even more convoluted than I already do, so I’ll leave it there. Great article, thought provoking and gives perspective. I can only hope my comments are the same.
P.S. If I do ever wind up buying MW3, it’ll be pre-owned. I don’t buy pre-owned games, ever, but it’s my way of systematically bringing down companies I don’t like when I do, in this case, the target of my disdain being Activison.
11:41 am 12th November, 2011
Sweet… I just hope they fix up the multiplayer with updates/patches!
Great job Zoe! Thanks!
10:44 pm 12th November, 2011
I think u forgot those fkn damned awful UAV’s on Assault, they should have kept them to Support only, that’s why MW3 is campers paradise, also everybody using anti-detection stuff makes Missiles and other stuff pretty much useless cause there is no way to target ppl.
11:25 am 12th November, 2011
still a bit glitchy, and why am i still being spawned on top of granades or next to cars that are about to blow up?