Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 – Review – Xbox 360

For the past decade Activision has had a game series that has become the company’s bread winner. The series I’m referring to is Call of Duty. The series has been known to sell in excess of $1 Billon Dollars and has broken almost every sales record to date. They have recently released a new addition to the series called Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. Modern Warfare 3 as you can guess is the successor to Modern Warfare 1 and 2. The story continues right where Modern Warfare 2 left off. The reason for the attraction to this game is the Multiplayer. Millions of people sign on daily to play the game alone and with their friends. As a matter of fact people still swarm the games released in the past and still remain to be the most played game on their respective consoles. There has yet to be a game that usurps their reign and it doesn’t look like that will change anytime soon.

As most fans have already picked up the game and they are playing it to their hearts content. To be honest if you haven’t played Modern Warfare 3 yet but have played the games in the past you will not be disappointed. The formula that makes this franchise great is there in full force and is pretty much unaltered from the games of the past. Keeping the design the same as past versions can be great for some games but it can be the death of others. So the real question is, is it worth it to buy the new version when you have a perfectly good copy of the older games?

Story: The story itself is rather simple, Soap is injured and Makarov is still up to no good. Simply put your goal is to stop Makarov at any cost, while tracking him down from country to country gaining Intel and new leads. You gain insight into his depraved mind little by little and you witness firsthand the destructive power he has gained. You will witness death and destruction wherever he has an influence. The story is quite long and is very satisfying but truth be told the real meat of this game is the multiplayer.

Gameplay: The gameplay is pretty much exactly like games released in the past. It’s your basic first person shooter. They added minor things here and there to improve the gameplay but nothing really sets it apart from the games of the past. This really isn’t a bad thing. The old adage don’t fix something that isn’t broken defiantly applies here.

Graphics/Sound: This game really looks and sounds awesome. The environments look and sound amazing and you defiantly feel as if you are as close to an intense battle as you can virtually get. The weapons, enemies, and environment sound so lifelike that you truly become immersed in the game. This game really gets an A+ for detail.

Multiplayer: As with most games the meat is single player and the multiplayer the potatoes. In this game you really get two sides of Grade A beef. Building upon the already great multiplayer experience people had with Modern Warfare 2 and Black Ops this game really soars above them. The game plays exactly like the games of the past but adds a few things to enhance the multiplayer experience. One of these things is the kill streak system. They built a system for the casual gamer and the hardcore gamer. You can now select a kill streak package that doesn’t end your streak when you die. This kill streak package is called oddly enough just “Support” while the regular kill streak package is called “Assault”. The only difference between these two packages is the kill streaks themselves and the manner in which you earn them. The Support class feels like it was made with the casual player in mind. Using the support class allows you to help your team with kill streaks that assist them like a UAV, EMP, and Ballistic vests. The assault package on the other hand assaults the other team with various ways to kill them; these include airstrikes, attack helicopters, and a deadly AC-130 that rains destruction upon them. There is one other Kill streak package that you can use called “Specialist”. The Specialist package doesn’t give you tools of destruction rather it give you perks for your character including the ability to run further without stopping. The Specialist package in my opinion is reserved for the extreme hardcore player.

The rest of the game is pretty much unaltered. There were a few tweaks done with the weapons and attachments but overall the feels just like MW2 and Black Ops. One of the major positive changes is how many maps are included from the get go. There are 16 maps to play on so you never get bored by playing one map over and over again. One other new addition to the series is a service called Call of Duty Elite. COD Elite allows you to compete with other players and you can even start a clan. You can join COD Elite for free or you can pay a subscription fee to gain access to a few more modes and automatically gain access to all the dlc released for one year. Everything released during your subscription remains yours even after your subscription ends, which is always a bonus. Elite is a really nice inclusion to an already great game and I think it really adds even more replay ability to the game.

Overall: Activision didn’t slip up on this one, in fact they really excelled. It plays great and is really fun. It even becomes more fun when you can play with friends. There are enough changes in the game to warrant a purchase and to be honest I wouldn’t be surprised if you haven’t already picked it up. Activision really hit the mark with this one. If you haven’t purchased the game yet, what are you waiting for?

Score: 9 out of 10

A copy of this game was provided to the reviewer from the publisher for reviewing purposes.

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