Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Review

GamesRadar

Among Call of Duty's two-decade history, Modern Warfare 3 stands out as a notably underwhelming entry. The lackluster campaign fails to divert attention from the exhausted multiplayer formula. Dated maps from a decade ago, convoluted progression, and poorly executed alterations to mobility and gunplay contribute to MW3's struggle in establishing a distinctive identity.

Transcript

00:00So, Modern Warfare 3 is here and in our review of the campaign it was underwhelming and I

00:11think that's a sentiment shared with most of the people that have been reviewing it.

00:14Josh has been reviewing the much larger multiplayer.

00:18Is the multiplayer just as underwhelming as the campaign has been for people?

00:22Yeah, I think the multiplayer has proven to be somewhat underwhelming.

00:28It's sort of undone all of the stuff that the Modern Warfare, the two rebooted games

00:32were trying to do.

00:33They've tried to sort of walk back into this slightly faster, slightly twitchier style

00:40of play that is maybe more nostalgia driven.

00:44Yeah, because one of the lines from your review is stuck paying deference to a past that it

00:50seems to barely understand.

00:51They've tried a couple of different things.

00:53For starters, all of the weapons, attachments, skins from last year's Modern Warfare 2 have

00:59carried forward.

01:00It's not something the series has ever really tried before.

01:03The maps are basically a remastered set of the original Modern Warfare 2 maps from 2009.

01:10You know, if you're like me and have been playing since the beginning and wasted a lot

01:14of time when you should have been studying at university to be playing 2009's Modern

01:19Warfare 2, it all feels very familiar.

01:21Not in a necessarily in a good way, like I know a lot of people have a lot of fond

01:25memories of some of those maps, but it doesn't really work as a 20th anniversary celebration

01:30to me.

01:31I don't want to say it feels rust because I know how tricky development is, particularly

01:36in this environment, but just something doesn't feel right with it.

01:40It's not to the sort of level of polish, attention to detail that really defined particularly

01:45the last couple of years of games where, you know, fine, you might not have liked what

01:49Black Ops Cold War was shooting for, you might not have liked some of the ideas that

01:54Vanguard had, but I think they were all to a pretty high quality level.

01:58Now Microsoft is, you know, in a position to leverage some amount of creative control

02:03over the franchise, whether it needs to take a break, like it's just a year off for the

02:09studios to get realigned, caught back up because it's been a bit of a, particularly since the

02:15pandemic, it's been a bit all over the place.

02:18Whereas, you know, Vanguard, Black Ops Cold War, the studio seemed to struggle a little

02:22bit with keeping up with the schedules.

02:25I think that's evident here as well.

02:27So personally, from here, I would quite like to see them just step back, take a break.

02:35Like some of the maps are basically re-skinned, they're exactly the same.

02:38You can climb in the same place you can climb and you can't climb in the same place you

02:41can't climb.

02:42The kill spots and the choke zones are exactly the same.

02:45The weapons are again, very old.

02:47There's an element where like, we're not saying that they haven't worked really hard

02:50on it, but to a certain extent, they haven't like iterated on the maps and gone, oh, I

02:54love this map.

02:55Oh, they've added a new section.

02:56I wonder how that flips the dynamic.

02:58The guns are very similar.

03:00And again, like you said, there's an element where with each studio, you didn't necessarily

03:02like, you didn't necessarily like what they were doing.

03:04But COD fans did have like, oh, I like the sledgehammer games.

03:08I'll play all of the CODs, but everybody had their studio that they liked.

03:12And this doesn't feel like an identity.

03:14It feels like a patchwork of other stuff.

03:18Those maps were designed for a different type of COD, like Modern Warfare 2 2009 plays very

03:25differently to Modern Warfare, definitely Modern Warfare 2 2022, and still differently

03:31to Modern Warfare 3 2023, even though there may be a bit more thematically similar.

03:37But for example, Rust Terminal and let's say Skid Row, fun, tight maps with tight corners.

03:44The problem is the meta is very different.

03:46So we've got these really, there's 32 new guns.

03:49They're really over-torqued, super powerful to try and help them rise above the MW2 guns

03:54that have been brought forward.

03:55They're really snappy.

03:56They're really fast.

03:57It just, it can create quite messy engagements.

04:00And then if you think about some of the larger maps, Afghan Wasteland in particular, sniper

04:07rifles are back in a big way in MW3 and, you know, they are destructive.

04:12They're pretty easy to wield.

04:14And if you get a shot torso up, it's a one shot.

04:16So these kind of longer sight lines basically create just absolute killing fields.

04:23There was kind of that aspect originally back in 2009, but it's just really pronounced here.

04:27Like I would have personally, I would have preferred, what is that 13 years, 14 years

04:33of learnings and thinking about these maps say, what would we have applied with foresight?

04:38Now we've had all of like a decade of learning of innovating in this shooter space.

04:45Like everyone loves these, or they think everyone loves these maps.

04:48What would we have done differently?

04:50Let's try.

04:51And I think that's really obvious on places like High Rise, where you can still get into

04:55these like absurd positions that kind of, you know, allow you sort of total dominance

05:00over the axis of play.

05:02And it just feels really, it just feels pretty bad.

05:05And especially when you consider player visibility is quite low on the maps, like it's quite

05:10difficult to pick out enemies.

05:12It's also quite difficult to pick out friendly.

05:14So you get this like constant chatter of your character being like, Hey, I'm a friendly,

05:19don't shoot.

05:20And it's like, people just can't work out who's who.

05:22The thing is, it's created this like meta where you're actually probably better off

05:26just laying prone in a corner in a dark skin and just shooting anyone who's stupid enough

05:31to be trying to slide cancel around corners because it's just so difficult to pick anything

05:37out.

05:38And so the game is these like wild swings.

05:41I think I said in my review, like I'm going from, you know, a game on Afghan, I'm getting

05:46like 63 kills and like 16 deaths or something like absolute pure domination that makes me

05:52feel like king of the world.

05:54And then the next game, like I'm barely able to get a kill.

05:57Like, it's just like people running around, like quick scoping me with sniper rifles.

06:01It's just like there's no balance, there's no consistency whatsoever.

06:06So I'm just like bouncing games again.

06:08And after that game, I'm in another lobby where suddenly I'm like spreading 40 kills.

06:12There's just no like, yeah, there's no challenge.

06:14And so it creates this really weird feeling.

06:18There is on the one hand, no challenge because it is wildly different on what you have.

06:23And then on the other hand, there is no reward because a lot of the stuff is stuff you've

06:27already seen.

06:28And due to the messy progression system and customization system that they still haven't

06:31updated, you're like, well, what's the point in grinding towards something or this just

06:35feels pointless.

06:36So it's like, I love COD games.

06:38This one gives me no challenge and no reward.

06:41Maybe this isn't the best use of my money.

06:44It's really unfortunate.

06:45Let's say you've turned away from Warzone.

06:49The new map isn't here yet, but let's say that drops soon and it's still not getting

06:54you back to the gory days of Verdansk, right?

06:57And you just want a first person shooter to run around with, with your friends.

07:03Kind of fast, kind of snappy.

07:07It works for that, right?

07:08Like there's not a lot of traditional first person shooters left.

07:12It's just not all that compelling beyond that.

07:16There's nothing below the surface.

07:18It's all what you see is what you get.

07:21It's pretty much like a stopgap installment and the same goes for the campaign and zombies.

07:26The best way to think about campaign for COD has always been, it's a basically equivalent

07:32of the Bond movies for video games, like big set pieces, round the world, exotic locations,

07:38lots of fun, pretty throwaway, but lots of fun.

07:41Zombies, co-op carnage that has these really compulsive rhythms, that's now been transformed

07:46into this sort of weird extraction shooter model that's kind of picked up where DMZ left

07:53off for Warzone.

07:55And it's just as a package, it doesn't feel quite right.

08:00And you know, there are reports that the whole thing has come together effectively in 12

08:05months.

08:06Obviously, you know, GamesRadar has not been able to independently verify those, but it

08:11certainly feels like something that's come together pretty damn quickly.

08:15So yeah, I think this leaves Call of Duty in a pretty curious position and I hate to

08:21say that because it's my Sunday game.

08:26It's the game that I wake up tired on a Sunday morning, dreading going to work on Monday

08:30and I'm like, I'm going to sit here, I'm going to put some music on and I'm going to play

08:33Call of Duty for like 12 hours.

08:35And I've been doing that for decades.

08:39I love it.

08:40And for this one, I just really don't see me necessarily doing that and that is a shame.

08:44So I'm guessing from everything you've said, you're not going to be giving Call of Duty

08:48Modern Warfare 3 as a package, a high score out of 5.

08:52For me, it comes down to a 2 out of 5 and that is reflective of the fact that while

08:58it is technically proficient, visually quite evocative, it looks good, you know, I haven't

09:04had any real issues in terms of performance.

09:07So like I said, I think if you're looking for something fun to play or something to

09:12play with friends and have some fun for a couple of hours, it's absolutely serviceable.

09:18And let's be frank, there aren't a great deal of alternatives out there that really satisfy

09:24that right now.

09:25However, I don't see this being something that is played over the long haul and I think

09:31if you have any experience with Modern Warfare 2, any experience with Modern Warfare 2 2009,

09:38it's going to feel exceptionally familiar and I just don't see it having the span that

09:44other games have.

09:45It has a real attention deficit issue.

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