Review: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
By: Jeff Rivera
Note: We delayed the review of this title for nearly a month in order to give the game plenty of opportunity to prove itself with the multiplayer side of things and to allow for the online servers to stabilize before trying to pass judgement on the game. We realize that timely reviews are important, but it's also important to fairly evaluate the game's online play in a stable environment.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare was been the biggest franchise this generation. When Call of Duty 3 failed to impress, Infinity Ward decided that it was time to take the Call of Duty formula and modernize its setting. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare spawned a new line of Call of Duty games and Infinity Ward created a new series that would set sales records on consoles reinvigorate the Call of Duty name. Modern Warfare 2 pushed the series to even greater heights, but some new additions in the multiplayer caused some mixed reactions. Between Modern Warfare 2 and Modern Warfare 3, turmoil at Infinity Ward caused some serious disruption to development, but Sledgehammer Games stepped in to help the remaining members of Infinity Ward wrap up development. It was a crazy ride leading up to the release of Modern Warfare 3. So did Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer games strike gold for the Modern Warfare franchise once more, or are the cracks starting to show?
Online shooters are always interesting to review. You have a single player component that is generally an important part of the experience, but ultimately it's the multiplayer that receives the bulk of attention. Modern Warfare 3 offers up a single player experience that is best likened to an amusement park ride. There's a definite rush you feel as you plow through it, and you may feel like turning around and going through it again, but it doesn't take too long before you've had your fill and are ready to move on. And just like any amusement park ride, few games are going to offer up as many thrills and wow-inducing moments. The single player campaign is full of huge explosions, memorable set pieces, and sequences that seem bigger than just about anything you could have dreamed up. The storyline is still a bit of a self-indulgent mess, but rarely do you play through a shooter for a deep or compelling narrative. Infinity Ward did provide a satisfying conclusion to the Modern Warfare story arc, however.
Graphically, the game still looks pretty good. The graphical engine is falling a bit behind the curve a bit, but the reliable 60fps framerate still looks great. Graphics aren't my main gripe with the single player though. I have bigger issues with how heavy handed the game is at forcing you along at a predetermined pace and path. It's almost as if Infinity Ward was so proud of their product that they were afraid you'd miss an explosion or a scripted event. You're never trusted to really move along at your own pace or explore your surroundings. In fact, far too often you're literally in a vehicle at a turret, removing the ability to explore entirely. Fans of the older Call of Duty games are definitely going to miss that ability to work around enemies and flank them or find alternate paths other than straight ahead into the teeth of the enemy lines. The experience feels a bit too much on rails for my liking, but I can't deny that it's still a fun experience and worth going through at least once from start to finish. Going forward, I'd love to see a return to a more open and a bit more tactical experience.
Multiplayer is really the bread and butter of the Modern Warfare franchise, and Modern Warfare 3 is no different in that regard. The basic formula is the same as in previous Modern Warfare games, but tweaks and refinements have been made in nearly all aspects. Some of these changes are really a step forward, but others work the other way. Starting with the good, the changes to the killstreak system are much appreciated. You can now choose between three types of killstreak packages. Assault killstreaks are based on calling in killstreaks that are meant for racking up big kills, such air strikes, chopper gunners, and more. As always, every time you die, your killstreak resets to zero. Support killstreaks are meant more for helping your entire team out, such as SAM turrets, ballistic vests, and care package drops. If you are choosing support killstreaks, your killstreak continues to build even between deaths. Specialist killstreak packages give you perks as you rack up kills, making you more and more effective of a killer the longer you manage to stay alive. These different killstreak packages really allow you to play to your strengths and it was one of the best additions to multiplayer.
Another nice addition to the multiplayer is the Kill Confirmed mode. Kill Confirmed is a standard deathmatch mode with a small twist. When you kill someone, they drop a pair of dog tags. In order to get the point for the kill, you have to recover the tags. Conversely, if you pick up a fallen teammate's tags, you can deny the other team's kill. This mode forces teams to work together to recover tags for each other, as well as to deny the other team from confirming their own kills. If you hate snipers that sit back and camp, this is your mode.
The matchmaking is still right up with the best in the industry. It's simple to jump into matches with friends and to manage your party. The game isn't all that great at matching you with evenly ranked players, but you have time to back out of lobbies if it's obvious that you're about to join a game with a steep disadvantage for either team. Rather than base matchmaking on skill level, it appears that priority is given to the matches that would provide the least amount of latency.
Latency. Modern Warfare 3's biggest enemy, and boy does it hit hard in multiplayer matches. Lag in Modern Warfare 3 is currently a pretty big issue. There have been a couple of patches, but the issue remains among one of the biggest complaints floating around out there. They way they've chosen to handle lag in the game is to introduce a delay in one side of the connection. The result is that you don't see jumpy gameplay, but rather you're never perfectly in sync with other connections. The difference may only be a fraction of a second, but that's devastating when it only takes that long to drop an enemy with the increased weapon power in MW3. Many, many times what you see in the kill cam differs quite a bit from what you saw on your screen, and the effect can make you absolutely furious. Countless times I've emptied entire clips of bullets into an enemy only to see them turn around, fire, and kill me. The kill cam then comes up and shows that I never even fired a bullet through my opponent's eyes. To say it's rough when you're on the wrong side is a vast understatement. At times, it makes the game not worth playing online.
As mentioned, the weapons deal damage in higher amounts than they have in the past. Some bullets are near instant kill (sniper rifles definitely are) at close and medium ranges, while the majority still easily even at long range. This change wouldn't be viewed so negatively if it weren't for the lag in the game. When guns can kill faster than the difference in the delay between two players, it introduces some problems.
Another problem with the game is that the current selection of maps is bad. There's no way to talk around it, very few maps are worth much here. Nearly every mapped is cramped and offers poor visibility beyond the effective kill range. There's almost no safe areas to catch your breath and snipers are reduced to running around quickscoping (a very dirty word) through matches because every sniping position is accessible through three or more entrances. You're constantly getting shot in the back, there's always a couple of guys in your face. Spawn locations have been improved via patching, but you're still often spawning right into gunfire. The game is desperately in need of some larger and more open maps, and hopefully the first set of DLC can provide just that. As it stands now, the game is way too easily dominated by akimbo machine pistol users who abuse the tight maps by spraying bullets everywhere.
There's some work to do with the multiplayer, but Infinity Ward has been vocal and communicative with fans so far in their promises to improve on match lag and weapon balance. If Infinity Ward can indeed improve on these aspects, new maps could dramatically improve the multiplayer experience in Modern Warfare 3. I don't mean to say that the multiplayer is bad, because it's certainly one of the better online experiences out there, but it feels sloppy and a bit of a step backwards from recent Call of Duty efforts. I've already sunk a day's worth of time into the game online, and I'm sure I'll drop another few into it when it's all said in done, but the frustrating moments are coming at too high of a ratio at the moment to keep me from feeling a little let down.
As it stands, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is a good game. The single player mode is a fun ride, but it lacks some tactical depth and freedom to make it shine. Good for a day or two, you'll find it somewhat disposable in the end and find that the multiplayer is the make or break mode for you. If you're willing to deal with the lag issues and can enjoy the action despite the unbalanced weapons, Modern Warfare 3 is going to steal days of your time from you. And while the game may improve over time with patches and updates, it just feels that in its third iteration that the Modern Warfare franchise should be more balanced and refined than it is at this point in time. It’s almost as if Infinity Ward was too stubborn to modify their existing conventions too much or possibly they are simply playing it too safe. Either way, a bit more effort could have gone a long way.
3 Stars out of 5
