Console: Xbox 360
Date Released: November 8th 2011
Date Reviewed: January 10th 2012
Reviewer: Thomas
Pros: *Call of Duty returns with more play modes, more action and of course Multiplayer *60 frames of animation for smooth fast graphics *Survival mode where you and a friend can take on endless soldiers *New balancing issues addressed in Multiplayer, no more diving to prone Cons: *Use of the modern warfare 2 engine is beginning to show its age *Spawning in MP needs to be overhauled *Hit detection is spotty at times *Campaign is short and multiplayer while excellent, doesn’t appear to have changed much from Modern Warfare 2 As a new player to CODMW3 if you have read my recent entry which discusses my perspective on Battlefield 3 and modern warfare 3 I decided to review Modern Warfare 3. Although this game has been reviewed many times on other sites I will get into some things they didn’t cover on to the review. Presentation : B Graphics / Animation / Sound The graphics engine being used in Modern Warfare 3 is the same one that was used for Modern Warfare 2. so to be honest after looking at videos of the two very little is changed in that department. Yes it looks good but is starting to show some age, the textures while nice just simply isn’t up to par with many of the newer titles on the Xbox 360. While the game runs at 60 frames, the actual soldiers and other actions are not that highly animated. But again if it were animated in a more life-like fashion such as using motion capture the frame rate would have suffered. The sound is excellent, every bullet, ricochet, explosion, perfectly captured to give the sense of realism. The music for the campaign is excellent and gives you a sense of being in a modern action movie. The voice acting is superb and again nothing cheesy at all, it was well written and well acted. Single Player : C Game mechanics / Length / difficulty You might be asking why a ‘C’? Mainly because the campaign is just one long set piece. It is a roller coaster ride with little to no downtime and playtime consisting of about 5 hours long. The single player game while fun, once again doesn’t appear to offer anything new from Modern Warfare 2’s campaign. It does however continue where the story left off but having never played through the previous entry it really didn’t seem to matter. MW3’s story is excellent and relevant to current real world events in the political and military sense, however you don’t really need to play through the MW2 to understand MW3. The game itself is fairly difficult and the AI is at times very smart, and sometimes not so much. I didn’t have much trouble dealing with it and only really got killed when I made a mistake. Multiplayer : B+ Game mechanics / features / Online features The multiplayer in the game is excellent but does have some issues which I will get into. You always feel like your progressing in the game and unlocks are frequent. The include such things like perks, call signs, emblems, weapon unlocks, strike packages, everything is done so that even if you’re not one of those players that gets high kill/death ratios you still are always gaining experience. The multiplayer is fast and re spawning is instant. In fact the second you hit the X button you are in the game. There are a huge amount of weapons and attachments to unlock not to mention the custom class allows you to create your own soldier from the ground up. One load out maybe not work and after a few tweaks it might be outstanding. This aspect of the multiplayer is one of the best things about the game. There are so many people playing Modern Warfare 3 that you can jump into any game mode at anytime of the day, morning, noon or at night and even the wee hours and you always find people playing. There are several maps to choose from. Each one is around the same size with the exception of a couple. You can also set up private matches complete with your own custom settings from no kill-streaks, limiting spawns, and much more. Again this game gives you many options when it comes to multiplayer. I feel though that there are some things that still need to be addressed. One of which is the spawning system. Many times I have been killed and then spawned right in the middle of a firefight to be killed instantly. Sometimes I have spawned in directly in front of two or more enemies, and again killed instantly by a hail of bullets. I have also had an enemy where I was camping for a moment and someone spawned in on top of my head and knifed me. I have a few moments where even I was killed and spawned in right behind the same enemy that just killed me. I am not the only one who has experienced this. Listening to in-game chat you are able to hear about it a lot from everyone playing. This simply needs to be addressed but so far, it appears that it’s not going to be. The other thing that I witnessed while playing is that one time I was five feet from an enemy and I fired three times into his back with a sniper rifle and saw three hit markers, drew blood and he still didn’t die. After this attack he simply turned and fired one time with his pistol and I was done for. A sniper rifle (or any rifle for that matter) at that range he would have been killed but this is the nature of the game. I have also fired the same weapon at someone in the multiplayer and killed them by shooting them in the leg. It doesn’t make sense to be honest and I have witnessed friends unload four rounds using a shotgun at very close range. This resulting in either them still getting killed or turn around and shoot someone, the same range and take them out. This is again another aspect of the game that should be addressed. The hit detection is off at times that is to be sure. Another thing I have noticed is that if for example you throw your knife at someone, they shoot and get the kill even though your knife did hit. Meaning if you are killed first it cancels out what you did. This happens a lot. Once again this is an issue that needs to be addressed. I have stabbed a person and saw the knife go in them, but because they shot first and the game registered it as a kill. Not to mention they didn’t even die from my knife stab. These are minor things but can cause a lot of frustration. The Call of Duty community does complain about these issues over game chat frequently. The other thing for me that should change is that claymore mines and bouncing betty mines need to stay out and active even if you are killed. They don’t and instead disappear when you are killed. Unlike grenades these two items are stationary weapons. Yes when you spawn in you wouldn’t be able to have them until they are triggered or destroyed, but it would give ample opportunity to be used. Instead you might plant one down and be killed two seconds and then its gone, meaning that it was practically useless. This is one of my gripes more than anything else. Never the less the multiplayer is well executed and fun to play. There are some of the prestige players out there that have a tendency to camp, run around the maps and spawn points killing everything. This gives you very little chance and still others out there seem to be faster, shoot faster, run faster, and seem unkillable. Not to mention players no scope, noob tube, and also drop shoot. Then there is my personal favorite, some one ‘Mario jumping’ around so you can’t hit them. This doesn’t make you a good player your only exploiting the games mechanics in order to win. I have personally seen a guy get over 40 kills and not die the whole match. No one could kill him. Replay Value : A Lasting appeal / Bonus Content / DLC The multiplayer alone gives a tremendous amount of replay value. There of course will be much DLC and its already on the way. There will be map packs, new game modes and other tweaks as the game continues it’s life cycle. Over the next nine months you will see a lot of DLC. It is a shame that the campaign wasn’t longer but still gives a solid experience but really, almost everybody is focused on the multiplayer. Overall : B+