Comments

Editor’s Note: Activision provided a PS5 review copy of Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 to IGN India for this review.

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 is supposed to be the latest and greatest that Activision has to offer to gamers, especially long-term CoD fans. However, after completing the campaign, only the part that it is the latest title holds true from the statement. I played the game on the PlayStation 5 without any graphics customisations.

While the game ran a smooth 60 fps for my entire playthrough, things were not perfect as things got a bit choppy while transitioning between cutscenes and gameplay. The issues were not just limited to occasional choppiness during the gameplay as problems started arising during the installation of the game. This isn't a good look for a AAA game from one of the most notable video game developer and publisher. Let's check all the details in my complete review of the Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 here.

Initial Hiccups

The first issue was getting into the game, as downloading the game was a harrowing experience. Modern Warfare 3 gives you the option to just download the Campaign if you want while leaving out the Multiplayer and Warzone modes. However, as soon as the game launches, it asks you to download Multiplayer and Warzone sections of the game too as an update.

During the download (to update) process, you can't access the Campaign mode without downloading the Multiplayer and Warzone modes. The question is, why even have the option to just download the Campaign at the start. Also, the size of the game and updates is just too much as it takes up 170GB of storage space on the PlayStation 5.

Getting into the campaign and start playing the game was also problematic as the game kept updating in the middle while asking for several restarts. This left a sour taste in my mouth even before I started playing the game.

Action-packed yet Dull Story

Once I got the game running, I found the action-packed start of the campaign, interesting. However, the only new thing gameplaywise was the ascenders, which really isn’t much. If you have played the game, then seeing Task Force 141 back together was a great moment. The game also used characters that were already established in the series along with a continuation of the storyline that included events of the previous title (Modern Warfare 2) as well as their free-to-play offering Warzone. While it is good for Call of Duty fans, it made getting into the story of the franchise, confusing and difficult for a new player.

Overall, the characters were great including the members of Task Force 141, John "Soap" MacTavish, John Price, Gary "Roach" Sanderson. Johnny "Soap" MacTavish, Farah Karim, Kyle "Gas" Garrick, and Simon "Ghost" Riley had some great dialogues, and voice acting. The villain, Vladimir Makarov has been pretty well established as a villain in the franchise. He is both smart and cunning and has no morals. These qualities make him the perfect kind of crazy you expect for a game like this. During the course of the story, he is bombing and causing chaos everywhere at his whim and fancy. It was great to see him return to the franchise as the villain.

The story of the game had a great outline, but Activision should have done a better job to present it to the players. During my gameplay, the story did not feel as interesting to follow and I felt that there was something missing to make it more engaging. Some sequences and conversations were a bit boring and did not add any value to the story. Besides this, I think the length of the campaign was too small to be called a full-fledged Call of Duty campaign. Even after spending my time exploring the maps, the 14 campaign missions went by too fast. The story did have its moments though, like the Flight sequence was great, but there weren’t enough moments to make the experience memorable.

Stellar Gameplay, But Could Do More with Open Combat Missions

Open Combat Missions or OCMs are a nice addition as you are doing more than just following the linear path in the story. You tend to explore more in order to find better weapons, armaments, and more to be more lethal or stealthy. However, this intrigue only lasts for some time and the more you play, the more you feel like you are running around the map as a headless chicken. Some kind of side goals or objectives would have helped make OCMs better.

The game has advertised OCMs as a way to increase replayability as players can change their loadouts with the weapons and armaments they found in previous runs and approach the situation differently. However, you can still find all those weapons in a single run and try them all. The game doesn’t really compel you to play the missions again unless you want to beat it at a higher difficulty.

Gameplay of the game did not have much new elements to offer besides ascenders, armaments, and a few other things. However, these didn’t really add to the experience of Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3. The feeling and mechanics of shooting were excellent with great feedback, but they had that down to the T years ago. While the music score, sound effects, and graphics were top-notch, they didn’t give me the feeling of playing a new game. It just felt like a new story taking place in an existing Call of Duty title.

The combat and controls were pretty responsive as I was able to pull off aggressive sliding plays, stealth plays, and a mix of both without any hiccups. The variety of weapons was nice as the game offered unique experiences with each weapon and weapon type.

Performance of Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3

Performance was consistent during my playthrough with no frame drops other than the choppiness when transitioning between gameplay and cutscenes that I mentioned above. It is likely because the cutscenes were playing at a lesser frame rate than the game.

Value for Money

The game comes in at INR 5,599 for each platform including PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC with no regional pricing in India. Cutting to the chase, if your aim to buy the game is to play the campaign, then the title is not at all worth the price. For the price, players will only receive roughly 6-8 hours of campaign gameplay which includes a subpar story with hardly any innovation. I understand that most players would buy the game only for the multiplayer portion, but the developers ask for the full premium price to include the campaign as well. I don't think Activision has done justice to their campaign mode this time around to ask for this price tag.

The Verdict

Modern Warfare 3’s campaign commits the biggest sin possible for a globe-trotting action thriller: it's boring. What had the promise to be an intriguingly spun web of mystery instead ends up being a dusty cobweb you'd find at the back of your shed, clinging onto 15-year-old garden toys you once had fun with. It's a pale imitation of the past, made up of underbaked story moments that clash with attempts to introduce new open combat missions designed to encourage player freedom that instead fall flat on their face. Yes, the gunplay is still great and the graphics and sound design are top-tier, but I couldn't help but feel I was playing a shinier, less subtle version of something I've played too many times before. If this is the quality we've come to expect from Call of Duty campaigns, maybe it's for the best if a year or two is taken to reset and raise this low bar back to the heights of old.