Modern Warfare 3 - Review
Wednesday 30th November 2011
I'll not lie I've been a huge fan of the Call of Duty series since first playing COD4 down at my local LAN gaming centre PONG. However it wasn't until months later that I discovered that it wasn't simply a game that deserved merit for its multiplayer with me and a mate sitting down to play the campaign of that first Modern Warfare. Taking turns on his PS3, we finished it that day and it was a truly engrossing game.
The characters were likeable and the plot well presented and when I later got myself a PS3 the first thing I did was re-play that groundbreaking campaign. I tell you this because I want to make it clear that I bought the final instalment in this Modern Warfare trilogy primarily for the single-player which may be a shock to most. Did it match up to the impact of the trilogy's starting point? Truthfully no it didn't but it sure as hell provided a suitably brilliant piece of closure to a story that has developed over the past 4 years or so. The developers have a keen knack for storytelling that takes what could easily be a slightly controllable lightgun game to being a visceral, breathless experience. The plot is also more coherent than its direct predecessor which is a bonus.
The campaign is NOT however the only aspect to the game with the ever-popular Multiplayer returning with a few serious balance improvements, a re-jigged 'streak-reward' system that allows for players of various play-styles to benefit rather than the few as well as the expected introduction of new weapons, modes, maps, perks, upgrades, titles, emblems and all the customisation you could want from the series that pioneered RPG-lite elements in online FPS games.
The other 'pillar' to the game is the Spec-ops co-op mode which is a vastly improved version of the same 2 man mode that was introduced in MW2 and is now bolstered by a hugely enjoyable "wave mode" called Survival.
(I haven't got to play much of MP or co-op yet so I'll update this when I've delved deeper)