COD MW3 Review

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
by Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer Games et al
For PC, PS3, X-Box 360 and Wii

★★★☆☆

"Could've been better"

We're back in the fight! It's World War III and you're playing as many different characters during this troubled times where one man's madness may spell the end of humanity. Ladies and gentlemen, we are at the verge of a nuclear Armageddon. Check out the trailer.

I bought this game for its campaign. This is the third and hopefully the last installment in the Modern Warfare series because great stories cannot be elongated into 6-8 books or expansion packs. This is the most anticipated First Person Shooter (FPS) of the year along with Battlefield 3.

MW3 continued where the story left in MW2. Here's a summary of the storyline since MW1 (SPOILER ALERT, or skip and scroll further downwards until End of Spoiler):
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SPOILER STARTS

Modern Warfare 1:

'The Coup': Uprising is trending in north Africa and the Middle East right now...

An uprising in an unnamed Middle Eastern country saw a violent coup d'état that overthrew its president. The coup leader Khalid Al-Asad threatened the world with nuclear weapons. The United States of America intervened by invading the said country. However on the verge of defeat the nuclear device was detonated, causing a catastrophic nuclear explosion that devastated the country and the US forces.

Intelligence report showed that the Russian Ultra-nationalist party had supplied the weapons to Al-Asad. SAS and Force Reconnaissance operatives were dispatched to hunt down the supplier Imran Zakhaev, the party's leader, who wanted to restore Russia to its former Soviet glory days with him as the head. However his idea caused a civil war between the Ultra-nationalists and fellow Russians loyal to the current government.

Zakhaev eventually launched nuclear missiles towards the East Coast of the United States. But the SAS and Force Recon operatives managed to disarm all the nuclear warheads before impact. Zakhaev was killed in the end by the remaining operatives.

Modern Warfare 2:

'No Russian': The terrorist massacre that started the Russo-American War. WARNING: The content may be disturbing.

An airport massacre in Russia caused a global outrage. The terrorists, suspected to be Americans, led to Russia declaring war against the United States.

The Russo-American War began and military intelligence suggested the terrorist was Vladimir Makarov who was also an Ultra-nationalist party member. He is a mad men hell-bent on making Russia take over the whole Europe and weakening the US.

Special operatives were dispatched to hunt down Makarov which led to the discovery of the person who helped made the Russian invasion possible; a US General Shepherd who lost his soldiers in the same nuclear blast in the unnamed Middle Eastern country years ago. He wanted to be seen as a hero, be given all the military resources and take down Makarov himself. General Shepherd was killed in the end.

Modern Warfare 3:

'Turbulence': One of my favourite mission, the kidnapping of the Russian President Inception style...

The Russian invasion of USA was in full swing and the US army was on the defensive. Meanwhile in Europe chemical terror attacks occurred in major cities like Paris, Hamburg and London followed by a full-scale invasion of the Russian forces in the said cities. It's WWIII.

The hunt for Makarov was still on and operatives searched from Africa to Europe to gain intel on his whereabouts. The President of Russia sought peace with USA but was kidnapped by Makarov to extract nuclear launch codes from him. The President was rescued and eventually Makarov was killed.

END OF SPOILER

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That's it. In a Tom Clancy-ish style of warfare fiction, I played it for the campaign and the multiplayer as an added bonus. Sadly, MW3's story was really WTF. I could not link some of the plots together. For example since Makarov was a terrorist, how on Earth did he muster a company of well-trained soldiers WITH attack helicopters to attack our protagonists hiding in India? Why was he seen working with the Russian army? Why we needed to fight all the way down a mine only to be assisted by our attack helicopters in the end, couldn't we just flown down there instead?

MW3 campaign is full of loopholes and weak plots. I felt it was made just for the Hollywood effects. Build the beautiful and detailed maps first, then find out how to relate them all with the story line. After the epic climax build up to MW2 I was served with an anti-climatic ending. What a real disappointment.

Apart from that the graphics are the same but there are some small changes to the multiplayer. The moment I finished the campaign I tried out the Special Ops (nothing exciting) and then the Multiplayer. The match-making needs some tweaking. I mean, my first 3 matches of Free-for-All and Confirmed Kill mode I was pit against Level 50-70 players. I was the only one at Level 1. These Level 50-70 players don't treat noobs so easily. I like to be a sniper in any FPS but sadly MW3 offered little sniping point, or maybe I hadn't found one yet. It's basically a frantic laser-tag style of gauntlet where everyone consistently run around blasting at other players on impulse. Oh did I mentioned the AC-130 gun support that basically obliterates all the players on the map? Apparently you can't outrun the gunship's cannons.

Then I turned off the system and called it a day.

In conclusion, COD: MW3 was okay, but could've ended more epicly. I guess it could be something to do with the company firing the people behind MW1 and MW2, Zampella and West. Apart from that it's an okay game and fun nonetheless.