Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (CoD: MW3) (not to be confused with the original 2011 entry) has understandably faced lots of criticism since it launched on November 10.
Reportedly developed in only 16 months because Activision wouldn’t accept missing a premium release in 2023, the massive franchise’s latest feels half-baked and cobbled together from spare parts, hardly what most players want out of gaming’s biggest FPS series. However, despite the poor reviews, it’s been selling like hotcakes as usual, and I myself am part of the problem.
To be honest, I wasn’t planning on buying it earlier this year. But things changed as my writing collaborations here and elsewhere started blowing up, and the new MW3 started looking like one of the year’s safest money-makers for gaming writers. Like it or not, Call of Duty drives absurd amounts of online traffic to video game websites, and it’s only gotten better (or worse?) ever since the series started embracing a modern season-based model for the post-launch content and major updates.
Roughly one month later, I’ve been genuinely enjoying my time with MW3, at least when it comes to the core multiplayer experience. The campaign was short and quite disappointing, exactly as reported (though not as terrible as some reviewers made it seem), and MW3 Zombies isn’t much more exciting despite the mode’s usefulness to counter the truly awful “armory unlocks” element of the MP progression system.
Thankfully, Sledgehammer Games and all the support studios nailed what most diehard CoD players buy the yearly releases for: the traditional competitive multiplayer. It just works. You know what you’re getting. And this iteration of the Modern Warfare sub-franchise recovered some of the lost magic in recent times by returning to its past. It’s quite the cheap move, but damn it, the nostalgia card worked… again.
After Black Ops: Cold War refreshed the other major CoD sub-franchise by returning to its roots in 2020, it became very clear that Activision’s new “get out of jail” card was to simply invoke the spirit of the series’ golden era if things were looking rough and the actually new games weren’t landing as well as they hoped for. The Modern Warfare reboot was a huge hit back in 2019, and Cold War nullified the damage done by Black Ops 4 (arguably the franchise’s most disappointing entry) to the brand. Following the Vanguard disappointment in 2021, we were pretty much locked for several years of risk-averse installments.
While Treyarch has been granted four full years to cook the next Black Ops game, Sledgehammer got the short end of the stick and was thrown into the aforementioned rushed development of a MW2 DLC-turned-premium-release. Given the tight deadline, MW3 actually isn’t bad, and that speaks volumes about the skills and endurance of the devs working under Activision’s umbrella. But Call of Duty’s development-release cycle has been broken for years now, and we can only hope Microsoft’s acquisition changes things for the better.
Meanwhile, MW3 is doing okay beyond the sales numbers, with the core player base praising key balance adjustments and reinstated mechanics versus last year’s divisive MW2, which actually felt like a finished product worth every dollar if you were a fan, but was quite confused about its multiplayer identity. It sometimes feels like we just won’t get a well-rounded, close-to-perfect CoD entry ever again. But yeah, I have to admit MW3 feels good to play, and beyond the more traditional mechanics and re-adjusted gunplay, I think most of it comes down to the return of MW2 ‘09 maps.
This might be the biggest contradiction of MW3 and Activision’s awful management of the project: going objectively “cheap” and rushed with the game actually produced the most cohesive core MP in years. MW3 genuinely feels like a beefed-up remake of the 2009 and 2011 classics at times, and the faithful recreations of fan-favorite maps such as Derail and Terminal bring back some of the lost “flexibility” that allowed different classes and weapons to actually shine and co-exist.
I’ve generally enjoyed Call of Duty’s arcade-y but meaty gameplay ever since the fourth mainline game changed the rules of engagement forever, but much of the unique charm was progressively lost as map and weapon designs started catering to run-and-gun play styles. At its worst (I must bring up Black Ops 4 again), the maps were borderline arena-like, cutting any semblance of strategy out entirely. This directly went against turning the classes into Overwatch-like character archetypes, and of course, it didn’t stick. Modern Warfare ’19 returned to the basics with all-new tech and a bigger scale, and at that point, I was hopeful again. Four years later, I’m fearful one more time but having tons of fun.
Are we forever stuck with CoD repeating a cycle of misguided innovation and later doing damage control with rehashed vibes and tricks from the past? I don’t know for sure, especially after the arrival of the new overlords, but it’s 2023, and I’m loving playing quick matches of Call of Duty in a way I hadn’t experienced since 2009. Don’t give Activision your money this year if you haven’t already, but let me vote for Afghan next; I want to sit inside that one bunker for the entire match, shooting at SMG-carrying fools like in my high school days. I hate that I love this. It’s so over.
