Just like Mario, Sonic, GTA & Warcraft, you most certainly have heard of Call of Duty. The name slips off the tongue and is a staple of the gaming industry. It is vastly popular, of course, with previous entries in the series still raking in thousands of players on a weekly basis. And there is no doubt it has cooked up controversy in the past, with Modern Warfare 2's 'No Russian' level in particular raising more than a few eyebrows. It is occasionally easy to forget that once upon a time, CoD was the underdog to EA's Medal of Honor, a relatively unknown PC release with a die-hard fanbase and a more thoughtful take on war.

 

On November 8th, 2011, Infinity Ward released the new and improved Modern Warfare. Even though the CoD franchise has been a very contradictory subject, it will always be one of the greatest selling games in history. Within 24 hours of going on sale, the game sold 6.5 million copies in the US and UK alone and grossed $400 million, making it the biggest entertainment launch of all time.

 

 

Many people believe that certain games are better than others. For being out just over a month, there seems to be an even amount of people that believe Modern Warfare 3(MW3) could be better, and those who believe that the game is great the way it is. When Call of Duty: Black Ops was released, it practically changed everyone’s mind of the series. Modern Warfare 2 was proclaimed the greatest action game of all time, and when Black Ops was released the following year, it was a disappointment to almost everyone.

 

If you were to hand the controls over to a casual fan, they could probably mistake MW3 for a map pack. The visuals have been spruced up a bit, but it is nothing on the level of its main competition, Battlefield 3. There are still plenty of bad textures and blocky models, but the lighting seems to have been improved. A few missions stand out graphically, such as a night time stealth mission and the final level, but they are few and far between. The first mission throws you into a blown up New York City, and it immediately draws comparison to Crysis 2 which was built on a drastically superior graphics engine. The water effects look great, however.

 

There is no denying that MW3 is all about the experience. It is not fussed about free, open battlefields or player choice. It is a linear, corridor-based shooter and it makes no apologies for this. It doesn't need to. The campaign, which tells the story of multiple characters, some familiar and some new, is a series of explosive snapshots; you are hurtled from one dramatic setpiece to the next, no respite, just all-out war. It has taken a few years to get to the stage where this formula works quite so flawlessly, but there is no denying that it has now been reached.

 

The entire Killstreak reward system has been revamped. Killstreaks are now known as Pointstreaks, and kills are no longer the only way to increase the player’s pointstreak. Completing objectives such as planting the bomb in ‘Search and Destroy’ or capturing a flag in ‘Capture the Flag’ awards points towards the player’s Pointstreak. Pointstreak rewards are organized into three different ‘strike packages’ called Assault, Support, and Specialist. MW3 consists of many new maps (Arkaden, Dome, and Resistance etc.), new guns (SCAR-L, Type 95, and G36C etc.), new perks (Osprey Gunner, Juggernaut, Advanced UAV, etc.) and new Killstreaks (Overkill, Stalker, Covert etc.).

 

MW3 is a shining example of refinement and improvement. It is familiar, sure, but here familiarity doesn't breed contempt, just respect and reward for those who have dedicated so much time to the series. And for new players, it is the perfect starting point, more accommodating and encompassing than ever. 

 

The series has always been renowned for elements like the excellent sound design, the gloss, polish and compulsion of its gameplay, but with MW3, Infinity Ward have created a game that not only lives up to the brand hype but exceeds it. A game where the mass appeal is justified, and the expectations are met. A game which is undoubtedly going to be played for a long, long time to come, and deservedly so.

 

(Text by Delano J Perera)