en-us Copyright 2008 - All Rights Reserved. Wed, 22 May 2013 19:40:56 GMT 15 By Clayton Strawn
Last Tuesday, Activision released its newest addition to its juggernaut Call of Duty franchise: the highly anticipated Modern Warfare 3. The name itself strikes awe into the hearts of all first-person shooter buffs worldwide. Its predecessors, Black Ops and especially Modern Warfare 2, left some very large shoes to fill. And it fits them almost too perfectly. It really doesn’t feel all that different from MW2, to be honest. I wouldn’t call MW3 a “60 Dollar map pack,” as I’ve heard all the haters say, but rather an upgrade and extension of MW2, with new ideas and concepts driving the story and multiplayer. First, the single player. Everyone who has played MW2 will quickly recognize the impressive graphics capabilities of this game. It is again one of the most beautiful games made for any system. Combat sequences are highly vivid and cinematic, making for some truly epic moments as you mow down Russian soldiers or sneak up on them from afar. The story itself remains commendable, wrapping up the loose ends of one of the most detailed and realistic fictional wars I have seen. However, although the war is realistic, the characters are most certainly not. In any given mission, you are usually with a squad of less than ten guys. You then proceed to kill almost a hundred Russians every time. There is no squad of people in the world that could fight like this, with Presidential-Medal-of-Honor-worthy shootouts every couple of hours. It might be helpful that they regenerate damage from bullets with excessive speed. There were several times where I would stand directly in front of an enemy firing a full-auto assault rifle at me and I would just calmly reload my AK-74 and shoot them, taking the bullets like a man. Overall, it is not nearly as realistic as Battlefield 3 and not as psychological as Black Ops, but it surpasses both in simple overall epicness. There is just always a cinematic feel to the campaign, which holds through stealth missions, assassinations, firefights or good old explosions. It is extremely fun and if you are only interested in the story, I highly recommend renting it. Don’t buy it just for the campaign though. It is too short; only maybe six hours long. Also, the well-received Spec Ops mode, short tactical missions played with a partner, is back and better than ever. It includes, in addition to the typical missions, a “Zombies” style “Survival” mode. Basically, you and a friend hold out against increasingly larger and stronger waves of enemies for an indefinite number of rounds. But these are no zombies. They shoot back and this makes Survival mode much less strategic than Zombies but more concerned with requiring actual skill. The game’s biggest selling point, though, is its often-admired multiplayer mode. Many of the radical changes put into place in Black Ops, unfortunately, are gone and replaced by a revamped MW2 online game play. The money system, for example, has been removed and with it Wager Matches and quick, easy weapon attachment purchases. Getting a new sight for a gun once again requires a significant amount of grinding for kills. Personally, I liked that system better, but it isn’t too much trouble to work for your attachments. Also, guns are faster and bullet damage is generally higher than it was in Black Ops. While this does result in a slower and more tactical game approach, it sort of blurs the distinctions between guns. Almost any assault rifle will work in roughly the same way and kill the enemy in a very short time from any distance. Differences between guns and strategies are much more subtle in this game, much more like MW2. One major new development is the changing of the Killstreak reward system. Killstreaks are now known instead as “Pointstreaks.” They can be earned through the completion of objectives or through kills. Killstreaks are also now determined by a part of your Custom Class Setup called the Strike Package. The Assault package works rather as the Killstreak system always has. The Support package has less powerful rewards but it doesn’t reset when you die, so you are almost certain to reach each reward you selected. The Specialist class is entirely different, rewarding the player with additional “perks” as they get kills. This class doesn’t call in any air support but it does become quite a supersoldier if you can get enough kills. A couple new game modes have been added but nothing particularly impressive. In general, the game remains a lot like MW2. And at least they didn’t mess with Search and Destroy. So, in the end, to all you rabid fans of the series, MW3 is an excellent game. It is a step up from Black Ops and makes some needed improvements to MW2. ]]> Tue, 15 Nov 2011 19:48:36 GMT