Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 Review: A Disappointing Sequel in the Franchise

In 2007, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare captivated global attention with its storyline. By 2011, many believed it marked the conclusion for Captain Price and the crew. However, the narrative took an unexpected turn with the 2019 release of Modern Warfare, reviving the roles of iconic characters like Captain Price, Gaz, Ghost, and Soap.

Fast forward to 2023, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 has arrived. As an avid COD enthusiast, I eagerly obtained a copy to gauge whether it could recapture the intense excitement I felt years ago. In this review, I offer my candid perspective on the game. It’s crucial to note that Infinity Ward Studios, responsible for the original Call of Duty, is distinct from the team behind the recent games. Given the merger between Microsoft and Activision, expectations were high for a superior gaming experience, but what I encountered was an intriguing, albeit different, experience.

Story: A Disappointing Journey in a Call of Duty-like Adventure

Call of Duty has a history of delivering compelling narratives, evident in the original Modern Warfare trilogy and the Black Ops campaign. However, I’ve observed a decline in storytelling quality since 2019, with stories becoming shorter, more generic, and occasionally unengaging. Sledgehammer’s efforts, particularly with COD Vanguard, have left a bitter taste, and the disappointment lingers.

In the latest installment, the game initiates much like a classic American army movie, enriched with captivating cutscenes. However, the narrative continuity suffers, especially concerning the unresolved conflict between Shadow Company and 141 from the previous Modern Warfare 2. The sequel fails to convincingly explain why these factions would align or oppose each other, leaving glaring loopholes in the storyline. These inconsistencies led to moments of confusion, prompting doubts about the connection to the older games.

The absence of meaningful camaraderie among Team 141 members is notably striking in Modern Warfare 3, deviating from the familial bond that traditionally characterizes Call of Duty games. Previous versions portrayed teammates cracking jokes and prioritizing the rescue of their fellow soldiers, but this element is largely absent until the concluding scenes, reminiscent of a filler episode in anime.

My disappointment persisted, hoping for a redeeming conclusion, but unfortunately, the game fell short. The storyline progression felt rushed, leaving the ending and overall narrative poorly wrapped up. Completing the playthrough left me with the impression of experiencing a mere $10 DLC rather than a complete gaming encounter. Disappointingly, the campaign length aligned with the lacking depth of the story itself.

The brevity of Call of Duty campaigns is expected, yet Modern Warfare 3 proved even shorter than the usual standard. Although most reports indicate a total story duration of around five hours, the actual gameplay accounted for merely three hours. The remainder of the time was consumed by cutscenes or aimless wandering in the game. Finishing the entire game in just over three hours left me feeling disappointed with its overall length. It wouldn’t be surprising if the time taken to download the game surpassed the time needed to complete it.

Gameplay: Unengaging AI in Warzone Missions

The gameplay in Call of Duty has long been a reliable aspect of the experience, but Modern Warfare 3 took an unexpected turn. Instead of the customary cinematic flair, it veers toward feeling like a Warzone imitation. My primary concern revolves around the AI, which, regardless of difficulty settings, shows minimal responsiveness. The only noticeable change seems to be an increased likelihood of enemies landing headshots, as they otherwise pose minimal threat during missions.

The missions themselves in Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 fall into a pattern of repetitive sequences and uninspired content. Nearly 90 percent of the gameplay feels monotonous, following a similar structure reminiscent of a Warzone map. The familiar, engaging COD-style battles seem to have vanished, rendering them nearly indiscernible.

Repetition seems to permeate various elements throughout the game. Whether it’s simple gunfights or larger-scale encounters like gunships, the experience remains eerily similar. Tasks like taking down tanks or fighter jets occur in identical locations, adding to the sense of monotony. The exception, a brief yet noteworthy mission, involves Kate “Watcher” Laswell’s attempt at the Arklov base, featuring a cameo from Yuri, a hero from the original Modern Warfare 3.

Overall, the campaign in this 2023 rendition of Call of Duty often follows a familiar pattern: defending ground until evacuation arrives. It might not cater well to players who enjoyed a linear, cinematic combat style. However, the introduction of Open Combat Missions offers players a level of control by allowing pre-game weapon loadout selections. Yet, I found that these missions detract from the essence of the campaign. They seem to overlay a story mode on Warzone-style gameplay for much of the experience. Personally, I miss the slow-mo breaching interactions that used to define COD, making the gameplay of MW3 a lackluster element for me.

Graphics: Recycled Elements and Poor Texturing

Throughout my time with MW3, a nagging familiarity struck me regarding the maps. This feeling stemmed from what appeared to be lackluster map design efforts. Nearly every map in the Modern Warfare 3 campaign seems either a modified or outright copy-paste rendition of older Warzone maps. This resemblance becomes evident right from the initial map, resembling the original Warzone, with familiar-looking buildings and containers reminiscent of DMZ and Warzone locales. To top it off, there’s even a literal Verdansk map within the campaign.

The maps also exhibit lower-resolution textures, which is a notable disappointment. Despite experimenting with various rendering settings, resolutions, and aiming for the highest quality, the overall visual quality remains consistently underwhelming. This realization underscores that minute details were seemingly an afterthought in this action-packed, gun-centric campaign. Additionally, the game suffers from poor lighting, a surprising letdown considering it’s 2023, amid a market filled with visually stunning games like Baldur’s Gate 3 and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.

No matter how much I pushed the quality settings to their highest, the lighting in MW3 remained disappointingly consistent. The graphical allure of the game felt lackluster, with low-resolution textures, recycled map designs, and minimal discernible differences in overall quality. As a result, the visual experience turned out to be forgettable and unremarkable.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Gameplay Performance

As we’re all familiar, Call of Duty games often come with their optimization quirks. Setting the jokes aside, surprisingly, this particular game performs better on my system compared to other Call of Duty titles I’ve played. While features like DLSS and AMD FSR 3.0 appear promising for performance enhancement on paper, I opted not to use any sharpening options while playing on my GTX card. This decision was to gauge the game’s performance without any additional performance-boosting settings.

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600, running at base clock
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Super
RAM: 16GB DDR4 @ 3200MHz
SSD: 512GB Adata

Running the game on the recommended settings yielded decent performance, reaching up to 100-120 FPS at times. However, a significant issue emerged: the recommended settings for Modern Warfare 3 pushed my CPU temperature beyond 90 degrees Celsius. Once it hit that temperature threshold, performance began to decrease. Consequently, it’s not advisable to play this game for extended periods on a system equipped with a stock cooler due to the potential overheating issues.

Creating custom settings, maintaining a resolution of 1080p and a rendering scale at 100, yielded impressive results for me. I experienced a stable 90 FPS while keeping the CPU temperature within the 70-80 degrees Celsius range. This optimization allows the game to run smoothly, even on lower-end systems. However, I found it best to leave sharpening settings off, as they seemed less optimized and could potentially disrupt the game’s performance and visual balance. Notably, features like motion blur and bullet impacts around Captain Price and his crew appear flawless, contributing to an overall positive experience, albeit with some compromises in texture and edge details.

The game’s performance remains balanced, akin to what players encounter in the multiplayer mode of Warzone. Even when pushing the visuals to higher settings, they may appear slightly out of place, but this aligns with the expectations for a franchise that releases a new game annually.

Is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Deserving of a Sequel?

Since the release of the Call of Duty: Ghost edition, Infinity Ward has faced challenges in replicating the success of their earlier titles. The franchise has struggled to recreate the brilliance seen in their earlier gems. Furthermore, Sledgehammer and Treyarch, the co-creators of the studio, have yet to recover from the setbacks experienced with Vanguard and WWII campaigns. The new Modern Warfare storyline and gameplay were anticipated to be a beacon of hope for the Call of Duty franchise. Unfortunately, these hopes were dashed, leaving much to be desired. The only positive aspect I found in the game was the ending credits roll.

As someone who has grown up witnessing the glory days of the Call of Duty franchise, I held exceedingly high expectations. I recall the greatness of Call of Duty’s original Modern Warfare campaign, the memorable Black Ops era, and even the engaging stories seen in titles like Cold War. These instances set the standard, making me eagerly anticipate each release from Activision.

It’s disheartening to see Activision shift focus towards a multiplayer-centered approach despite the success of the captivating campaigns in MW (2019) and MW2 (2022). Perhaps suggesting that they bundle these campaigns as DLC for their Call of Duty HQ, essentially a reskin of MW2, could be a transparent way for consumers to differentiate between new releases and reiterations.

For better or worse, Modern Warfare 3 feels like a culmination point. While it’s poised to rake in significant revenue and be considered a commercial success in the realm of Call of Duty games, as an FPS enthusiast, its impact is fleeting. As Price wraps up the job within the game, it’s essential for Activision to conclude this chapter too, or risk encountering another forgettable campaign akin to Makarov within the Call of Duty franchise.

Pros and Cons

It’s evident that Call of Duty falls short in recapturing the essence of the Modern Warfare series with its third edition reboot. The game feels rushed and lacks the depth expected at every stage. Significant relationships between characters are conspicuously absent, giving the impression that the focus is more on promoting Warzone than delivering a coherent narrative. In my opinion, I wouldn’t hesitate to consider purchasing this if it were priced as a $10 DLC for Call of Duty HQ or MW2. However, as a standalone full game, Modern Warfare 3 proves to be a disappointment.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3