November eh? Must mean it’s time for the new Call of Duty game and this year it’s a sequel to the bat shit crazy, yet bestselling, Modern Warfare 2. After they split the remnants of Infinity Ward and all of the all new, brought in studios Sledgehammer, Raven and Sandy Isle Games have been working for a while on this one and every Call of Duty (COD) fanboy and fangirl (why the odd looks? I know some) has been lining up to get it. In fact over 9 million people around the globe have pre-ordered it so the new developers have to really step up the metaphorical plate and kick some ass with this one.

For the singleplayer portion they have, if you excuse the pun, gone above and beyond the Call of Duty’s of old and created a truly enjoyable singleplayer experience that new players and veterans of the multi-million selling franchise can sink their teeth and bullets into. If you have not played the previous Modern Warfare instalments then I suggest you swiftly watch this timeline video updating you on the events of the last Modern Warfare games http://www.whosay.com/larry/videos/87161

 The singleplayer is not what you expect to find really fun in Call of Duty, more like the younger brother with stunted growth, compared to the beefy, handsome older brother that outshines it’s sibling in everything it does. In this game that is so far from the truth. For once in a Call of Duty the singleplayer lasted more than 5 hours (7 to be precise) and the plot actually made sense. Imagine just how good this games already fantastic singleplayer could have been if it hadn’t had to mop Modern Warfare 2’s stupid and unfeasible plot off the bloodstained carpet. Hats off to the new developers, they know how to put a story together as well as putting together the moments that I refer to as “MichaelBay’s porn”. What I mean is those enchanting moments, usually filled with emotional trauma or explosions that make you whisper “Oh wow!” There are about 5 moments in Modern Warfare 3 that have that desired effect, amongst them seeing the biggest explosion ever followed by the Eiffel tower falling over and in a cutscene the saddest scene since that little girl clawed at her parents’ dead bodies in Homefront.

 

The story picked up exactly where Modern Warfare 2’s bled out, with Captain “Soap” MacTavish in need of urgent aid, while Captain Price and ally Nikolai try to save him. All 3 have been disavowed and are top priority targets to theUSmilitary. In smaller news,Russiais launching a full scale assault onAmericaand later,Europe. Playing as the non-disavowed army trooper of Delta Force “Frost” you need to kill some enemies that are a bit clearer than in Modern Warfare 2, because they are an army with tanks invading your country not some shady looking Brazilians who you’re not entirely sure why you’re shooting, and the only explanation you get is it helps you defeat a Russian person that one of your company could have shot when he went undercover before that Russian massacred an entire airport and shot your mate anyway.

 

Nevertheless the past is the past and some great city missions ensure that the majority of the stuff you do is in a recognisable real world location not a field in the middle of Ukraine, hence making the action a lot more intense and leading to more of “Michael Bay’s porn” with a lot of stuff getting blown up or collapsing. For once Call of Duty has a stellar campaign that everybody can like and enjoy from start to finish.

 

Multiplayer is back and the reason everybody plays Call of Duty has been a bit revamped this year. Now you get to choose between 3 packages – Assault, just like the killstreaks of COD 6, kills with your earned streaks count towards your next streaks and if you die your streak resets. Support is a little different, if you die your streak continues on but the rewards with support are less kill orientated as Assault and help your team more. The third strike package, specialist, is really different; as it gives you some perks instead of killstreaks and at an 8 streak you unlock all perks.

 

As opposed do previous games you can get your streaks without even shooting a bullet. Some actions like capturing a domination flag for example will reward you with a point towards your streaks, as well as getting kills. The rest of the multiplayer has stayed the same though, but with poorer quality multiplayer maps and unbalanced guns with built in lag ensure that this is the worst Call of Duty multiplayer to ever see the light of day. That may seem like I am damning the multiplayer to hell but I’m not. It’s just the only Call of Duty game so far whose multiplayer has failed to capture me and draw me in, trapping me in that game for 90% of the year.

 

A multiplayer feature to spend time on instead of the competitive multiplayer is the returning co-op mode from Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2. Being my favourite feature of that game it certainly makes the cut in this title as well, with not only the returning mission based gameplay but an all-new mode entitled survival. Imaging the famed Nazi Zombies of the Treyarch games and then those zombies are people with guns, dogs with C4 strapped to them, helicopters and men in hulking suits of armour. All this and a co-op levelling system mean you can have fun with your bestie for hours!

 

MW3 is flawed but still lovable. And still the same game as the original Modern Warfare. Thats why it gets

8/10

 

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