2023 is a monumental year for the Call of Duty franchise having reached its twentieth anniversary. During that time, there’s been just one year (2004) without a Call of Duty game. While the series has seen its ups and downs, Call of Duty continues to be a mainstay in today’s culture release after release. As expected, celebrating twenty years means another entry in the franchise with the unenviable duty going to Sledgehammer Games. Coming off last year’s divisiveCall of Duty: Modern Warfare II, Sledgehammer Games has opted to release a direct sequel and carry over as much of the previous game’s content as possible. Originally rumored to be an expansion for last year’s game, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III is finally here as a full-fledged title with a campaign, multiplayer and Zombies mode. Does Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III live up to its namesake or is it a mere stopgap to hold us over until the next Modern Warfare title?
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III picks up after the events of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II and follows Task Force 141 as they race to put an end to the villainous Vladimir Makarov’s plans. With Makarov intent on initiating a war between the East and West, it’s up to Captain Price, Soap, Gaz, Ghost and Farah to piece together his plan, defeat his band of ultranationalists and ensure that peace remains.
Modern Warfare III’s story shows moments of brilliance, particularly when exploring Makarov. As iconic as the character is, Makarov didn’t appear much in the original Modern Warfare trilogy. By highlighting him more in Modern Warfare III, Sledgehammer has successfully set up his villainous actions for the next Modern Warfare title. Outside of Makarov, however, Modern Warfare III’s story doesn’t go much of anywhere or do much original with the rebooted storyline.
While it isn’t fair to say that nothing happens in Modern Warfare III’s story, it does come off as a stopgap to close out some plotlines left open at the end of Modern Warfare II. It neither feels substantial or necessary outside of a dramatic moment in the final chapter clearly aimed at raising the stakes going into Infinity Ward’s next title. Also, much like Modern Warfare II, Modern Warfare III lacks originality, opting to lift plot points from the original Modern Warfare trilogy like ‘No Russian’ and Shepard’s story rather than following the more original plot that started inCall of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019).
Gameplay-wise, Modern Warfare III’s campaign lacks many of the bombastic elements that make Call of Duty campaigns interesting. It has a few good levels, especially the opening, but unfortunately half of the campaign is taken up by ‘Open Combat Missions.” In theory, these aren’t a bad idea. Giving players the reins to tackle and complete objectives in a sandbox should allow for the natural creation of bombastic Call of Duty action. In practice, these missions are dull affairs with few enemies and little action. Some can even be beaten within a handful of minutes. Maybe if these missions allowed for co-op or featured original levels rather than locations ripped straight out of Warzone maps, they’d be more interesting. As is, however, over half the campaign is a boring slog to get through.
It’s perhaps a mercy that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III’s campaign is over in the blink of an eye. Beatable in 3 to 4 hours, Modern Warfare III lands as one of the shortest entries in the franchise. The campaign has moments of brilliance and sets up Makarov for an explosive entrance in the inevitable Call of Duty: Modern Warfare IV, but the vast majority of this story feels like an add-on rather than a substantial addition to the ongoing narrative. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III fares better in its other modes, Multiplayer and Modern Warfare Zombies. Considering that multiplayer is what put Call of Duty on the map in the first place, and Zombies has grown more and more popular since its inception in Call of Duty: World at War, nailing both elements is essential.
Multiplayer feels like a return to form after bothCall of Duty: Vanguardand Modern Warfare II’s multiplayer came off as if they had been compromised to boost Call of Duty: Warzone. While Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III shares a foundation with Modern Warfare II, Sledgehammer has implemented numerous changes that ultimately make it a more fun experience. Movement no longer feels clunky or like your feet are tied to cinderblocks, red-dots on the mini-map create a more engaging play style, and the return of features like slide and reload-canceling are tastefully implemented. Even the change to the time-to-kill, while sometimes inconsistent, results in richer firefights compared to the blink and your dead TTK of Modern Warfare II. Meanwhile, the ability to carry over all purchases, unlocks and earned rewards is a nice bonus, especially after losing everything from Modern Warfare (2019),Black Ops Cold Warand Vanguard when jumping to Warzone 2.0.
In terms of maps and content, Modern Warfare III launches with a respectable amount of weapons on top of all Modern Warfare II weapons, and sixteen multiplayer maps, which is great, but there’s a catch. Rather than the game launching with sixteen brand new maps, all maps are remasters fromCall of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009). Fan-favorites like Afghan, Rust, Highrise and Terminal are back and they look better than ever. While disappointing that no new maps arrived with the game, it is nice to get tried-and-true maps specifically built for 6v6 multiplayer rather than maps built for Warzone first and then retrofitted to work with multiplayer. The majority remain fun to play on, and it’s actually nice getting to see some of the less popular maps get a second chance to shine, and it does help that Sledgehammer has committed to bringing brand new maps to the game in the future for free.
That’s not to say multiplayer is without its issues. The game is severely buggy with all manner of glitches causing instant deaths, custom loadouts to bug out and inconsistency with the TTK. Modern Warfare III also carries over the terrible UI of Modern Warfare II that feels even more cumbersome with the vast amounts of content ported over from Modern Warfare II. Perhaps the worst new addition to the game is the Armory Unlock system that locks many weapons, perks, equipment and even attachments behind a grindy unlock system tied to completing daily challenges. Considering you only get so many daily challenges, unlocking everything becomes a chore.
Taken as a whole, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III’s multiplayer is a positive step up following Modern Warfare II. It’s not as restrictive, and though it doesn’t have any original maps, it does at least provide a fun set of classic maps that feel properly built for multiplayer. The main issue is that for as fun as it is, it’s unpolished in its current state.
Modern Warfare Zombies rounds out the experience. Much like with Vanguard, Treyarch was brought in to develop the Zombies mode, which thankfully, is much better than Vanguard’s take on the mode. A cross-between Black Ops Cold War’s semi-open world Outbreak mode and Modern Warfare II’s DMZ, Modern Warfare Zombies sees you, your squad and a bunch of other squads drop into the new Warzone map to complete objectives, advance the story and then exfiltrate with any collected items. It’s not a bad mode and combines many of the elements that have made past Treyarch Zombies modes fun and addicting, but it also lacks the personality and imagination typically found in the round-based maps and Outbreak. The boring busy work required to advance the story, the recycling of Warzone content and the weird level scaling of the zombies across Urzikstan leaves parts of the map without much tension. There’s fun to be had, and it’s better than what came with Vanguard, but this isn’t a pure Treyarch Zombies experience.
Closing Comments:
Call of Duty’s twentieth anniversary should be a celebratory moment for the franchise and an opportunity for the studios and Activision to put their best foot forward. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III is not that best foot. Rather, the game comes off more as a footnote in the history of Call of Duty as we wait for Treyarch’s next Black Ops and the inevitable Call of Duty: Modern Warfare IV. The campaign feels like a stopgap merely intended to close plot lines left open from Modern Warfare II and to reveal Makarov after the last game’s final stinger. Other than that, little happens in the mercifully short campaign that lacks much of the bombastic action associated with Call of Duty. Multiplayer shines strongly thanks to Sledgehammer reverting many of Infinity Ward’s controversial changes, but it also reuses a lot of older content, is buggy and introduces its own grindy mechanics. Modern Warfare Zombies is an interesting blend of Outbreak and DMZ, but it lacks much of the personality, tension and thrill of discovery that has made Zombies shine so brightly in Treyarch’s own games. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III has its moments of triumph, but they are few and far between. There’s still fun to be had in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, but this year’s entry feels like a stopgap while we wait for the next major release.
Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2023)
Released in November of 2023, Activision’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2023) continues Captain Price’s story from the 2019 and 2022 games.
