Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III
Year: 2023
Developer: Sledgehammer Games
Publisher: Activision
Platform: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series
PEGI: 18
Published: 04/01/24
Developer: Sledgehammer Games
Publisher: Activision
Platform: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series
PEGI: 18
Published: 04/01/24
To celebrate Call of Duty’s twentieth anniversary I spent 2023 playing every mainline game in the franchise, but to my surprise Activision had seemingly let on that 2023 would be the first year since 2004 to not have a new Call of Duty title, instead planning on releasing a paid content update to 2022’s Modern Warfare II. Whilst certainly surprising, it was hard to deny that it was about time Call of Duty took a break. Despite shifting to a three year development cycle back in 2014 when Sledgehammer Games were brought on board to be the third main development studio for the franchise (alongside Infinity Ward and Treyarch), Activison had a bad habit in recent years of not sticking to that three year cycle and getting either Treyarch or Sledgehammer to push out their title a year early to compensate for the other team needing an extra year. It’s clear that a Call of Duty development cycle needs to be a minimum of four years to see substantial improvements in this day and age. But then began rumblings that this premium content drop was being expanded into a full standalone game, and that for the first time in franchise history we would see a direct sequel release within twelve months of its predecessor. Later confirmed to be true, Modern Warfare III was in development at Sledgehammer Games (taking the sub-series out of the hands of Infinity Ward for the first time since its creation in 2007), and would release with a single player campaign, full multiplayer suite, and also introduce zombies to the sub-series. Cue the red flags and warning signs. Once release rolled around MWIII was met with an overwhelming negative reception from critics and players alike, earning it the worst Metacritic score of the whole franchise. But now the dust has somewhat settled, is MWIII the worst game in the history of Call of Duty, or is there actually something decent buried in there?
Following a successful prison break, Russian Ultranationalist leader and feared terrorist Vladimir Makarov is free and planning something big.
Hot on his heels, the joint forces of Cpt. Price, Soap, Gaz, and Ghost of Task Force-141, Kate Laswell of the CIA, and Farah Karim and Alex Keller of the Urzikstan Liberation Force, must bury old hatchets and work with General Shepard’s Shadow Company to follow in Makarov’s path of destruction and stop him before he starts World War III.
Following a successful prison break, Russian Ultranationalist leader and feared terrorist Vladimir Makarov is free and planning something big.
Hot on his heels, the joint forces of Cpt. Price, Soap, Gaz, and Ghost of Task Force-141, Kate Laswell of the CIA, and Farah Karim and Alex Keller of the Urzikstan Liberation Force, must bury old hatchets and work with General Shepard’s Shadow Company to follow in Makarov’s path of destruction and stop him before he starts World War III.
There seems to be a curse laid upon any game bearing the title of the third Modern Warfare, one where the developer is put under extraordinary pressure to deliver a whole lot in not a lot of time. 2011’s Modern Warfare 3 was actually the first CoD game Sledgehammer Games were drafted in to work on because of the massive restructuring of Infinity Ward at the time. This meant that whilst MW3 should have had two years in development it basically got turned around in a year because of the difficult start. 2022’s Modern Warfare III seems to be no different then, as it was reported that the game was turned around in eighteen months, a far cry from the three year development period Activision claim to give their Call of Duty developers. Sledgehammer Games have disputed this, saying that the game was being worked on for longer. It’s tough to know what to believe but either way, the development of Modern Warfare III, even if it was only eighteen months, would have significantly impacted the development of Sledgehammer’s last CoD game, the somewhat problematic Vanguard. The team would have been split to work on MWIII, and so it does at least shed some light on that game’s shortcomings, and why MWIII falls short in a few areas.
But at least for me Modern Warfare III starts off strongly as the story that Sledgehammer deliver here is one of the best in the entire franchise, and a significant improvement over the bore that was Modern Warfare II. The very first mission sees you performing a prison break, and the following three missions set the scene for what’s to come, raising the stakes and delivering some great story moments. This comes to a head in the fifth mission, Passenger, which is a throwback to the controversial missions of CoD’s past but given a chilling new perspective on it. From here the story goes from strength to strength as uneasy alliances are formed, devastating terrorist attacks take place, and an intriguing plot to trick nations into a third world war is unveiled. It’s really great stuff, and the ending delivers a series of unexpected mic drops that make me seriously excited for Modern Warfare IV.
Unfortunately, the gameplay and mission design is what lets Modern Warfare III down so much.
But at least for me Modern Warfare III starts off strongly as the story that Sledgehammer deliver here is one of the best in the entire franchise, and a significant improvement over the bore that was Modern Warfare II. The very first mission sees you performing a prison break, and the following three missions set the scene for what’s to come, raising the stakes and delivering some great story moments. This comes to a head in the fifth mission, Passenger, which is a throwback to the controversial missions of CoD’s past but given a chilling new perspective on it. From here the story goes from strength to strength as uneasy alliances are formed, devastating terrorist attacks take place, and an intriguing plot to trick nations into a third world war is unveiled. It’s really great stuff, and the ending delivers a series of unexpected mic drops that make me seriously excited for Modern Warfare IV.
Unfortunately, the gameplay and mission design is what lets Modern Warfare III down so much.
To get the game out in such a short time frame there were of course going to be some significant corners cut, and level design was one of the hardest hit areas of the game. Modern Warfare III introduces ‘Open Combat’ missions, something that Modern Warfare II had alluded to a few times with the more open ended mission design, but here with MWIII you’re quite literally dropped into an arena style map with several objectives to complete, and it’s up to you to decide how you’re going to approach this. Of the fourteen missions there are six Open Combat missions, and only one of them, the last one, actually use the concept to its full effect. But all of these missions are just areas from the original Warzone map that have a handful of simple objectives to do (such as defuse bombs or steal intel), and are filled with enemy combatants that work on an alert system. You start out with a preset lodout and can pick up new weapons and equipment using cache’s dotted around the map. I get the feeling that it was supposed to evoke a feeling of the freedom of games like Far Cry, where you can tackle missions any way you want to. But because you always spawn with gear that doesn’t allow for a stealthy approach it means that you need to find new gear in the map first and do so without being seen or engaging in combat. It fundamentally doesn’t work the way it’s designed to, and so the missions lack tension, they bring the pace to a halt because there’s no scripted moments, and death doesn’t just take you back to a checkpoint, it restarts the mission because there’s so many variables to keep track of. It’s really bad, and whilst the final Open Combat mission, Gora Dam, does use the style better than the rest of them, I think that’s only happened because it suited my playstyle more.
The other eight missions are conventional scripted linear missions, but aside from the opening mission, Operation 627, and the seventh mission, Flashpoint, they all feel kind of uninspired. None of them are outright bad, but they can feel a bit samey and just funnel you through corridors of enemies. What’s happening in the story makes them more fun than they actually are, and you can feel that there’s just something missing from a design standpoint.
The game looks as great as you’d expect. Still running on the engine first introduced in 2019’s Modern Warfare, MWIII showcases the same high quality environments, models, and lighting that Call of Duty players have come accustomed to over the last few years. Strange to think the engine is now five years old and it still looks this incredible. It runs well too, easily hitting a smooth 60FPS the whole time. I didn’t run into any bugs or glitches either, something that was a problem with Vanguard so Sledgehammer evidently managed to get to grips with the engine a bit more this time around.
The other eight missions are conventional scripted linear missions, but aside from the opening mission, Operation 627, and the seventh mission, Flashpoint, they all feel kind of uninspired. None of them are outright bad, but they can feel a bit samey and just funnel you through corridors of enemies. What’s happening in the story makes them more fun than they actually are, and you can feel that there’s just something missing from a design standpoint.
The game looks as great as you’d expect. Still running on the engine first introduced in 2019’s Modern Warfare, MWIII showcases the same high quality environments, models, and lighting that Call of Duty players have come accustomed to over the last few years. Strange to think the engine is now five years old and it still looks this incredible. It runs well too, easily hitting a smooth 60FPS the whole time. I didn’t run into any bugs or glitches either, something that was a problem with Vanguard so Sledgehammer evidently managed to get to grips with the engine a bit more this time around.
Multiplayer also feels a little half-arsed because there are no new maps. MWIII’s biggest selling point was that it brought every map from 2009’s Modern Warfare 2 back with a full visual overhaul. There’s no doubt that these maps are fun to play as they are all among the best that Call of Duty has ever offered, but the lack of new maps is also a clear sign that development was extremely rushed. Unfortunately, these maps aren’t as fun to play in MWIII either because the game doesn’t use the same weapons or movement physics. The maps are designed for a gameplay style from a different era, and whilst I certainly got a nostalgic kick out of playing Highrise, Favela, and Terminal again, it just wasn’t a CoD multiplayer suite I feel the need to go back to after just a few hours with it.
But Modern Warfare III does seem to have done the impossible and I actually enjoyed my time with the Zombies mode. Now, much like the rest of Modern Warfare III, the mode itself isn’t exactly built from the ground up. It uses the Warzone DMZ mode as its building blocks, but I must say I think I prefer how this one plays. You and a squad of two other players are dropped into an area of the Warzone map that has now been overrun with zombies. You’re given forty-five minutes to complete as many objectives as you can in this open environment, whilst collecting new and rarer loot that can be carried over between matches, and you must be extracted from the map within the time limit or die and lose all your progress. Death also results in a loss of loot and progress. It’s not just the three of you either, you’re playing simultaneously alongside multiple other squads who may be working towards the same goals as you or may be off doing something else.
Difficulty isn’t based on rounds anymore but rather the proximity to the centre of the map, and so you can effectively choose your own difficulty, but also work your way up to the tougher areas more gradually if you feel like taking a slower pace. The objectives are clearly marked, and cooperation isn’t totally necessary if you’re a competent enough player. There’s just so much flexibility to the mode now that I feel ‘MWZ’ as the mode is called kind of hits the nail on the head for the first time since the mode’s introduction in World at War back in 2008. It’s definitely a shame that it’s not a new map, but I really enjoyed this more laid-back approach where I didn’t feel forced to play in a particular way, or try and complete tricky unlabelled objectives in order to progress. It felt much more like a roguelike that rewarded you greatly for completion and punished you appropriately for failure. For the first time in Zombies history, I’m going to be going back to this mode quite a bit.
The biggest hurdle you need to overcome with Modern Warfare III is the excessive ways it borrows content from other Call of Duty titles in order to pad the experience out. Campaign and MWZ are build on the foundations of Warzone, and Multiplayer is exclusively remastered maps from over a decade ago. But when the stars align and MWIII hits its stride it provides a genuinely fun Call of Duty experience.
I won’t ever be urging people to go out of their way to play it because it definitely is one of the weaker entries in the franchise overall, but the story has some of the best writing and moments Call of Duty has ever had, and it made me enjoy Zombies for the first time in the franchise history, so I’m giving it credit where its due. Maybe don’t write this one off entirely just yet.
But Modern Warfare III does seem to have done the impossible and I actually enjoyed my time with the Zombies mode. Now, much like the rest of Modern Warfare III, the mode itself isn’t exactly built from the ground up. It uses the Warzone DMZ mode as its building blocks, but I must say I think I prefer how this one plays. You and a squad of two other players are dropped into an area of the Warzone map that has now been overrun with zombies. You’re given forty-five minutes to complete as many objectives as you can in this open environment, whilst collecting new and rarer loot that can be carried over between matches, and you must be extracted from the map within the time limit or die and lose all your progress. Death also results in a loss of loot and progress. It’s not just the three of you either, you’re playing simultaneously alongside multiple other squads who may be working towards the same goals as you or may be off doing something else.
Difficulty isn’t based on rounds anymore but rather the proximity to the centre of the map, and so you can effectively choose your own difficulty, but also work your way up to the tougher areas more gradually if you feel like taking a slower pace. The objectives are clearly marked, and cooperation isn’t totally necessary if you’re a competent enough player. There’s just so much flexibility to the mode now that I feel ‘MWZ’ as the mode is called kind of hits the nail on the head for the first time since the mode’s introduction in World at War back in 2008. It’s definitely a shame that it’s not a new map, but I really enjoyed this more laid-back approach where I didn’t feel forced to play in a particular way, or try and complete tricky unlabelled objectives in order to progress. It felt much more like a roguelike that rewarded you greatly for completion and punished you appropriately for failure. For the first time in Zombies history, I’m going to be going back to this mode quite a bit.
The biggest hurdle you need to overcome with Modern Warfare III is the excessive ways it borrows content from other Call of Duty titles in order to pad the experience out. Campaign and MWZ are build on the foundations of Warzone, and Multiplayer is exclusively remastered maps from over a decade ago. But when the stars align and MWIII hits its stride it provides a genuinely fun Call of Duty experience.
I won’t ever be urging people to go out of their way to play it because it definitely is one of the weaker entries in the franchise overall, but the story has some of the best writing and moments Call of Duty has ever had, and it made me enjoy Zombies for the first time in the franchise history, so I’m giving it credit where its due. Maybe don’t write this one off entirely just yet.