Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III - Nostalgia at Full Price
Remember when Call of Duty releases felt like events? Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III (2023) arrived with all the fanfare of a mid-season update. That's because, well, it kind of is one. This direct sequel to MW2 2022 feels more like a huge content expansion pack.
What You're Actually Getting
About 4-5 hours of "Open Combat Missions". Larger arenas with the same shoot-everything gameplay within the campaign, which, although not the best, is a way better story than several other Call of Duty games have been over the years. All guns from last year's Call of Duty carry over, including the progression you have made with them. Your operators, bundles and everything else you collected, also carry over. Making this the very first time a Call of Duty game launches with over a hundred weapons, right from the get go.
MW3 Multiplayer: Weapons & Maps
For those who actively played Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II from last year, you most likely already have most of the weapons done, since they carried over. However, there are a few handfuls of new weapons you can go and try out, as well as get your new camos for. With Terminal, Highrise, Rust and Estate being some of the nostalgic, fan favourite maps, you will certainly have a blast. Bunny hopping around corners is a viable strategy again, not something to look forward to. However, slide cancelling returns, in the new yearly installment which a lot of players in Multiplayer, who played open and/or closed beta, already love. The MW3 time-to-kill (TTK) feels faster than in Modern Warfare II. Its fast enough to feel good and make the game fast paced, not so quick that camping is the only way to get kills. A healthy balance not every Call of Duty has managed to hit.
MW3 Zombies Mode Review
By far the biggest feature, is the new Zombies mode. With DMZ gone, a new open world mode with NPCs was bound to happen. The new zombies mode, is not the kind of round-based zombies one might be used to in Call of Duty. Instead, this is a way more interesting mode, that will be more interesting to a way bigger variety of players. It is the same map as Warzone, but it is filled with several types of Zombies. You can complete contracts, loot, extract just like with Warzone, but the other players you come across are friendly. The best part about it? An extra set of camos. Killing specific zombies, killing with certain ammo upgrades, killing with pack-a-punch upgrades. The cherry on the cake is that all old weapons from Modern Warfare II that carried over, also have zombie camos. Hundreds of hours of camo grinding for the true fans!
The Verdict from the Trenches
Reception of the new Call of Duty has been a bit complicated. Although the Steam reviews are "Mostly Negative", it is also one of the highest concurrent amount of players on a new Call of Duty launch in a lot of years. So even though reviews suggest it is one of the worst Call of Duties, the concurrent amount of players say it is actually one of the best ones. What you need to believe, is probably your own judgement. It is certainly more fun with friends, so their judgement might have a bit of influence on yours as well.
In our opinion, the multiplayer maps are brilliant, and the fact that so many old fan favourites are back makes it a big yes for us! Due to weapons carrying over, the weapon variety, as well as attachment variety is huge. The campaign might feel a bit short, but it has an interesting amount of replayability, certainly more than other installment of the franchise. Zombie mode will disappoint the small amount of true traditional round-based fans, but for the overwhelming majority of multiplayer lovers, this is an interesting new game mode that you can use to level weapons in, even to use later in multiplayer.
If you liked the recent MW2, you will like this more. If you skipped the recent MW2, this is better than that and you might find this worth it. If you love grinding camos, this is the literal best Call of Duty for you, ever, due to the amount of camos you can farm.
