REVIEW: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (Overall Verdict)

Name: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

Genre: First Person Shooter

Platform: Xbox 360 (reviewed), PS3, PC

Price: £38.91 from Amazon on Xbox 360
£38.91 from Amazon on PS3

£34.91 from Amazon on PC

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 – Single Player Review
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 – Multiplayer Review
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 – Special Ops Review
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 – Elite Review

You’ve checked out our single player, multiplayer, Elite and Special Ops reviews, and now here is our final verdict on Modern Warfare 3. Has the most-anticipated game of all time lived up to the hype?

Modern Warfare and the rest of the Call of Duty series had too long sat unchallenged at the top of the first person shooter pile. Each year there’d be a new title, and each year rival shooters would cower in the shadows, pushing release dates back and fading into obscurity, and with good reason; the COD/Modern Warfare games wiped the floor with practically all pretenders to the gun-toting throne.

But this year was different. For the first time in years there was a real challenger, a true contender to rock Modern Warfare’s dominance in the shape of EA’s Battlefield 3. It was (in-game, in pre-order sales and in the insults traded by the rival developers) war; Modern Warfare 3 vs Battlefield 3.

Battlefield 3 is a good game. A great game even. That Modern Warfare 3 feels so massively better than its nearest rival goes to show just how excellent a package it is that the developers over at Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer have crafted.

The single player campaign is like riding a rollercoaster strapped with guns on it through a series of ever-bigger explosions. You may well be on a linear path, but blasting through the truly outlandish set pieces on offer here will have your jaw dropping like a sky-diving yo-yo. It’s not arty, nor is it clever, but it is a lot of fun.

That all those great moments can be refined into two minute slabs of pure, exhilarating fun in the Special Ops modes is a real delight, which even the most hardened Modern Warfare veterans will find a challenge to master.

Multiplayer, as any COD/ Modern Warfare fan knows, is where the real game truly lies though, and Modern Warfare 3 is no exception. Tightly-crafted, well-balanced gunplay is complemented in this third outing with inventive new game modes such as Kill Confirmed, while new Perks and the weapon-levelling system will keep you playing until you’re a digital Rambo out on the battlefield. The new strike packages system, rewarding offensive and supporting play-styles equally is a real boon for the series; for the first time veterans and noobs can play together without being too detrimental to the other’s game. It’s still not quite a level playing field, but now at least both parties can have an equal stake in shaping the outcome of a match, and all will put their controllers down with a smile on their faces.

You could argue that Modern Warfare 3 barely strays from the blueprint laid down by the original Modern Warfare. However, if the 2007 title laid the foundations, 2011’s iteration sees those foundations grow into a towering monument of a game. Sure, the single player is still a little simple for our liking, but it’s still the best Modern Warfare campaign yet, and still better than 90% of shooters out there. That’s without even looking at the staggering multiplayer and Special Ops offerings, or the ridiculously comprehensive Elite stat-monitoring and networking systems.

Modern Warfare 3 would have sold mountains of copies even if the developers had been completely complacent, but there have been real efforts to push the series forward in all departments. Modern Warfare 3 sees the series retain its place at the top of the first person shooter pile, and deservedly so.

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