'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3'
4/5 Pitchforks
Xbox 360, PS3, PC, Wii, Nintendo DS
Rated: M
Released: Nov. 8
There are few game releases as big as a “Call of Duty” game. “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2” sold over 4.5 million copies in the first 24 hours it was on store shelves and has grossed over a billion dollars. Make no mistake about it, “Modern Warfare 3” is the most anticipated game of 2011, but does it live up to the hype?
Believe it or not, the “Modern Warfare” series has a story. The main plot of the series follows Captain John "Soap" MacTavish in his attempt to track down terrorists and perform other important secret military operations. The number of unexplained mission objectives throughout the series is staggering. The story is a complicated mess of bad stereotypes and unexplained plot holes. The previous games have centered around Russians working with Middle Eastern rebels and evil Americans in an attempt to cause a war between Russia and the U.S.
Everything up to this point has been building to the events of “Modern Warfare 3.” The U.S. has been invaded, Europe is at war with itself and Soap's team is in the middle of it all again. Anyone that has been following the story will be please to finally get a true ending.
However, most players don't care about any of that. “Modern Warfare” has always been all about the multiplayer experience. Not much has changed in “Modern Warfare 3” in that regard, either; you have the same basic match types and the same leveling up mechanics that the series pioneered. The game focuses less on innovation and more on polishing the experience.
The kill streak system has received a great deal of attention. In previous games, players were rewarded for getting multiple kills without dying. This meant that players that were doing well-received rewards and did even better while players that were doing poorly were beaten down in increasingly frustrating ways.
Players now receive rewards based on getting several points in a row. Points are still earned by getting kills, but can also be earned in a variety of different ways based on the match type. This means that even a struggling player can still receive point streak rewards. This has leveled the playing field, giving novice players a slightly better chance to succeed.
Another notable change to the kill streak system is the addition of strike packs. There are three different strike packs that control what rewards the player gets: assault, support and specialist. Assault is the classic “Modern Warfare” system: get a few points without dying and receive a reward. Support, on the other hand, rewards the player with skills that help his team as a whole, such as extra armor or recon. What makes Support unique is that the point streak doesn't reset when the player is killed.
Specialist will undoubtedly be the favorite of hardcore “Modern Warfare” players. As a player gets more points, they unlock more perks. Perks are different then other point streak rewards, they give the player more abilities such as better aim or faster reload speed.
These changes open up a lot of different ways to play the game while making it harder for a few players to dominate the matches. The idea had good intentions, but it doesn't quite fix the game's balance issues. Experienced players are still going to have better weapons and more upgrades then the causal players. That is just the nature of how the “Modern Warfare” series works.
“Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3” is great game and sure to be a success, but it's simply more of the same. Ignore the updates to the kill streak system and you are left with a slightly better looking version of “Modern Warfare 2.” If the “Call of Duty” franchise wants to continue being an unstoppable force in the gaming industry, it needs to find a way to innovate. If it doesn't, it may end up being just another generic military shooter.
Reach the reporter at tkuipers@asu.edu
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