It's quickly evident whether the business at hand is clearing out enemy combatants or reaching a point on the map that triggers checkpoint saves and objective updates. For the most part, Modern Warfare 3's campaign does away with these frustrations. There were a couple of places in Black Ops where I swear I killed a thousand bad guys before I figured out the idea wasn't suppressing enemies, but reaching a certain position. Subtle progression hinting is refined, as well.
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I had plenty of, "What the hell? That's not right!" moments, but after restarting the checkpoint, I quickly discovered how to more easily clear the area. Overall, the play balancing in the campaign is fair. Other times, you unload an entire magazine of submachine gun ammo into a friendly's face, and he doesn't even blink. Sometimes you inadvertently winged a member of your squad, clearly just a flesh wound, yet you kill him and have to restart at a checkpoint. Also as usual, the friendly fire penalty is erratically implemented. In standard Call of Duty fashion, you get the penalty for friendly fire, starting again at the most recent checkpoint. There are also firefight segments - especially in shadow, at night or in dark interiors - where squad members advance so far ahead that you take them for enemies and kill them. Sometimes you get killed because the squadmate you're assigned to follow has advanced far ahead, making you think it's safe to step in a few yards behind his position - only to discover he must be bulletproof, and you're not. Though thoroughly enjoyable, the campaign doesn't approach perfect. It's not much different than similar story elements of Modern Warfare 2, but in this third Modern Warfare game, they feel like carefully planned and integrated "breathers." MW3 goes fast and furious, so these passages help settle jangling nerves, allowing you to catch your breath. Cut scenes are exceptionally brief, and some are interleaved with the action. MW3's campaign is the most refined and slickly paced to date. MW3 takes the shooter category as literally as possible: The objective is to shoot and keep shooting, as many rounds as you can for as long as you can, working your way through thickets of enemies. The most complicated decision you ponder while playing is, "Should I hang onto this trusty assault rifle or drop it in favor of that spiffy-looking machine pistol?" Think about that too long, and you're dead, anyway. There's no sophisticated puzzle-solving required to complete missions. If you become emotionally entangled at any point in the campaign's story, there's probably something wrong with you. Even with some favorite good guys and bad guys reprising roles from previous games, there's no emotional involvement with MW3's narrative. The MW3 campaign picks up right where the preceding Modern Warfare 2 left off, with the United States under heavy assault by Russian forces, a conflict initiated by sinister subterfuge that sparks outbreaks of factional violence around the world. At any skill level, these are some of the finest hours of console shooter campaign in several years. If you're any good, you can cut it down to a little over five hours. Foolhardy players will get a bonus half-hour replaying some sequences. It doesn't explain why it's so good.Įxperienced but average shooter players selecting "regular" difficulty, taking their time and never rushing, can probably get six hours out of the campaign. This probably explains why the campaign is so short. The narrative single-player campaign is an excellent training ground for the multiplayer modes, where both casual fans and gamers new to the franchise can hone basic skills at an easier pace, without the frustration of learning the game at the bloody, twitchy hands of constant players. If you were advanced in Black Ops six months ago and pretty damn good at Modern Warfare 2 more than a year back, you'll still need time to acclimate yourself to the multiplayer environment of MW3.
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I really should play the campaign first.Įven if you've dabbled in Call of Duty way back to the original, groundbreaking PC title, it requires practice to hold your own in multiplayer modes. Unless you're a gamer who hasn't missed a day playing multiplayer Call of Duty since Modern Warfare 2, you'll quickly arrive at the same conclusion about MW3: Hey, they're right. Modern Warfare 3's online multiplayer is a mostly happy marriage of Modern Warfare 2's solid gameplay with many of Black Ops' finer features, repackaged with some changes specific to MW3.