My least favorite Call of Duty single-player campaign is Modern Warfare 3. This bad game copies previous tasks.
In a confusing plot with little to offer, it focuses on previous greatness rather than new memories. The single new component of a campaign fails, weirdly mixing Warzone mode pieces into intentionally terrible sandbox objectives, discarding everything that made Call of Duty great at its apex, and giving a bland series of missions that lasts a few hours.
Sledgehammer Games’ biggest feature this time is “open combat missions,” which make up half the chapters. Multi-objective arenas enable you to complete tasks in any sequence and style. Unfortunately, they’re typical of Modern Warfare 3’s poor approach, which prioritizes openness and choice over Call of Duty’s blockbuster storyline. It’s disappointing since these missions could have reached the heights of 2019’s Lights Out, a superb example of FPS non-linear objectives, but they didn’t. These locations are usually uncurated and left to you to have fun.
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This sandbox approach doesn’t fit my Call of Duty single-player story preferences and goes against what made the original Modern Warfare trilogy the best cinematic shooters. As Warzone and DMZ’s open-world approach permeates the level design, this year’s campaign seems more like its multiplayer partner. Modern Warfare 3 has a similar UI and gameplay, such as scavenging stashes for better guns and gear and customizing your loadout at a drop box. I’d enter the battle royale solo, open boxes, and fight interesting adversaries if I desired this.
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You have more choice in how you approach each task as you search weaponry caches for new tools. Choose loud or quiet to mark your own style, but no matter how covertly you approach the situation, you’re merely delaying the inevitable firefights against apparently continuously spawning adversaries. You’ll struggle to lose them once spotted.
There’s an intriguing premise here, but it feels quickly put together and lacks diversity or inventiveness. These are also criminally lone character missions with only radio talk for team communication. Since the fundamental Call of Duty pillar of squad mentality and competing with AI colleagues is gone, there’s no camaraderie.
Open Combat Missions:
I feel like I’m playing the same game in different locales because these open combat scenarios have three similar aims. I sometimes prefer mortar strikes over the C4 to eliminate one of the three hostile helicopters. The chapter Highrise kept me excited as I ascended many apartment floors to find a prey, Raid-style. Initially, I liked this mission type, but when “open combat mission” appeared, I sighed.
Some Call of Duty-style linear missions are more consistent and engaging, but neither high nor low. A frozen tundra excursion with a snowstorm-decorated shipyard shootout is ideal. Due to its two-for-one headshots, one stealth mission resembles All Ghillied Up, but many imitators have found that sniping and laying down in the grass doesn’t create the same intensity.
The campaign begins with Warzone’s Verdansk map’s frightening gulag. It has potential and echoes Modern Warfare 2’s Captain Price rescue mission, but its simplistic opponent engagements lack emotion. As usual, this ad fails to establish new task types and relies on nostalgia for excitement.
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