Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3: Review

This game was reviewed on the Xbox Series X.

Reviewed by: II.C. Leviathan

This review is about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2023) on Xbox Series X, and the score for this review is 2 out of 10.

Although there are some positive aspects to the game, the overwhelming terribleness and negative elements overshadow them. Modern Warfare 3 (MW3) has omitted certain features compared to its predecessor, Modern Warfare 2 (MW2). One notable absence is the option for hit markers in the campaign. You can't tell if you've hit the enemy, and while hit markers exist in multiplayer, they are insufficient and don't differentiate between a regular hit and a headshot.

On the positive side, the game offers a variety of weapons and gear in both multiplayer and the campaign. The graphics and framerate run smoothly enough on Series X/S, and the graphics options are mostly consistent with MW2. One thing that's neither positive nor negative is that the gunplay feels the same in both MW2 and MW3.

Campaign –

The campaign is extremely short, taking about 4 hours to complete on Regular or Recruit difficulty. It's more of a glorified DLC than a sequel to MW2. Many elements in the campaign are taken from Warzone, including the Open Combat missions, which are maps recycled from DMZ and Warzone.

The only significant difference is the ability to find weapons and equipment in crates, but it gets very tedious and boring having to find them again for every mission. Other issues with the campaign include the inability to mark anything on the Tac Map in missions, a dull storyline with nothing significant happening, no real stakes, and a lack of access to the inventory system like in Warzone and DMZ.

In the mission Passenger, it's just a cutscene; even if you do nothing when the icons appear, it still plays out the same way. All the vehicles that you can get into control like tanks. Glitches are prevalent, especially in Oligarch and Dam, where the water has a disconcerting black and white static effect. The final mission suffers from locking up in certain parts, requiring multiple restarts.

Multiplayer –

The multiplayer is like what you'd expect, but with a few differences. While there are plenty of options, the weapon selection screen can be confusing and annoying, requiring an extra button press to access the gunsmith.

Bonus challenges are less varied and more time-consuming in MW3, and there are occasional glitches with daily challenges. Camos for guns are shinier in MW3, and while the maps are okay, the spawns are terrible, and some aesthetics are bland and muted, making it hard to distinguish enemies from terrain. Multiplayer gameplay is glitchy, with dead bodies and live players falling through the map. War mode in MW3 is a callback to WWII and is enjoyable to play with friends occasionally.

After obtaining the game, I found that, despite having the 'vault' edition, the guns and skins were locked, expecting me to buy the vault edition.

Zombies –

Zombies was anticipated to be interesting but ultimately fell flat. Gone are the days of round-based and map-sized play; now it's an open world, always online and mostly boring mess with other players on the same map as you. Zombies are spread inconsistently around the map; you'll be walking around trying to find them with no luck, then suddenly, you'll be swarmed with them. There are also enemy combatants that you must deal with that use guns and can shoot you dead with extremely good accuracy sometimes, along with zombies.

Weapon crates spawn less frequently compared to Warzone and DMZ. There's a glitch where your right stick is unresponsive, leaving you stuck looking at the ground. Zombies can glitch through the helicopter during exfil and still damage you. The missions for the storyline are tedious, requiring completion of twenty-five missions before progressing to the next act.

Also, after every exfil or death, you will need to re-add your friends to your fireteam because it kicks everyone out of the party. The last thing about zombies is that the open world can get massively lagged because of an exploit that players have found; players suffer because of it.

In conclusion, Modern Warfare 3 is a terrible game overall. Activision should've skipped this year and focused on quality over quantity. Save your money and continue playing Modern Warfare 2 instead; while it's buggy, it's not as buggy as Modern Warfare 3.

Reviewed by: I.C. Leviathan