It is quite an achievement that the Call of Duty franchise has now released twenty games in the span of twenty years. With their amazing release of “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II” last year (check out my review HERE) setting their own bar very high, the machine continues to churn out another new game right on time. This time with “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III,” which is a bit odd seeing as how they don’t normally do a sequel to one of their sub-series right after the other. But here we are, this one done by Sledgehammer Games, their previous entry in the series was “Call of Duty: Vanguard” (check out the review HERE), not everyone’s favorite, but had a fun enough campaign for me to enjoy, so I was very curious to jump in and see why Activision thought it was important to do another Modern Warfare so quickly.
As I booted up my PlayStation 5, I quickly noticed that my copy of “Modern Warfare III” was displayed as DLC for “Modern Warfare II.” For a brand-new full priced game coming out this felt like an odd error. Upon looking more into the issue, it seems this whole game was originally planned to be an expansion pack for last year’s title. That was really unfortunate to hear, but I still wanted to give the product the benefit of the doubt and experience it for myself. It’s a bummer to say that after completing the campaign, in just a few hours, this does in fact feel like it was just some DLC missions cobbled together. There are about fourteen missions that are all very short. Many of which felt like spec op missions from the previous title. If I was a regular Joe who didn’t keep up with gaming news and went into the store to buy the new seventy dollar Call of Duty game, I would have been incredibly upset with what was given to us for a campaign. I know the campaign aspects of these games are now secondary to the multiplayer these days, but they often still felt like very enjoyable products on their own.
So, let’s move onto the Multiplayer now shall we. A lot of the hype for this game was that they’re bringing back all sixteen of the original maps from the 2009 version of “Modern Warfare II.” Many of these are very iconic maps that I’m sure some hardcore fans will love to see. The fact that these are maps from “Modern Warfare II” and not “III” is also a clear sign that all of this was supposed to be DLC. I don’t think there are any original maps in this game, if there are they probably aren’t even out yet. A Zombies mode is also available and there are fun times to be had there if you’re a fan of this mode. But that’s kind of all this game has to offer, and I’m pretty shocked. Technically, the game still plays like butter, like the previous game. There is honestly not much else to say here… which feels wrong.
There is an article written by Jason Schrier over at Bloomberg where he discovered some really unfortunate things about the development of this game. Sledgehammer seemed to have gone through some serious crunch when making “Vanguard,” and they were assured that wouldn’t happen again only to find out they have a year and a half to release their next game. “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III” is just a gap game to have something to release this holiday season and unfortunately it truly shows. The fanbase is so huge I’m curious how many will even care and will still buy this title at full price, I’m sure that is something Activision is banking on. While the core “COD” gameplay is still here and is still fun to play, this cobbled campaign is just not, it’s in fact rather quick and boring. I don’t mean to kick a developer while they’re down, this final product isn’t a showcase of the true talents at Sledgehammer games, but this isn’t a game I can give a good score to.
5/10
For more information, visit https://www.callofduty.com/
Related: Nick Navarro Reviews
Gaming since I was given an original Nintendo as a kid. I love great storytelling and unique ingenuity. When both collide in a single game, I'm a happy gamer. Twitter/IG @NickNavarro87
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