Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

10 Hours or Less

The Bottom Line:

"Don't believe the hype"

I have to admit that I'm a bit of a hypocrite. The first Call of Duty game I ever played was Modern Warfare 2. I had only had my PS3 for a few months, and I dismissed that game as just another popular fad that would probably die out sooner or later. After watching the review here on Gamespot, however, I was blown away by the graphics and overall gameplay. I ran out, bought the game, and played it on and off until this day. Since then, we've had Black Ops and now Modern Warfare 3. I wasn't really planning on getting either, but all the hype won me over in the end, despite my better judgment. Black Ops ended up being decent, but nowhere near the level of MW2 for me. Now with MW3, I have to admit that this will be the last time I purchase a new Call of Duty game. I was enticed by the ideas behind the multiplayer where someone who doesn't normally have very good kill streaks, such as myself, can still get off some good bonuses. Unfortunately, this game just ended up being a very flat experience for me. Between the campaign just not really being as satisfying as I hoped and the unnecessary multiplayer tweaks, I have to admit that I'm not very impressed with this year's release.

GAMEPLAY - Not a lot has changed here. There are some new guns, some old ones, and a lot more customization. Single player and Spec Ops are what they are, so I'm mainly going to focus on the multiplayer for this game. All you need to know for the single player is that, yes, it does continue the story from the second game. While the first couple of levels were a lot of fun, from there it pretty much trailed off and became very predictable...and not in a good way.

As for the multiplayer, there are a lot of new tweaks to the format, but not all are for the best. Somehow people have still managed to make the new Kill Confirm mode pointless, which just goes to show the lack of creativity on Infinity Ward's part. There are also some new perks that are incredibly overpowered. One in particular is called Assassin, which makes you pretty much invisible in every way unless someone sees you in front of them. Imagine my surprise when I let off a UAV and I see maybe two enemies on the whole map. This just furthers the segregation between players who spend more time playing than others. For a game that claims it is narrowing the gap between player skills of all types, this seems very counterproductive.

Although I will say that I like the fact that you unlock things for weapons simply by using them. This makes guns like the SCAR and the P90 (favorites of mine) very easy to customize in just the right ways for me. But along with this, there are more negatives. None of the multiplayer maps stand out anymore. They are built around face-to-face engagements, and sniping opportunities have been severely reduced. Furthermore, I played split screen with a friend, and it took us 3 or 4 minutes just to run into each other on all but one of the maps. This is really inexcusable for a series of games that should be improving the format...not taking away from it.

I could go on and on about the unevenness and general disappointment I have for the gameplay, but I'm sure I've gotten my opinion across. This is by far the worst installment yet, and the developers have done more harm than good to the overall gameplay. - 7/10

STORY - The story here continues after Modern Warfare 2. While World War 3 is basically about to commence, Price and Soap are still after Makarov, who kidnaps the Russian president shortly into the campaign. It's a pretty decent campaign, but nothing we haven't seen before. The "holy s**t" moments don't make an impact like they once did here though. Outside of the first couple of missions, this felt like old hat in pretty much every way. - 7/10

GRAPHICS - The graphics have been given a slight improvement, though they still look pretty much the same as they did in Modern Warfare 2. I'm sure some of this has to do with the change in environments, but overall there isn't anything mind-blowing here. - 8/10

SOUND - A lot of the same voice actors return here, which is a good thing. Supposedly the developers took the time to make the guns sound a lot more realistic, but I couldn't tell the difference. So yeah...nothing outstanding here either. - 7.5/10

LENGTH/REPLAY VALUE - The campaign is actually probably the shortest to date, which is really disappointing for someone like me who likes a little length to the single player. As for the multiplayer...well, it is what it is. Nothing has changed, so I'm sure you can judge that for yourself. It's just a matter of whether or not you like the new changes they have made. - 8.5/10

BOTTOM LINE - Modern Warfare 3 is one of the most disappointing games of the year. For a game that had this much hype to it, it really under-delivered. None of the multiplayer maps are memorable, the campaign is very predictable, and despite their best efforts to narrow the dividing line between players of varying experience levels, they have just further pushed them apart. Maybe if they had released a beta like Battlefield 3 did, this would have turned out a lot better. It just goes to show that even though developers might think something might be a great success in theory, you won't know for sure until the public plays it. As it is though, this is by far the worst Call of Duty I have played. Do yourselves a favor and save the money if you're thinking about buying it. And shame on all of these websites who don't have the balls to say that this is the same crap year after year like they do with pretty much every other franchise out there. This proves that either a) they don't want massive fan backlash, or b) they really ARE getting paid-off by some of these game companies. I don't know about all of you, but I'm going to stick with Modern Warfare 2 for my multiplayer experience. That game has everything this didn't; a compelling story, great multiplayer maps, fantastic gun selection...the list goes on. Sorry, Activision, this will be the last of your games that I rush out and buy, no matter how big the hype is. I can already sense that whatever fad you have created with Call of Duty on current consoles is quickly coming to a close. - 7.5/10