Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

20 to 40 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Best in series"

Pros:
-Campaign is solid and well done with good variety and intense cinematic action.
-Multiplayer is fun, addicting, varied, expansive, and full of features.
-Spec Ops is back and better than ever, with all new Survival Mode
-Same great COD game play

Cons:
-Not much has changed.

COD has become a household name, it is a staple in the market place and is arguably the best in it's genre. Ever since the series made it's debut it has seen a constant stream of success and praise, garnering millions of fans. And these fans will be pleased to hear that Modern Warfare 3 delivers, and it does it with a bang!

Modern Warfare 3's story mode picks up immediately after the events in Modern Warfare 2, Shepard lies dead and you are back off chasing Makarov, who is still set in his goal to ignite World War 3, and it is up to you and the usual gang to stop it. A few new characters are introduced, but for the most part it's the same familiar faces you have grown accustomed to like Soap and Price.The storyline is your standard COD fair, but throughout it you keep getting this sense of a massive conflict getting ready to explode, and when it happens it's intense! The campaign it's self will last you around 8-10 hours, depending on what difficulty you play on. You will fight your way through many different locations, from 3rd world conflicts in Africa to war torn Paris, and much more! All the while enjoying the amount of variety the campaign gives you.

On one mission you will be in the middle of a literal war zone with pure chaotic shoot outs as you fight your way through armies of enemies, then on another mission you will be sneaking your across behind enemy lines, carefully avoiding patrols and conflict, and on another you will be bouncing back and forth between being a soldier on the ground and a pilot in a jet that clears the way of tanks and other enemies from the sky. Modern Warfare 3 keeps changing how you play it, and it keeps the campaign fresh and stops it from feeling repetitive. The campaign is also full of the same intense cinematic action that helped to make COD such a success and one of the many reasons why it stands above other shooters on the market.

After you finish the great campaign you are greeted to a new first for COD, Survival Spec Ops. Survival is pretty self explanatory, try to stay alive against wave after wave of increasingly difficult enemies, and it has been done in other games before. But what seperates COD's survival from those other game's is that COD does it very well, Modern Warfare 3 has perfectly refined it. There is quite a large range of survival maps you can try, each of them having their own unique setting, and ranging in different map sizes.

This isn't just some tacked on mode, this is fully robust amazing new game type that is packed full of content. You will find yourself returning to it time and time again. And the best part is, you are not alone. You can bring a friend with you, either through online or split screen. In survival you start off with weaker guns generally, and in some cases it's only a hand gun, throughout the course of survival you will earn cash (as well as XP ) which you can then use to purchase and upgrade weapons, perks, explosives, or support like Hovering Air Strikes or Drones.

There are 3 computer crates that you can go to for either of these things, the gun mark will obviously give you new guns to purchase and upgrade, as well as get more ammo if you need it. The grenade computer will give you explosives as well as some support items like body armor and even some 1 time perks. Then there is the support computer marked with an air ship, this will give you drone attacks, supply drops, and other useful things you can use to aid you. This however all costs money, so you have to spend it wisely. This makes it all the more strategic and gives you plenty of options to choose how to play and how to plan.

Spec Ops also comes with missions similar to Modern Warfare 2.You once again start off with a small number and you unlock more by completing the missions and getting a certain number of starts, with harder difficulties giving you even more. These missions have a ton of variety to them, some will be all out action based, others will be more slower and tactical, there are even some stealth missions as well. There is so much to keep you busy it's insane, and it's even better when you bring a buddy along for the ride. An interesting design choice that Infinity Ward/Sledge Hammer made was to keep your Spec Ops level seperate from your competitive multiplayer level. This makes it all the more addicting! It was a smart choice and it pays off.

And of course it wouldn't be a COD game without it's competitive multiplayer, and this time it's even better! Packed full of features and modes and unlocks, Modern Warfare 3 is the ultimate package and you couldn't ask for more in an FPS multiplayer. And you can play online with a friend in split screen, something a lot of other games unfortunately scruff at. This is one of the most feature rich FPS games out there, but lot's of content alone does not make a game good, it's the gameplay. And fortunately Modern Warfare 2 delivers full in both aspects! The gameplay has not changed much from past COD games, which is not a bad thing in it's self, as COD has the FPS gameplay perfected. But it would have been nice to have added some new things to it, or at least tried a few new ideas. But this is a minor thing, and is easily over looked because Modern Warfare 3's overall gameplay is of such high quality.

Modern Warfare 3 has more than enough content to keep you busy for a LONG time to come. With it's great campaign, addicting gameplay, fun new survival mode and speck ops missoins, and feature rich multiplayer, Modern Warfare 3 has earned it's place as the best COD yet. Modern Warfare 3 is not only a must play for COD fans, but for all FPS fans in general.

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 get's a 9/10