Modern Warfare 3 (PS3)

By Wayne Webb

Latest in a long line of excellent Call Of Duty First Person Shooter games, Modern Warfare 3 delivers everything you want except innovation. It is an excellent game, the graphics are crisp and detailed, the action is stunning and satisfying and the replay value is very good.

Machismo and bullets fly freely in the latest game which has a somewhat ludicrous prospect of full scale warfare and wanton destruction caused by a couple of rogue Russian elements keen on WW3.

From there soldiers on both sides go on indiscriminate killing sprees that in real life would be war crimes – but in game parlance are just fun. There’s no denying the boy’s own adventure appeal of sniper missions, stealth kills and take no prisoner attitudes. But this game has no equivalent in reality; it’s pure fantasy, which in turn makes it acceptable fun as long as you can tell the difference.   

Multiplayer is excellent as usual with new maps, improved heads-up display and perks. I logged on and within the space of a few team deathmatch games I once again found that the online world seems full of dead-eyed, lightning reflexed children, intent on ending my foray into warfare. Special Ops packages introduced in MW2 are back and add another level of playability, skill and challenge to the existing maps with some extra features for the obsessive gamers.

I have one criticism and it weighs heavy on me. I feel that the game is a little tired, or perhaps the designers might be lacking imagination. The Wall Street firefight looks like the TV station firefight from a previous version. The African level feels like the level in Brazil’s slums, and so on. Each level is like a re-skinned version of something I have played before in another Modern Warfare iteration. As much as I realise that MW games are not likely to change, this same-ness to level design makes it feel like something borrowed not something new.

Not that this niggle should stop you playing, or even make you hesitate from starting it up. This is still an excellent game and top of the field in shooters. If you’ve not played any games for the Call of Duty franchise then it’s great place to start. However, if you have – just be aware that it’s a new look version of the same game.

Pros: Story, gameplay, graphics, action, multiplayer and Spec Ops missions all top notch
Cons: It feels borrowed

4.5 Shacks Out of 5

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