The world may be days out from the latest Call of Duty title’s launch, but Modern Warfare 3 megafans have gotten their hands on the campaign early thanks to Activision’s preorder bonus—and they’re certainly not enjoying a major element of the story and gameplay.
MW3’s campaign features “Open Combat Missions,” where players are dropped into a Warzone-like map with objectives, weapon crates to loot, and enemies to avoid or kill to progress the campaign. On paper, fans were excited to experience a well-written story with beloved characters playing out on massive set pieces.
In reality, these open missions are nightmarishly small, bland, and outright lazy—and fans are pissed. “They basically took a MW map, slapped some objectives on it, and put random crates,” one player said. “That’s it. No huge set pieces, and no memorable gameplay stuff.”
Another player described CoD campaigns as groundbreaking and the campaigns of classic CoD titles like Modern Warfare (2007), Modern Warfare 2 (2009), and Black Ops (2010) set the stage for the multiplayer—but felt this iteration of MW3 falls very short. “This game is completely removed from its origins.”
One player went so far as to suggest that, without any meaningful competition in the market and after establishing itself as a “household name,” CoD titles no longer need the polish the classics felt they had as people just purchase them automatically. As a result, elements like these copy-and-paste Warzone missions have crept into the game.
After playing through the campaign myself, I can safely say these open missions are some of the worst additions to a CoD title in recent memory. Interjected between the more linear and cinematic missions, they detract from the flow of the story, and the addition of the map’s loadouts—a feature that worked just fine in Battlefield: Bad Company 2 way back in 2010—feels shoddy and rushed.
Throw on an underwhelming conclusion to the story, the overall length—just three to four hours—and a rehash of even more old material coming in multiplayer this weekend, and it’s clear to see why players are dissatisfied.
Here’s hoping multiplayer this weekend, which sees players return to the battlegrounds of old, will sate the community’s appetite for a great CoD game. Otherwise, you won’t see me back.
