The Call of Duty franchise has become an absolute mammoth in the landscape of gaming. Call of Duty multiplayer is now a staple in the industry and all of the big first-person shooter titles are looking to match its level of success and popularity. Modern Warfare 3, the third installment in the Modern Warfare series, is the eighth part of the overall Call of Duty franchise. Since the game is coming out in just over a month, let’s take a look at what we can expect from the highly-anticipated title.
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The Story So Far
Modern Warfare 3 will take place directly after the events of Modern Warfare 2 and will continue with a single, cohesive story for the series. In the original Modern Warfare game, the events centered around SAS Captain Price and Sergeant “Soap” MacTavish trying to stop the Russian Ultranationalist leader Imran Zakhaev from “returning the Motherland to the times of the Soviet Union.” Zakhaev funds a coup d’état in a Middle Eastern country to draw international attention away from his schemes and the American government finds out about it. US troops bring police action to the Middle Eastern country in order to find the coup’s leader Al-Asad as the SAS continue their operations in Russia.
While attempting to find Al-Asad, a nuclear device is found and detonated, killing most of the 30,000 US Marines who were involved in the police action. The SAS discovers that Al-Asad had fled the country and they track him down and interrogate him. Price finds out that Zakhaev is Al-Asad’s backer, so a joint force of loyalist Russians, US Marines and the SAS has to find Zakhaev’s son. Zakhaev’s son is cornered by the task force and he kills himself to avoid capture. Zakhaev becomes enraged and plans to fire an arsenal of ICBMs with nuclear warheads to take out the East Coast of the United States, which would annihilate an approximated 41 million people. The task force is able to stop the ICBMs by remote-detonating them over the Atlantic and, in their escape attempt, Soap kills Zakhaev and Price is badly wounded.
The second game picks up several years after the first game and sees the Ultranationalists taking control of Russia. They declare Zakhaev a martyr and one of his former lieutenants, Vladimir Makarov, begins a campaign of terrorist attacks on the West. US Army General Shepherd sends one of his Rangers undercover to infiltrate Makarov’s group. Private Allen, the US Ranger undercover in Makarov’s organization, takes part in a brutal massacre at Zakhaev Airport in Russia and Makarov, knowing Allen’s true identity, kills him as the group leaves. Allen’s body is found and identified as an American operative, sparking a war between the United States and Russia.
Task Force 141, an elite team of counter-terrorism troops lead by Soap MacTavish, attempt to find evidence that Makarov was behind the attack in Russia. They find out that Makarov’s worst enemy is being held in a Russian gulag and the 141 assault the gulag and find the prisoner, none other than Captain Price. Price agrees to help the 141 in finding Makarov, but he has his own ideas about how to stop the war.
Meanwhile, the Russians launch an all-out assault on America, dropping troops into Northeastern Virginia and raiding Washington, DC. US Army Rangers, under the command of Sergeant Foley, attempt to repel the invasion and end up in the thick of the fighting in the nation’s capital. As this is going on, Price and the 141 raid a Russian port and find a nuclear submarine. Price launches a nuclear missile and detonates it in the upper atmosphere, destroying the International Space Station and causing a powerful electromagnetic pulse to cripple the technology of both the Russians and the Americans in Washington, DC.
Foley and his squad head to the White House to retake the building and stop an Air Force carpet bombing that would level the city, but stop the Russians from getting a foothold. Foley’s squad stops the bombing with seconds to spare and other buildings deploy green flares to show that the city is mostly under American control.
Meanwhile, the 141 split up in an attempt to find Makarov. One team, consisting of Roach and Ghost, assault Makarov’s safe house and recover data from his computers. As they are about to leave Shepherd shows up and betrays them, killing both Roach and Ghost. Meanwhile, Price and Soap find out about Shepherd’s betrayal and attempt to escape a firefight in an aircraft boneyard in Afghanistan. Makarov’s men and Shepherd’s men both try to take out Price and Soap but are unsuccessful as Nikolai (a Russian loyalist and one of Price’s friends from the first game) picks them up.
Price finds out from Makarov where Shepherd is hiding and Price and Soap go after him to try and stop him. Shepherd has branded them war criminals and the only way for them to clear their names is to find him. After assaulting Shepherd’s base of operations, Soap attempts to kill Shepherd but is stabbed in the chest. Just before Shepherd can kill Soap, Price comes in and tries to fend Shepherd off. Shepherd gets the upper hand and is about to kill Price but before he can, Soap pulls the knife out of his chest and kills Shepherd with it. Nikolai picks them up and Price tells him they need somewhere safe to go. Nikolai says he “knows a place” and the game ends.
Where We Are Going
Modern Warfare 3 will take place directly after the events of the second game and will see Soap and Price attempting to clear their names while the war between the Russian Federation and the United States rages on. The Russians extend their offensive into Europe and gameplay footage from E3 shows US troops fighting off Russian invaders in New York City.
It is unknown if Soap survived the events of the previous game (he was bleeding out at the end of the second game) but I would be highly surprised if Soap did not return. Modern Warfare 3 will feature lots of action in the United States as well as campaign action in Somalia, Moscow, Dubai and Sierra Leone, among other equally diverse locations.
Call of Duty Action
The Modern Warfare series is known for being one of the most fun and accessible experiences in gaming and it has set the gold standard for first-person shooters. Modern Warfare 3 won’t feature a ton of new gameplay features but it will continue the trend of solid, action-packed gameplay and easy-to-use controls that allow people of differing gaming backgrounds to pick up and enjoy the game with equal ease.
The game will utilize the IW engine that has powered the previous Call of Duty games; while it isn’t a new engine, it has been significantly upgraded to better accommodate the gameplay and the graphical requirements that the latest title demands.
Spec-Ops
Spec-Ops mode was introduced in Modern Warfare 2 and it allowed players to either play by themselves or co-operatively with a friend to complete special missions. Spec-Ops mode will return in Modern Warfare 3 and will allow gamers to compete all-new missions, featuring a multitude of action-packed delights including defusing IEDs and surviving wave after wave of enemies.
Survival Mode is the newest addition to the Spec Ops roster and will feature two players trying to hold out as long as they can against an endless horde of oncoming enemies (and yes, I used horde on purpose there). It is very similar to many other “survive against waves of enemies” game modes in other games but it is the Call of Duty take on the concept, giving it instant appeal to the extensive number of fans the series has gained.
Players will earn cash for things like kills and kill streaks, which will allow them to upgrade weapons or call in air strikes. At specific points in the mode, the weapons armory or the air support armory will open up and allow gamers to call in air support, buy new weapons and equipment or upgrade existing provisions. The mode will include many different enemies, including the infamous Juggernauts from the second game that are extremely well armored and are notoriously hard to kill.
Multiplayer
The Modern Warfare series has been a leader in multiplayer innovation for quite some time and the multiplayer element in Modern Warfare 3 has been tweaked significantly to enhance the experience for gamers. Infinity Ward has been working with Sledgehammer Games to create a more balanced and fun multiplayer experience. Killstreak rewards have been totally revamped, allowing gamers to choose from one of three “strike packages” for their killstreak reward. The first is the Assault package and that is very similar to the killstreak package in Modern Warfare 2; it will unlock things like predator drones and helicopters for use by the player. The Support package will allow gamers to pick rewards like UAVs and SAM turrets. The Support package will not reset the killstreak for the player upon death and will accumulate over the course of the match. The Specialist package will reward perks instead of killstreak bonuses.
The killstreak system is not the only thing about multiplayer that has been significantly upgraded. The unlockables and ranking system have also been revamped to make the game experience more complete. Weapons will level up with players, unlike in previous games in the series, and there will not be a currency system like Call of Duty: Black Ops. Certain perks have been removed from the game to make the gameplay more balanced, stopping one player from gaining an unfair advantage.
New multiplayer game modes have been added including Kill Confirmed mode, which will force the killer to recover the dog tag of his kill. If the team who lost a player recovers the dog tag first, then the kill is not recorded. Team Defender mode requires the team to capture the opposing team’s flag and hold onto it for points. Other private matches like Infection (where the infected players kill people to recruit them to their team) and Team Juggernaut (where each player is matched with an AI-controlled Juggernaut character) will be made available. Players can also make their own game modes on top of these, featuring custom player amounts and time limits.
Call of Duty: Elite
Call of Duty: Elite is a free or paid service that will be launching alongside Modern Warfare 3 and will allow players to sync up all of their Call of Duty game experiences. The service will feature things like heat maps and stats, all for free. The service can also be paid for and extra features are made available to paying members. These extra features for paying members will include competitions for real-life prizes, the ability to level up your clan, expert analysis and pro tips.
Showdown of the Year
Modern Warfare 3 is, without a doubt, one of the most anticipated games of 2011 and that is saying quite a bit with the stellar roster of games that we will experience this year. There is, however, one title that is poised to take a stab at Modern Warfare’s dominance in the current-day military setting: Battlefield 3. While the games will be offering very different gameplay experiences, they are similar enough that fans of both have taken sides and some back and forth has already come out of both camps.
Probably the biggest incident involved the domain name www.modernwarfare3.com which re-directed to the Battlefield 3 official site. Activision sued over the use of the domain name and won, successfully taking control of the site. Battlefield 3 developers have been hard at work, making subtle jabs at Call of Duty throughout the promotion of their new title, which has only fueled the rivalry. Activision and its camp, at least officially, seem to be remaining quiet. My guess is that there is no real reason to bark when you are already the top dog and everyone knows it. Battlefield 3 is fighting an uphill struggle and will need all the help it can get to try and dethrone Modern Warfare 3.
Regardless of which game fans take the side of (I like them both personally), it is evident that the games are meant for different audiences and probably aren’t as comparable as many people seem to think. There is no doubt in my mind that both games will do very well for their respective companies and will warrant even more games in the franchises. Battlefield 3 will have the first say when it is released on October 25th.
Wrapping Up
Modern Warfare 3 will be one of biggest releases of the year, if it isn’t the biggest we see in 2011. It will combine a solid story that has been building up for two games, with awesome gameplay, fun multiplayer and new innovations and twists on Call of Duty staples that will continue to please fans of the series. We will have to wait and see which shooter does better in sales and reviews, but regardless of what happens, Modern Warfare 3 will definitely satisfy its fans and open up the world of gaming to even more innovation and fun. Look for Modern Warfare 3, set to be released on the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC on November 8th.
Written By: James Pungello
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