Game Review: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (Xbox 360)

Activision

Clean the Doritos cheese dust from your fingers and grab your headset, it's time for some Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. There will be blood, sweat, and way too many acronyms ahead.

A videogame about shooting things. Writing this review I am questioning how I can describe the MW3 experience in a novel way that is not only accurate to my feelings about the game, but also fair. I could hop on the band wagon and either absolutely trash this game or pretend that it's crafted by Gods but I won't be doing that. Instead, I will tell you about what I found enjoyable: The campaign mode's explosions and set pieces.

Activision

If Michael Bay ever wrote a videogame's campaign, this would be it. Not only is 2/3rds of the campaign explosions, here lies some of the worst writing I have ever heard in any videogame. Complete with horrendously cliche, cheesy dialogue and terribly bad accents, I got the feeling that the writers took a bunch of ideas from various action movies, though it all in a pot with some Velveeta to pick through it for only the most cheesiest of bits and pieces. The writing in this game's campaign mode makes the writing in the movie Red Dawn seem Oscar worthy. 

All of that said, I still enjoyed the campaign mode as it's no secret that I can ignore any sense of plot or logic to enjoy explosions and pretty looking set pieces, even if most of it appears in shades of ash and brown.

Activision 

As for multiplayer, there are two choices: Spec Ops and competitive play. I was never a fan of Spec Ops when it debuted in Modern Warfare 2 and that still holds true, however if you enjoyed it in MW2 there is no doubt that you'll enjoy it in MW3. Now, as a fan of this series competitive online play, I appreciate it in MW3s in that it's fast paced action, it's easy to pick up and it's addicting. Alas, not everything is guns and roses, as after three games of highly similar gameplay the formula has gotten very stale. Typically in the COD series we see two flavors of one game until a notable change appears: COD4 and WaW preceding MW2 and Black Ops. Modern Warfare 3 breaks that comfortable chain and gives us a third offering that contains so few notable changes that I would hesitate to say that it plays any different from MW2. 

Activision

So, what does that all mean? Well if you are a fan of the COD series, especially MW2, then you will probably enjoy MW3. However, if you are a fan of the series and began to get bored with the gameplay formula in Black Ops, then you probably will get bored with this title very quickly unless you fall into the other category. Regardless, if you're not sure about buying this game then I highly recommend renting it first. I'm curious, if you have bought MW3, tell me what you think about it in the comments section below.

This videogame is available on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC, and Wii.