The Story

Everything picks back up right after Modern Warfare 2. If you recall, those crazy Russians are still running amok and fucking up everyone's good time. That's not good. Enter in a bunch of bad ass soldiers and operatives to the world's rescue to kick those pesky Russians in the nards and to get them with the program. On the back side of things, the main antagonist, "Crazy Ivan" is being hunted down for revenge by a bunch of those aforementioned bad asses for past deeds. Without ruining the story, there are a lot of major cities getting blown up and a lot of blood and violence. All of this while the general populace stays mostly in the dark.

Hated

Lack of innovation to the core game play would have to be my biggest gripe. Granted, they do have a system that isn't too broken and works, but I truly felt like I was playing Modern Warfare 2 with different levels and a continued story. I totally get the "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." mentality, but if you don't have new game play or visuals, do you really need to package a whole new game over selling a cheaper DLC expansion? I want to have a new "WOW" feeling with new games, not the same thing repackaged with a different story. Hopefully when Modern Warfare 4 comes out - of course, we know it will with the $775 million in sales of MW3 - we can get some truly new features and game play.

Building off that, given the fact that no real features seemed to be added, why was the campaign so short? I played on Veteran and took my time to find the intel on every level - not to mention just to look at the designs - and it still only took me about 10 hours. I most likely could have hammered through in 4 to 5 hours if I didn't like looking around when playing. It was too short. It was like they are slowly trying to phase out campaign mode in CoD just so they can spend all the time on the multiplayer. Yes, that is now the bread and butter of the franchise, more so now with Elite, but they've had that all pegged down for a while. Why not give us solo players more of a reason to play the game. It's not like maps used in the campaign can't be used as multiplayer maps. All that would need to be stripped is all the story elements and then bam, two birds one stone. That is a gross over simplification though.

Lastly, and this is a bit of a nitpick, why spend so much time pimping out your new service and experience for the multiplayer and not have it working for the first few weeks of launch? I would have let it slide if it wasn't one of the biggest things that were being marketed to go along with the game. If it was listed as a feature I wouldn't have been so upset every time I tried to log into it over the past week. But it was a selling point of the game. Maybe there should have been a delay or testing earlier on. Either way, it does make the game lose a few points until Elite is fully running.

Loved

While I mention that it felt like there wasn't all that much added to the overall game, it did feel that the controls were a bit tighter. Granted this could also be a bit of muscle memory from the earlier titles, or signs of me getting better, but it felt quite a bit easier to move, aim and shoot. Be it what it may, it felt like an improvement over past titles. So there is at least that for something new.

I also have to say that I was a huge fan of the story and how it was mostly concluded here. I know a lot of you out there couldn't give more than a rat's ass about the story but it was pretty decent. A little predictable at times, but it was totally worth playing through it just to get something more than a multiplayer shooter. It does start out a bit slow and kind of 'blah', but it picks up and has quite a few jaw dropping moments. Even some of the predictable stuff inspired a bit of the "Wow" effect.

Lastly and how could I not touch on it - the multiplayer? While I have not had loads of play time in the MP, I will say it was quite addictive. What I thought would be a few rounds somehow turned into hours of play time. In the past I've maybe put in a few hours total into the MP on CoD games. Somehow the crack they mixed into the multiplayer here got me hooked. If it wasn't for the lack of time in the day, I'd probably have already racked up enough hours there to cover all the missed on every other title in the franchise. I am still at a loss as to what has changed to inspire such feelings, but there was something.

Overview

As always, should you buy Modern Warfare 3? For that answer, I think I can break the buyer base into thirds.

Obviously those rabid fans of the MP have already purchased the game blindly without waiting for review, so I am sure my words have fallen on deaf ears.

Then you have another third of gamers who would be interested in playing the campaign and dabbles in the MP if at all. I'd say that group might do better with renting and trying before dropping the full amount of a game here. That is if they don't rent it and fall into the final third.

The final third here would be the player, like me, who thought "I'll get the game because I enjoy the story and then maybe give the MP a try." Only to find out that the MP is now more addictive than ever. At this point the game is totally worth a purchase. Especially since Elite will be adding a slew of new features to everything. At least once it is up and running for everyone.

Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was developed by Infinity Ward/Sledgehammer Games and published by Activision on November 8^th 2011 for the PC, PS3, XBox 360 and Wii. Single player was played on Veteran difficulty and took around 8 hours. About 2-4 hours were spent on Multiplayer and Spec Ops.