Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
This year, Call of Duty asks: is nostalgia worth £70?
In 20 years of Call of Duty baton-passing, Modern Warfare 3 presents a unique opportunity for persnickety fans like myself: Sledgehammer has been entrusted a direct sequel to Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare 2 reboot just a year after its release, with the same engine and full backwards compatibility with MW2’s guns and attachments.
I imagine this is a pretty big deal for Sledgehammer. The Bay Area studio has spent a decade playing third fiddle to its more senior Infinity Ward and Treyarch collaborators, serving as a support studio when necessary and garnering a reputation as the “offbeat” CoDstudio with Advanced Warfare (2014), WW2 (2017), and
Vanguard (2021) – all entries that tried to reach beyond where CoDwas, and either fell flat or didn’t make a significant mark in series canon. Simply by being a Modern Warfaregame, MW3is the studio’s highest-profile project ever.
PLAYED IT
After a few days playing Modern Warfare 3’s multiplayer beta, it might also prove to be the strangest CoDpackage in years. The beta was essentially a tasting menu of MW3’s full-course nostalgia for the original 2009 Modern Warfare 2.
FAMILIAR SIGHTS
Yes, it’s a confusing pretzel of sequels and recursive reboots, but the takeaway is that Activision is betting big on players wanting to relive a well-remembered CoDfrom 14 years ago, so much so that it’s willing to forgo MW3having any real identity of its own. Instead of having original multiplayer maps, MW3will only feature remakes of MW2 (2009) maps at launch. During the beta, I’ve played five: Favela, Skidrow, Rust, Highrise and Estate.
SLEDGEHAMMER HAS CHARTED ITS OWN PATH, WITH MAJOR ADJUSTMENTS TO MOVEMENT
It’s a little embarrassing to admit, but yeah, the nostalgia is working. I played a whole lot of MW2in 2009, as you do when you’re 13 and most of your friends are online too, so it’s not surprising that these maps are still branded into my brain. Sprinting down the centre lane of Highrise gave me the same sentimental rush I get when I drive by my old middle school. Sledgehammer clearly understands the assignment – modernise, but preserve the map’s visual identity – and I think it’s so far nailed it, with the exception of Favela. MW3Favela doesn’t quite replicate 2009’s dingy art style: the new one is cleaner, brighter, and more saturated. That’s an entirely valid interpretation of Favela that I like just fine, but it does stand out next to Estate and Rust, which are so faithful to their originals that they stop feeling like remakes and just become those maps.
And hey… some of those maps kinda sucked, huh? It was bold of Sledgehammer to toss Estate into the mix so early on, because ten minutes on that map reminded me why I voted
