Is Modern Warfare III the redemption arc for the Call of Duty franchise?
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III beta has now come to a close, and we have to wait until November 10, 2023, until the full game’s release. It’s been a very enjoyable experience, and after going through two beta weekends, it’s best to leave an impression for you guys to think about. If you didn’t know by now, you’re guaranteed to play in many of the iconic and most memorable maps from the original Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II era. But the beta only allowed access to a few of those maps, which are Favela, Estate, Skidrow, and in the second beta week, Highrise and Rust.
As for game modes, there’s the Mosh Pit that consists of team deathmatch, domination, hardpoint, and later on, kill confirmed. Along with other modes like Ground War, Search and Destroy, and this new game mode called cutthroat, which involves three teams going against each other, and the first to reach the round win limit is the winner. We were also treated with double XP for all game modes, and players could rank up to level 30 maximum.
It must be said, but having to play in the likes of Highrise, Skidrow, and Favela took me back to my teen years, and it’s great having to relive those times again. Some of you may think otherwise, but this is better than simply reskinning most maps and then posing them off as brand new; like they’ve been doing for years. Albeit, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III will have new maps involved. They’ve simply remastered these maps, and they look much more stunningly detailed. Also, voting on maps you’d like to play in lobbies has returned.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III’s primary weapons have a good lineup, and unfortunately, not all weapons are available, but there are two weapons you must try. Firstly, the striker, which is an elite weapon that will tear enemies to shreds at close to mid-range proximities. And because of this, there was recently a nerf done to make the weapon less “broken”. But it’s still a beast weapon nonetheless.
This SMG weapon is getting so much love from the Call of Duty community because it hugely resembles the iconic UMP weapon from 2009’s Modern Warfare 2. And if you were in that era, you’d know that it was one of the go-to SMGs.
Secondly, the MCW is also getting love (arguably more love than the Striker), as it hugely resembles the ACR from Modern Warfare 2. This weapon is an absolute machine, and just like the ACR, this gun has virtually zero recoil, and you can shoot recklessly and get away with it, even from much longer distances.
Thank goodness they’ve seemingly ditched the previous perk system and gone back to the traditional version. You don’t have to unlock perks as you progress through the game, but rather, you’ll have all three perks available throughout your matches. Also, the perks are now in the form of gears rather than icons to symbolise these perks. For example, the scavenger perk usually had an icon with a bird in it, but now they’ve used gloves to represent the perk.
They’ve gone for a more realistic look for this, and it’s a change that’s also welcoming. Now brace yourselves, folks, dead silence has returned. Yes, the ever-loving perk where you can roam freely, and you don’t have to worry about your footsteps being heard. But in Modern Warfare III, they’re called ‘covert sneakers’.
There’s not much to say about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III’s kill streaks because these may not be in the final version. But there’s one kill streak that caught my attention, and that’s the Guardian-SC. This new kill streak is a beam-shaped and nonlethal denial weapon that reduces the movement and speed of enemies that come into contact with it. It also induces blurred vision and has virtually the same properties as stun grenades.
It’s worth mentioning that you can toggle between kill streaks and score streak tallies. Therefore, if it takes four consecutive kills to get a UAV, that’s equivalent to 500 score streaks if you go for that option.
Now, on to the question you’ve been wondering. Although, and that is – is Call of Duty finally back? And the answer to that is, despite there being a couple of great titles in recent years, yes, Call of Duty is back. Along with the nostalgic content, they’ve produced a much faster-paced multiplayer gameplay, and it is a genuinely more engaging and immersive successor. A brand new movement, classic mini maps, slide cancelling, and much more to give Modern Warfare III the mechanics you’ve longed for.
Having said that, it’s crystal clear that the developers have run out of ideas and have heavily relied on older assets, and that’s fine. They say that you need to let go of the past. But there’s no harm in Sledgehammer Games giving the community the content that made them fall in love with Call of Duty in the first place. Ironically, it’s the aforementioned features and more that’ll most likely give the franchise a better future.
And with all that said and done, there are two issues with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III. One, there is the spawn system. Many times, you’ll spawn in places you should be. You’d spawn right near an enemy, whether it’s in front of them, behind them, and so on. And this is increasingly problematic in objective game modes like hardpoint. This must be fixed before launch.
Another is having to pay full price for a game where most of the multiplayer mode’s content and features are from an original that was released fourteen years ago. So that begs the question of whether you should get it on release day or wait until the game becomes cheaper. The answer to that is up to you.
