Green Room Review| Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III (2023)| Campaign Review

 

Image Credit: Xbox

Call of duty has now made its second Modern Warfare trilogy and with its recent introduction to Gamepass I decided why not give it a shot. MWIII picks up after all the seasonal content from MWII which can immediately make it confusing to those who like me stopped playing early on in the seasons as it felt more a like a chore to keep up. It progresses the story started in MW (2019) about the new TF-141 and brings back characters from both previous games like Alex, Farah, Soap, and Ghost. Now lets ask a few questions that I hope to explore in this review. Does MWIII close the trilogy in a satisfying way? Does it live up to the original MW trilogy? Is it just an overpriced DLC? Let's Dive in! 

(Reviewed On Xbox Series X through Gamepass download.)

So the gameplay is where we'll start it feels like MWII in many ways but the major change is a new mission type never before seen in the Call of Duty series' 20 year history. Open Combat missions feel like a DMZ-lite mode where you are dropped into an open world and given limited supplies and must scrounge for more by opening supply crates, killing enemies, and finding loadout boxes. These missions feel out of place in the campaign as they use full warzone/DMZ mechanics such as armor, parachuting, and vehicle usage unlike the more traditional linear missions. Many weapons are weapons from MWII as the game is built on the same skeleton as MWII with the same or similar mechanics. Many times they show cutscenes in missions and take away control from the player for things we have done in previous CoD games like rappelling and diving. To summarize it doesn't change or innovate in any meaningful way the open combat missions make me realize why CoD have never broken from the linear missions before the game feels just like the previous years entry with worse missions.

Storywise the game is very similar to the older MW stories and is Makarov's attempt to take the spotlight and plunge the world into chaos. Many players had complained about the new mission that was supposed to be this trilogies "No Russian" called "Passenger" and its failure to make you hate Makarov but within a few missions the player experiences a truly despicable act from Makarov where he attacks both the Stadium and airport in Verdansk killing thousands and having to avoid civilians while fighting through the stadium mid evacuation. The story had me very confused as it hopped between locations and characters without much explanation aside from whatever weapon or person we had to find was in that location. Makarov's attempts to start WW3 overall were very convoluted and  senseless and made him feel more like a bad Bond villain than the calculated, calm, and violent mastermind he was in the original Modern Warfare trilogy. Overall the story felt like a senseless joyride from one location to the next for an unsatisfying conclusion to draw players into the seasonal storyline in warzone.

The game carries forward the great sound design of the previous titles; the guns sound powerful, the actors do good, and the music is decent at conveying the games tone and the tone of the missions. The guns sounds make you feel like you're actually using a weapon of war blasting through the enemies. The music helps to carry you through the missions making you feel like you're in the midst of a movie. Overall the sound is one the strong points in an overall average experience. The tracks aren't as memorable as Hans Zimmer's score for the original MW2 but do make the game slightly more enjoyable.

To summarize Modern Warfare III fails to live up to its predecessors of the original Modern Warfare trilogy but provides quick and cheap thrills now that it is on gamepass. This game won't doesn't reinvent the wheel but provides some thrilling set pieces and if you have grown attached to the characters in the past two Modern Warfare titles provides an interesting update to their stories. The lack of anything major being added and the less than interesting open combat missions that break up the gameplay from the well crafted linear missions drags it down and destroys the pace of the title. The game has earned a 2.5/5 as it is just an average experience with nothing new to set it apart from the previous releases of the series. Thank You for reading! What is you're favorite CoD Subseries or game? Let Me know in the Comments!