It’s been so many years since I’ve played any Call of Duty game. I had little interest in COD Modern Warfare 3. First I’d balk at the price since it was high to only play campaign. I didn’t want to dive back into the cesspool that is COD multiplayer. The value of the game was not there for me, but when it was on sale I had already moved on and a new COD was already out.
Fast forward to about a month ago and the newest title COD Modern Warfare 3 dropped on Game Pass. After playing Tchia, I decided it was finally time to dive back in. Call of Duty MW3 did not review well due to length and open combat mission experiments. Neither of those mattered to me since it’s included in my subscription.
The short version is yes, the game is a bit short and feels a bit rushed. Despite that though, there are definitely parts of the open combat mission experiment that I like. The more linear missions are still show piece classic COD stuff that’s always welcome.
Coming Back to Call of Duty
I think the last game I played in the Call of Duty series was Black Ops and Modern Warfare. By that, I mean the originals. Yeah that long ago, but I loved them both. The whole Reznov thing in Black Ops 1 was just classic.
I don’t really need to praise the first Modern Warfare, because everyone knows the importance of that entry. People still remember names of missions like “All Gillied Up”. What turned me off of the series after those was multiplayer.
With how busy life was, I did not have time to “get gud” with the multiplayer. Back then I jumped back onto team Battlefield and just could not see a new COD every year as valuable. It’s not worth the asking price to only play a Call of Duty campaign.
I was young then and didn’t realize the things I missed out and I look forward to catching up when they drop the rest on Game Pass
The COD Modern Warfare 3 Open Combat Mission Experiment
Many of the poor COD Modern Warfare 3 reviews mentioned the short length, the strange open combat missions and rushed feeling of the game. It would surprise no one if the developers were under tight deadlines and crunch. Maybe the multiplayer-like open combat missions were a time saver, but it seems more like an experiment to me.
Call of Duty is known for very cinematic missions, but they are also very linear. The open combat missions at least appear to be an attempt by the developers to open things up a bit. There’s objectives and supply drops, but the path from beginning to end is open. There’s bits of story at points, but mostly via radio chatter.
The first of these missions, Precious Cargo, was the weakest attempt at this new format. It’s map of a port with plenty of shipping containers fell flat for me. It really felt like playing on a multiplayer map against bots. It was such a drastic difference from the previous linear mission, in a bad way.
Well the good news is the open combat missions are divided amongst the more classic style ones. I also felt the open combat missions were each better than the previous ones.
Charting my Own Path in COD Modern Warfare 3
Crash Site was next up for open combat missions. The objective was to investigate an airliner crash site. I still remember hijacking a remote turret to fend off the enemy reinforcements in that. It was not a required part of the mission, just a choice I made based on equipment I found.
It was refreshing trying stealth approach at first, then switching to run and gun once I screwed up. It was better than Precious Cargo, then the Oligarch open combat mission was even better than Crash Site. The artwork of the coastline mansion in Oligarch was very well done.
It gave a bit of a Tier 1 Operator action movie feel to it. Go in alone to complete the objective how you see fit. Again, I started with a stealth approach then all hell broke loose. My mistake led to a helicopter, drones and plenty of enemy backup all attacking me.
My favorite was the High Rise mission though, I enjoyed fighting room to room, then floor to floor. I’d shift to short cuts outside of the building, then back in. I’d toss grenades and use other gadgets to press my advantage in close quarters.
All that mayhem was before fighting it out on the roof, then exfiltrating via skyhook with the high value target in tow.
The Future of Call of Duty Open Combat Missions
These open combat missions were a bit hit or miss. The final one, Gora Dam, was a miss for me. Overall though, I liked that they experimented with the formula in COD Modern Warfare 3. I think there’s a lot of value in the freedom to choose equipment and paths to the objective. There’s fun there.
I’d love to see them find a middle ground between open combat missions and the more linear ones. Having choices is great, but not at the expense of some of the more scripted moments. If they can pack in a ton of possible scripted moments with choice of path, I think it’s a winning combination.
It would capture the feeling of playing the game “my way” and add to the replayability to see all scripted moments. Regardless if they do any of that, this taste of Call of Duty has me ready to dive into the next game.