Let's start with the campaign and work our way through the game from there. The campaign is short, at about 4 to 5 hours completion time, and it's not the same style of campaign that we have seen from other Call of Duty games. In fact, the campaign feels like it was made entirely within the multiplayer toolset that Call of Duty employs and coupled together with pre-rendered CG scenes, as opposed to being made and designed in a more linear and traditional single-player focus. The AI is clumsy at times and scarily accurate at others, seemingly having the ability to see through walls while simultaneously forgetting that they have to shoot the weapons in order for them to work.
The structure of how a campaign mission is completed is dramatically different than years prior, with large open maps to traverse, allowing the player to challenge objectives how they want and with different styles and methods. Loadouts change and can be changed, killstreaks appear as tools, and other noticeable differences occur. However, the game fails the player by not being focused on what objective completion may mean, and at times lacks explanation of what is expected of the player. Mission failure merely forces a re-attempt, but no useful tips or information will be provided to the player in order for them to understand what they did wrong in the eyes of the game. For example, stealth is the focus of one mission, and to remain undetected while you gain access to a restricted area. Most games would provide tools to the player that inform them of enemy detection, so you know if an enemy is on to you, or they may provide even some narration to that point. MWIII doesn't do this, it just says you need to go to a certain point and complete said objective and lets you figure out the rest. This would be fine if the game would let you complete it any other way, but it doesn't.
This new formula that has been employed for this campaign, I feel, is a welcome transition. I enjoy the ability to come up with a plan of attack, strategize and equip myself accordingly, and then execute the mission. It feels less "hand-holdy" this way and creates player agency. However, I feel the way it was employed is rushed and falls short of a positive experience. Rainbow Six players, and those from a tactical shooter base, will find it's not refined enough to be enjoyable, and fans of open world war shooters like Battlefield will find it's clunky and irresponsive of multiple means to an end, and fans of Call Of Duty will find that it falls well short of the guiderails previously employed in the series' campaign endeavors.
The writing also feels very forced and not well thought out, with a major spoiler feeling very "gotcha" styled and lacking the emotion and attention that moment truly would deserve, expending a key moment in the plot for a cheap reaction at the expense of the player's emotions. Character dialogue is on-point with the characters, but in a way that feels like none of the characters evolved at all. They say exactly what would be expected of them in a situation, nothing more and nothing less. It cheapens the depth of the characters that we began to explore in Modern Warfare 2019, which I felt established an excellent base on which to build these individuals and their experiences as we grow with the story. To put it bluntly, the entirety of the plot and dialogue comes off as if a child was playing with toy soldiers in a sandbox and reciting all the lines and key moments, not as if this was designed and written by one of the largest and most powerful video game development firms in the world.
Moving into the multiplayer portion of the game, we have several blades of content to discuss. First and foremost is the core MWIII Multiplayer experience. The inclusion of many fan-favourite modes and playlists allow a variety of games to be played across the default maps. Unfortunately, the maps are currently quite limited and none of them are original, with all the 6v6 maps being updated versions from previous COD titles. Weapon progression is essentially the same as in MWII, with the exception of the tuning function being removed from this installment. All of your MWII weapons are available as well as new weapons from MWIII to play with.
There are some considerable bugs and defects, with some equipment not working properly, or at all, and others creating a series of glitches, one of which resulted in me not having any weapons or equipment, and no option to even melee. The UI also glitches in and out quite a bit, which is disappointing as well. Most notably, time to kill has been increased but the MWII weapons have not been balanced for this at all yet.
My biggest gripe with multiplayer is skill=based matchmaking. SBMM prioritizes matching skill of the lobby over connection quality, which results in chaotically low-quality connection efforts and unbalanced gameplay. I am playing hardwired to a 1500 mbps (up and down) fiber optic connection. I don't experience this type of issue in other games, and in fact, the issue is directly related to the skill of the player as determined by the gameplay data. A great example of how I established this is that I logged in using a brand new profile, with no play history, and hammered out 20 matches with no change in connection type (consistently under 30 ms ping) not a single connection issue, no lag or other experience. I switched profiles, on the same console, and went into my own account, and immediately couldn't get a connection with a ping lower than 60 ms and it was jank and lag all over the place. It almost feels as if the game actually uses lag and latency to balance the lobby instead of just fitting similarly skilled players into the same match. I feel that SBMM should only apply to ranked playlists and let the rest of the player base play based off of connection.
This issue is compounded further when someone joins your party. I am not sure if the math on SBMM has an error in it or they feel this is working as intended, but as soon as I have someone else in my party, the matchmaking gets even worse. Connections are very high latency and the matches are completely unbalanced. There are also some weapon and skin balance issues, but these things are always ongoing and I'm sure will get refined in time.
Of course, a key component of Call of Duty in this age is the Zombies mode, and in MWIII, that mode is known as MWZ. Zombies has been retooled into an open-world, extraction based shooter, and I feel it is for the better. This mode has unique missions, challenges and characteristics to it that allow players to enjoy it separately from other MP modes, while at the same time allowing weapon progression to be shared. Dropping into a massive map, players are grouped into teams of 3 and have certain goals to achieve. There are contracts to complete, loot to find and an extraction point to find. The team infills into an area of the map, and from there can navigate through challenges to earn currency (essence) to purchase equipment and weapon upgrades in order to challenge harder areas of the map. As time winds down, players must make the extraction point to exfil out of the map. You get to keep what you exfil with, but you lose anything you drop. Finding the balance of what to keep and what to leave can dramatically alter your initial loadouts. There are vehicles scattered throughout the map to allow for faster travel as well, which is an importance factor in determining the time it will take to make extraction. MWZ is also entirely PVE, with other players being in the map but not in competition with you. This helps makes MWZ an exciting and enjoyable mode to be played amongst friends as well as for novices to matchmake with other players to form a new team. Communication is vital, so be sure to use a headset.
As of this writing, Season 1 hasn't launched and there isn't any new content for DMZ or Warzone to discuss. The roadmap does look promising, however, so we will have to see what is in store for MWIII as the year progresses.
Call Of Duty Modern Warfare III (2023) by Sledgehammer Games falls short of its predecessors in many ways, and leaves the impression of a rushed and careless development process at the expense of not only the players' experience but also the reputation and wellbeing of the development team responsible. A poorly executed campaign, combined with minimal original content across both campaign and multiplayer, is only partially redeemed by it's fun and addictive play style and well executed Zombie mode, amassing further proof that a rushed product is a bad product. I can only hope that under new ownership, the burden of making an annual release is lifted, allowing these highly skilled and creative teams the time it takes to flourish and create strong gaming experiences for years to come.
Pros:
Extraction-based zombie mode is fun and replayable.
Multiplayer is on point.
Changes to campaign style are promising if followed through.
Cons:
Rushed product needed more time for development and QA.
Lazy writing coupled with minimal original content.
SBMM needs to be fixed or killed off.
Massive file size needs better optimization.
Review Platform: Xbox Series X|S
