It’s hard to believe that the Call of Duty series only began in 2003 and since that time has become one of the biggest franchises not only of the gaming industry but on a universal scale. This has been cemented by sky-high sales figures that have increased with each release, and with a particular focus on Modern Warfare 3, it is now the fastest grossing media product of all time with a one billion dollar turnover in little over sixteen days - impressive stuff from a first-person shooter with such humble beginnings. So influential is its mass appeal now we’re seeing well-established companies chop and change the release dates of their games to fit accordingly.

Modern Warfare 3 marks the seventh consecutive release in as many years and with such a steady flow of titles coming our way it’s natural for the workload to be shared between subsidiary divisions, such as Treyarch taking the reins with Black Ops. However that wasn’t going to be enough for Activision’s latest venture as what they wanted was a game that had a wider reach and a season’s worth of downloadable content distributed in regular instalments throughout the year, and for that to pan out the workload needed to be distilled and they’ve done so by inviting five guests to the party, the main ones being Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games, with helping hands from Raven Software and Neversoft, with Treyarch returning with exclusive development for the Wii version.

As you start up the game you’re provided with three options – the campaign, which we will look at first; Spec Ops, which will be explained later; and the multiplayer brings up the rear. Each individual menu can be set to default; meaning if you’re going through a multiplayer phase you can have it that upon loading up the game you’re presented straight-up with that menu to save precious time. The menus are simple to navigate and there’s never really any confusion as to where to find what you need. In terms of options it would have been nice to see a little more variety with sound and visual tinkering but they have the basics down and there’s the choice of enabling colour blind assist if that’s a problem for you.

The campaign continues the story where Modern Warfare 2 left off and sees the return of the loveable yet lethal Captain John “Soap” MacTavish who plays a central role in the conclusion of the faceoff between good and evil, with uncertainty over who swears what allegiance. You’ll spend most of your time as Yuri, an ex-Russian special serviceman. As the plot moves on and more intelligence is revealed you’ll come to realise you play a bigger part in this war than what was initially expected. There are plenty of other characters old and new that pop-up from time to time and serve to help or hinder your progress and one particular moment where one meets their demise and you may just find yourself taking a moment or two to remorse, such are the emotional ties that are carefully thread leading up to that juncture.

As with previous entries the story is all about the experience and guiding you through events on a stringent timeline, making sure you’re seeing thing’s the way the designers meant for you to see them, as oppose to other shooters that give the player many options and a level of customisation suitable to each individual. Both ways have their merits and faults, but whichever way you prefer this is a prime example of going one way and near perfecting it. No one section ever feels tedious, keeping thing’s moving briskly from one gunfight to the next and only ever slows the pace for moments of well-timed tension and the occasional character development.

A particular highlight comes at the base of the Eiffel Tower in Paris where you help allied forces take out a Russian contingent that are using the area as an extraction point – minor spoiler alert – with the battle ultimately ending in the fall of the iconic landmark into the nearby river. In terms of length the campaign is adequate – never leaving too many pauses to catch your breath – and can be blown through within eight or so hours. Not the longest of affairs but trumps its predecessors, and with many complaining that games past have been over before they’ve ever really begun it’s a step in the right direction. With the series now becoming an annual offering it’s hard to see the series ever expanding past the ten hour mark again, but that’s one of the main reasons they’ve introduced Spec Ops and that’s where we’re heading next.

Spec Ops is divided into two parts, Mission and Survival, and can both be tackled individually or co-operatively with an extra controller or online with a friend. The missions are nicely varied and will test your skills to the hilt, with the aim being to achieve three stars in each respectively by going through them on Veteran difficulty. Two missions in particular require two players, with one person manning remote sentry turrets to gun down enemies whilst the other runs through picking off any stragglers and completes the objective. There are also two training course missions that players of previous games will be all too familiar with by now, where you must shoot all the targets and reach the end in a certain timeframe. These are more forgiving with two players; although there are more targets to hit in each section so a good understanding of who hits what is paramount to your success.

Survival picks up where Black Ops’ Zombie mode left off, where you must endure progressively harder waves until you eventually become overwhelmed and meet your demise. The mode is surprisingly deep and introduces a money system for every foe you kill and with it weapons, attachments, armour and air support can be called upon from certain points in the map. This allows you to get creative and meet each wave with a certain level of tactical prowess, such as a cleverly placed sentry gun, a wall of claymore to thin the heard, or even the support of a Delta squad that can aid you when thing’s get heavy. When playing alone the mode can get a little old rather fast, but two player is where it shines and where you’ll find the most fulfilment. There’s no greater thrill than reviving your partner at the last minute when downed and then going on to clear the wave in kick arse fashion, thus allowing you to replenish your supplies and brace yourselves for the next helicopter, juggernaut, or whatever else they decide to throw at you next.

There are a few gripes about Spec Ops that let it down slightly, with the main one being the limit of only two players. Survival mode in particular would have significantly benefitted from a four player option. It also would have been nice to incorporate some of the killstreaks seen in the games multiplayer, such as calling on a support helicopter to help you out of a sticky situation, but instead the options in this regard feel somewhat limited. The missions also feel a little unbalanced, with some easy and others so much harder they land on another scale and don’t feel fully in proportion with the rest of the game. None of these things are game clinchers as such, but it’s these sorts of additions that would take it from good to great.

The games campaign and the all new Spec Ops are just starters though to the online multiplayer, which is the main course of any Call of Duty game. That’s what keeps people coming back time and time again, and prolongs its life cycle beyond the month mark and beyond. Activision needed to be careful because fans can get a bit personal when it comes to making radical changes to something they dedicate such large portions of their life to and with that it would have been suicidal to push the boat out too far with implementing new ideas, but what they have done is tinkered around with certain aspects and refined what was already in place to create what I believe to be one of the best experiences one can have online and almost definitely the best multiplayer shooter out there.

The main aim online besides shooting more people than being shot is levelling up your profile. As with previous entries there are ten prestige levels to navigate, meaning you reach level 80 and then you have the option of resetting back to level 1 and losing everything you’ve unlocked, in order to obtain a shiny new rank and the process starts all over again. Each time you do this you’re provided with a prestige token that you can spend on a special perk of your choosing, such as double experience points for a period, an exclusive new emblem for your online profile, or the ability to unlock a certain weapon that will stay with you from that point forward. There is also an added level of respect gained from the community the higher your prestige rank reaches and that is reason enough to partake in the palaver of levelling up ten times over.

In addition to your profile level there is now also an individual level for each weapon. Experience towards your weapon is gained a number of ways, but primarily how many kills you rack up with it and over time you’ll gain access to a number of proficiencies and attachments that will help you customise your gun in a way that best suits you. These range from a kick proficiency that reduces recoil when firing, to one that allows your bullets to penetrate further into certain materials. The attachments unlocked are mostly geared towards various sights and scopes, but there are also heartbeat sensors available for certain guns and rapid fire attachments that speed up the time between bullets. This system works superbly well and adds an extra level of depth to the standard levelling system and there’s also the added incentive of unlocking gold camouflage for your weapon once it reaches its maximum level.

Weapons are only one aspect of your class set-up though, with each class consisting of a primary weapon, secondary weapon, three perk slots, a killstreak package and a death streak. Customising each of these for certain situations that may arise can be invaluable to having a successful game. The perks in particular can make or break a player depending on whether they choose three that compliment each other and whether in turn these compliment both your weapon and your killstreak package. The Blind Eye perk for example, which makes you undetectable to air support, would go great with a launcher designed to take down airborne vehicles. It sounds a little complicated and at first it can be, but once a few test runs have been had then you’ll soon discover what works for you and what doesn’t.

Killstreaks see a change from Black Ops in a few ways and makes for a much more dynamic system that promotes overall play as oppose to all out running and gunning. Now thing’s such as shooting down choppers counts as one towards your streak, as does destroying enemy equipment such as SAM turrets and sentry guns, as well as completing game-based objectives like capturing flags and defusing bombs. Another change comes in what you get out of a killstreak, with three options at your disposal – assault, support and specialist.

The Assault strike package works in the traditional way where getting a certain number of kills consecutively without dying will see you reap the rewards. This package is all action and allows you to call upon attacking assistance such as predator missiles, support choppers and a remote control assault drone. The Support package does exactly what you’d expect it to do by providing you with three slots for supporting your teammates, such as ballistic vests for added protection and a counter-UAV that blocks enemy radar to keep your whereabouts hidden from prying eyes. These streaks carry through death making them easier to obtain. The final package is the Specialist which increases the number of perks available to you. You begin with your primary three and with every two kills you bag another perk unlocks, up until you reach eight consecutive kills and then you’re gifted by the power of all fifteen perks at once and you can run around the map like some superhuman – moving faster, aiming faster and pretty much doing what you want until someone takes you down.

While all these changes to the killstreak system are welcomed and allow for yet more individuality when creating a class there is one thing that stings like a thorn in the side and that comes with death streaks. The other side of the coin where consecutive deaths give you a one time ability to get you back in the game, or in other words promoting bad play. The most annoying of these is Dead Man’s Hand that see’s an enemy detonate C4 upon death and take you down with him. Not exactly fair if you’re on a big killstreak and it’s ended by some noob who doesn’t know his handgun from his machine pistol.

The games sixteen maps are well designed and thought out with every area allowing for multiple game styles and places to take cover, but not enough cover that the enemy is able to effectively camp. In fact many of the camp-able areas on each map have multiple entry points that you can tell have been added for that specific purpose in mind. There are a good selection of environments here, with a solid snow map, urban map, jungle map, etc. The only real problem comes in their size, with many airing on the small side and with that there are far too many choke points that are hard to pass without a big standoff taking place. While this can be fun at first it becomes incredibly frustrating when the simple task of getting from point A to point B throws you into a sniping hotspot.

There are a hefty amount of game types available, with a new mode called Kill Confirmed a fun experience and a personal favourite, where for every man downed a set of dog tags are dropped. If your team walks over these they get double points for their kill, whereas if the enemy denies the kill then they get the points put back onto their score. It starts a constant commentary in your head of which will be safe to pick up and which are best left because they lay in dangerous areas. Then there’s Ground War, which tends to be one of the more popular modes and allows for up to eighteen player mayhem, as oppose to the usual twelve, and cycles through a playlist of team deathmatch, Kill Confirmed and domination. Kills come thick and fast, but so do deaths as more often than not whilst your shooting the enemy there’s someone else with you in their sights.

Private online matches between friends hold a fair few modes that aren’t playable anywhere else and there are some real gems in there. The Gun game for example sees you start off with a weak weapon and with every kill you get your gun switches to a more powerful one with the victor being the first to cycle through all weapons. Infected is also a treat and sees one start off as the infected and they must knife someone else to pass on the virus. In addition to their knife they also have super speed to make those with guns a little more exposed. Anyone who remains once the timer runs out wins, but that’s very rarely the case as once a few are infected the rest soon follow. It’s just a shame neither of these modes or the handful of other exclusives aren’t available for public consumption as there really is some terrific fun to be had. Each of these games can be saved in the built-in theatre mode, which has a number of options available to you and can then be uploaded directly to YouTube at the click of a button so you can share your matches with the world.

While the multiplayer is fun like everything else the experience isn’t perfect, in addition to maps that limit freedom in some aspects there is a major issue with spawns. The game has a tendency to spawn you in the vicinity of enemies with no team protection in front of you, this leads to spawn abuse and a lot of unfair deaths just moments after you regenerate. I have no doubt this problem will be addressed in the future though as this year they really seem to be listening to the community at large. The Type 95 assault rifle was considered overpowered so they nerfed it, the maps weren’t big enough and didn’t have enough access points so they released a huge open sniping map and another with doorways and alleys with very few choke points. It really is refreshing to see developers change aspects of their game and admit small mistakes on such a regular basis on a quest for continued improvements and here’s hoping the trend continues.

Craig Bryan, NoobFeed
Twitter | Facebook | Email