Review: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

destructoid.com:

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 shows how tradition can (and should) be broken in some cases.

I haven’t been as mixed on a Call of Duty game in a long time since Black Ops 4; another game with a problematic release given its lack of a campaign. On the one hand, this game features some of the best foundational gameplay since my favorite era of Call of Duty. But then, on the other hand, it lacks substance and relies too heavily on nostalgia best left in 2009.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (PC, PS4, PS5[reviewed], Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S)
Developer: Sledgehammer Studios
Publisher: Activision
Released: November 10, 2023
MSRP: $69.99

Playing through the 15-mission single-player campaign in Modern Warfare 3 often had me wondering if this game was better off not having a campaign at all. To Sledgehammer Games’ credit, it seemingly developed this game in a fraction of the time of most annual releases, especially since it just released Vanguard two years prior.

But, at the same time, this approach shows how unsustainable and unhealthy this development cycle is, with the messiest and worst campaign in the franchise to date. The 15 missions it has are deceptive, as players can finish them in a matter of three to five hours; much shorter than previous games.

Worse still, it eschews the jokes about the campaign being a tutorial for multiplayer in favor of being a glorified tutorial for the upcoming Warzone Urzikstan map. Many of the missions take place in larger map areas with a few objectives for players to accomplish and some freedom of choice in how to go about tackling them.

This sounds fine and dandy as an idea, but in practice, it falls flat. Unwanted elements of DMZ and Warzone exist, such as the armor plates,