Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 Single Player Preview (Xbox 360)

The Call of Duty franchise has quickly become the largest grossing series in gaming history. Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 broke several sales records in its opening day alone. Even with those records being broken some gamers took issue with the games campaign. It was certainly action packed and polished but it was a little hard to follow. Can Modern Warfare 3 patch up the narrative issues of its predecessor while continuing to provide the action packed gameplay the series is known for? We took a look at 2 sections of the single player campaign to find out.

The majority of the real-time demo we witnessed was taken from the New York level during “Day 2” of the single player campaign. The demonstration opens with the player traversing a flooded underground tunnel with the objective of planting a mine on an enemy submarine. As you and your squad mates navigate the industrial pipes and approach the base of the submarines depth-charged mines pose a very deadly threat.

The Call of Duty franchise is known for its action packed sequences filled with enemy soldiers but planting the mine requires an amount of stealth. Once the mine has blown we saw the sub surface through the eyes of Frost’s deepwater mask. Small details like the water splashing on his mask and running down as he removes it were impressive.




The four squadmates make their way to the top of the submarine with the goal of entering inside. In typical Call of Duty fashion your squadmates yell “CONTACT” as multiple enemies approach. Entering the leaking submarine really reminded me of the first mission in Call of Duty 4, exiting the sinking boat, but in reverse. Seeing New York in ruin as Frost exits the enemy submarine was a little surreal. As he races forward in the dingy boat waves splash up and hit the camera. The infinity ward engine might be a few years old but the water effects were really impressive. If some of this stuff sounds familiar, this demo was the same shown at Microsoft’s press conference on Monday.

The second part of New York gameplay that we witnessed took place before the Microsoft Press Conference demo in the New York stock exchange. Firefights between the Russian military and Frost’s squad erupted on the trading floor. We saw Russian troops duck for cover behind trader’s desk and flat-panel monitors that are an iconic landmark of the Stock Exchange.

Heading to the roof frost is instructed to plant a charge on a jammer to hamper Russian communication. This is no easy tasks as the Russians have built sandbags and gun emplacements on the roof of the NYSE. The damage physics as the thermite charge brought down radar dish was really neat. This gameplay section continued with enemy snipers on the surrounding rooftops. Players can take two routes to deal with these challenges. Using the scope players can carefully pick off enemy targets or using the predator drone to launch missiles at their placements.

The New York Stock Exchange section links up with the section shown at Microsoft’s press conference with an on-rails type shooter section using a helicopter gunship. The player will face many flying foes but are eventually over-run and their helicopter disabled. This portion of the demo ended with Frost barely making it to safety landing on an under-construction building.



After witnessing 15 minutes of the single player campaign I am really excited to try the full experience when the game ships on November 8th. The gameplay section Infinity Ward showcased during Microsoft’s press conference had a “Call of Duty 4 vibe” to it, if such a thing exists. I found the campaign of Modern Warfare 2 to be a little convoluted and hard to follow. If this single player demonstration was anything to go by Modern Warfare 3 fixes some of the narrative issues that bogged down its predecessor.

We will have more Modern Warfare 3 coverage later this week. We will take a look at Call of Duty Elite as well as dig up some more information on the continuation of the franchise’s multiplayer mode. Stay locked to TeamXbox.com for coverage of everything Modern Warfare 3 as the game nears completion.

Platform:
Xbox 360
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Publisher:
Activision
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Developer:
Activision
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Genre:
Action/Shooter
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Release Date:
11/8/2011
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Game Features:
Offline Players: 1-2
Cooperative: 2
Online Multiplayer: 1-24
Online Cooperative: 2
Downloadable Content
Online Leaderboards
Clan Support
Online Voice Support
Online Spectator Mode
HDTV 1080i Support
HDTV 1080p Support
Widescreen 16:9

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