The Best Modern Warfare and Call of Duty yet.
The first thing I played was the campaign. By far the greatest FPS campaign franchise to ever exist in my opinion. MW3 was extremely overwhelming in this department. If CoD does anything right it will always be the campaign. It picks up right where MW2 left off. You are soap surrounded by Captain Price and Nikoli from the previous games being carted to a private doctor to fix your wounds in the middle of an assault from Makorov's men. I was expecting a cinematic opening with memorable scenes from the get go, but that didn't really happen right away. If i have any complaint about the campaign it is that it starts off a little too... ordinary. Nothing too shocking or cinematic to kick things off. But rest assured it gets to that point in about the second or third level.
This campaign is without a doubt the greatest of the series, and ends the official story that started with the first Modern Warfare. I don't see how they will continue the Modern Warfare franchise after this honestly. It literally ends EVERYTHING, in a very satisfying way i might add. So in short the campaign alone is only five hours long but completely worth buying.
The next thing i tried was the ever so criticized multiplayer. This is where all the BF3 fanboys hate on MW3. I've played BF3 and I have to admit... MW3 beats it, plain and simple. It's just loads and loads of fun to play, just like every other MW game. The killstrike packages add a whole new dimension to the game, you can choose the dominating body dropping madman killstreak, the "Help out the entire team" killstreak, or the "I'll make myself the Killstreak" killstreak. All three are very different and each have their own perks to them.
As for the gameplay, it does feel familiar. And i think that's a great thing but it feels different at the same time, I can't really explain it. Everything happens more smoothly than anything I've played, including BF3. Just to put it simply, MW3 online is just fun and addicting. Just like the last few CoD games which each have their own little thing going on.
The last portion I've tried was the Spec Ops missions. They have DRASTICALLY improved that from MW2. You gain levels and unlock new weapons very similar to the multiplayer. All these levels won't do you much good in the Mission section of the Spec Ops. But the survival mode is where the true fun is. Imagine Black Ops Zombies, but the zombies have guns. That's the premise of MW3's survival mode. See how many waves of enemies you and your buddy can take on. As the levels progress the bad guys get tougher. Every once in a while you get a Juggernaut to kill, or a Helicopter comes in. And eventually they start mixing those elements into the normal waves of enemies. If you're level one in survival mode you won't get very far, because your weapons are limited to what you can buy and upgrade.
But, leveling up is easy. You can level up in either mode: survival or missions. You get about 100 XP every time you kill an enemy in either mode and bonus XP for completing missions. And that XP translates to the Survival mode. So after doing a few missions and earning a few levels you can take those levels and play survival and get the weapons, perks, upgrades you couldn't. This whole process is very very addicting. I found myself spending a whole night doing nothing but survival with my brother.
Plain and simple: This game is A for awesome and is the best Call of Duty yet in every aspect. Too bad for all those BF3 fanboys, they are truly missing out on a great great game.