Feels old and gets old quick, but a fun game if you can overlook the stagnation of the franchise.
Recent updates have increased the power of some killstreaks, it seems they have done back on their promise before launch. For e.g. the attack helicopter is a lot more powerful than it was at launch (they promised more about gun on gun, less about killstreaks, they should only support), however it takes long to lock onto people, unlike the Pavelow which sees you and kills you instantly.
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It's World War 3 in this game, if you have played a past COD game you know how the campaign plays out, high thrills, intense action, explosive set piece moments. It's good for the most part if you are looking for that, but if like me you have played past games in the series you may feel like it's a bit too similar. It's probably the shortest campaign in the series.
There is spec ops, which introduces a survival mode where you take on endless waves of enemies with a lot of variety, a good addition to the series.
The multiplayer is almost a copy-paste of MW2 with new maps, looks the same, plays practically the same, now this is not bad because I liked MW2 they just needed to balance some things out, and they did:
- Weaker explosives (noob tube, nades, etc)
- No shotgun as secondary (and they are weaker and shorter range)
- No danger close
- No last stand
- No commando knife lunging
- Killstreaks are weaker (and they are, Pavelow is still a b**** though)
And for the most part these fixes are great. There is a support killstreak package which means if you die the killstreak keeps on counting up regardless. This is pretty good change to the series as most of the killstreaks are team focussed, you can get a stealth bomber which doesn't make sense are it can still wipe out a whole team.
In the game there is not really a "go-to" perk (past games being stopping power, and ghost in black ops), you can use what you want and feel like you're not at a disadvantage... for the most part, the sheer amount of UAV's and advance UAV's really make cold blooded a perk you may feel you need which kills some of the enjoyment. Due to the support streak anyone and everyone can get a UAV and it still requires few kills, it's a very powerful killstreak and it would have been nice if the required more kills, because of that I use the cold blooded perk all the time, not always in SnD as it's slower/more controlled.
The maps... THE MAPS ARE THE WORST IN THE SERIES! Oh my what a let down they were, I dislike the design, very close quarters, no really big map; no overgrown, no wasteland, mostly smallish maps with a lot of buildings and a lot of flanking positions. I liked to use my environments to my advantage but it's a lot harder in MW3, it promotes rushing and makes it easier to rush so if you're a slower player you may get annoyed. Of course there will be a few maps you will like with another problem is that with 16 maps you may never play it in a whole day! The voting system allows you to choose between 2 maps, but if it's a tie it doesn't go to a random map and I can't understand why not.
They removed some cool features from black ops such as customising the gun reticle/reticle colour/lens colours (now you can only choose reticles no colour), customising your characters face paint, and your gun is what sets your characters outfit no longer their perks (I preferred the perk way)
All in all, a decent fun game we have come to expect. But with minimalistic changes - most of which feel like they could have been a patch - the striking similarities to past games makes MW3 get old quick (some may argue it's barely a new game)! You could get similar enjoyment from past games for a cheaper price.