Modern Warfare 3 Campaign review: Worth the 'Price' tag?

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is a first-person shooter title developed by Sledgehammer Games and published by Activision. It is the twentieth major entry in the series and is a direct sequel to Modern Warfare 2 (2022). The campaign picks up directly from where MW2 left off and builds upon the foundation to deliver a story of war, death, and betrayal.

While Modern Warfare 3 constitutes three major modes, namely Campaign, Multiplayer, and Zombies, this review will solely focus on the Campaign.

Just like with all my previous reviews, I have divided it into multiple sections, starting from my first impressions to the game's technicalities. All major aspects of the game have been dissected and discussed in detail to provide you with complete information on what you can expect from Modern Warfare 3.

So, without further ado, let's dive straight into this Modern Warfare 3 Campaign review.

Modern Warfare 3 Campaign - Initial impressions

As a Call of Duty fan, my expectations from Modern Warfare 3’s Campaign were certainly high. After teasing Makarov at the end of Modern Warfare 2 and the insane gameplay showcase at Gamescom 2023, I was excited to see what’s to come in the sequel. These impressions prompted me to believe this is going to be one of the best in the franchise. We are getting one of the most iconic villains in the series, and there’s bound to be chaos.

I grew impatient as time passed on just to see what Makarov’s role in the rebooted Modern Warfare series would be and how he was connected to the events of the earlier two titles. But things rarely go as one expects them to, and I was left with a bad taste by the end of it all.

The game kicks off on a dark night, as the Konni PMCs are infiltrating a prison to rescue a “prisoner” codenamed 627. The visuals on this particular mission were fantastic, and bringing stealth into the mix made it one of the best starting missions in the series. It wasn’t just mindless shooting. You had to take careful shots and fight in the dark. As you reach the cell holding the prisoner, you blow open the doors, and to everyone’s surprise, the prisoner is no one else but Makarov himself.

The game had my complete attention at this point. Being the Call of Duty fan I am, this is what I needed - a fantastic start with intense action sequences and surprises. Now, all that remains for Makarov and his soldiers is to exfiltrate from the area while fighting the prison security forces.

On paper, this looks like a pretty straightforward mission, which it is. However, the way it was orchestrated was simply amazing. While not as intense as escaping the Vorkuta prison in Black Ops, the developers did a great job of creating an atmosphere of urgency in the player. With the dark environment, the intensity was certainly elevated.

After it concluded, I was sure that if the starting mission was this “epic”, things were only going to get better from there. So, overall, my first impressions were pretty good. The first mission itself set up the premise for what to expect narrative-wise in the missions following it, and in my mind, I was ready for the best Call of Duty game in the rebooted Modern Warfare series.

But little did I know at the time that it was all a setup to make me dive into one of the biggest disappointments in the franchise.

Story and Gameplay: A hard skip and an okay leap

Story

I know some of you are yet to play the game, and will base your purchase decision on reviews like these. So I will try to keep this section as spoiler-free as possible.

Starting out with the length of the Campaign, it's abysmally short. Well, to be fair, it was longer than Black Ops 4’s Campaign and rightfully deserves some brownie points for this achievement.

I mean, don’t get me wrong, Call of Duty Campaigns tend to last around 6 hours, and that has been the trend so far. However, this year’s entry is quite short. Even if you explore all possible locations and try out different routes (we’ll get to Open Combat missions in the gameplay section), you can complete it in around 4 hours. Each mission can be completed in under 15 minutes, and in fact, some missions last so short that you are rewarded for completing it under a few minutes.

Let me give you a general idea of the story, Makarov comes out of prison as hinted at the end of Modern Warfare 2, and now it is up to Task Force 141 and their allies to stop him. That’s the gist of it. How it all plays out will be a tale for another day, as revealing anything more in this regard would be counted as a spoiler.

Despite trying hard to convince myself that Modern Warfare 3 is not a DLC, it certainly felt like one. It was more of an extension of Modern Warfare 2’s story rather than a standalone title. Remember the transition from Modern Warfare (2019) to Modern Warfare 2 (2022) and how it felt like the missions had a purpose to press on? All of that is missing in this year’s entry.

For instance, in Modern Warfare (2019), the sheer anger Farah expressed against the Russian incursion in Urzikstan was justified. We are told a story of how the Russians terrorized her land and people, including her own family. This anger transfers to the player and gives us a purpose to take down the Russian invaders and the terrorists in the region.

But this aspect of giving players a purpose was lacking in Modern Warfare 3. You will constantly find yourself mindlessly shooting enemies or sneaking around them, only for the story to progress to nowhere. There is no proper sense of progression in the entire game. Apart from a few missions, such as Flashpoint, where Price relieves his previous encounter with Makarov and regrets his actions back then, everything else feels bland.

By the mid-game, you will lose all your enthusiasm to push on because you know that the next mission isn’t going to take you anywhere closer to Makarov. You would question yourself as to why you are even playing it. That’s what just four hours of Modern Warfare 3 did to me.

Characters

Farah in Modern Warfare 3 Campaign (Image via Activision)

So, was there anything that I liked about the Modern Warfare 3 campaign? Yes, the characters and the cutscenes. Apart from Task Force 141, I certainly loved the characters of Farah and Laswell. Both seemed well-written and had a significant role to play in the events of the game. In fact, Farah felt more influential in the game than Ghost, Gaz, and Soap combined.

The same goes for Laswell. These two characters alone had more personality than the entire Modern Warfare 3 story did.

Both Laswell and Farah were introduced to us only in Modern Warfare (2019), and since then, their importance in the Campaign seems to have only increased. They have more interesting missions under their belt, and without them, Task Force 141 would seem really helpless and weak in the face of Makarov.

While they easily stand out and carry a large part of the game, Captain Price is still the star of the show at the end of the day. That said, if Modern Warfare 3 was someone’s first Call of Duty game, they wouldn’t even realize how important the characters Soap, Ghost, and Gaz are for the series. Their roles seem insignificant compared to the previous games.

Makarov in Modern Warfare 3 Campaign (Image via Activision)

Speaking of characters, Makarov received a personality change. The original Makarov was a supervillain. He was bold and appeared invincible. He was a source of constant anxiety for the Task Force.

The new Makarov, however, is portrayed much weaker than the original. This one felt more like a cult leader who was constantly on the run and didn’t stand his ground. Instead of beating the good guys to a pulp like the original villain, the new one is always running away from the law, which makes him look vulnerable and weak.

Not a good sign for a supervillain, I am afraid. However, Makarov here is much more calculative and is a strategist, making him more of a smart guy rather than a brutal psychopath.

So, all in all, Modern Warfare 3’s story is a soulless venture that is kept alive only by a few interesting and strong characters.

Gameplay

Unlike the story, which is bland, the gameplay is a mixed bag. It was fun to run around freely and slide-cancel for once. But that is all. If you are coming from Modern Warfare 2, don’t expect to see anything vastly different. It is the same, with the addition of a few more elements, such as Killstreaks, the ability to use loadouts, parachuting around, and more, that you could in a Warzone match.

Then, for those wondering why I believe the gameplay ranks higher than the story, it's simply because it didn’t devolve. Sure, the missions themselves aren’t particularly great. Quality missions like El Sin Nombre or Alone from Modern Warfare 2 were missing, and none of the missions in the game have seen such effort. But at the end of the day, they get the job done.

The fundamentals are the same, which kept it in line with the earlier entries. But the way some levels are designed allows players to take full advantage of the movement and combat mechanisms that were introduced in Modern Warfare 2, such as ledge hanging and parkour.

The Highrise mission is the perfect example of this. It gives you multiple routes to get around and make it to the top, which wouldn’t have been possible without these mechanics. Want to avoid enemies in one section completely? Find a route through the windows or take advantage of the openings to make it to the other end.

While the Campaign Highrise mission map is not among the best maps in the series, it certainly facilitates Open Combat missions.

Some linear missions in Modern Warfare 3, however, could have done so much more with the gameplay. For instance, there is a mission where you play as Laswell and infiltrate a base as a Russian soldier. It was one of the shortest missions in the game, but it had infinite potential to make it one of the best.

Similar missions existed in the franchise and were curated with so much care. These are the exact types of missions that should have been Open Combat rather than linear.

Open Combat missions

One of the most hyped and anticipated elements of gameplay this time around is the Open Combat missions. To put it simply, OCM felt like a gimmick. The way it was marketed, I genuinely believed that my actions in these missions would have consequences or change the outcome of it all. But it doesn’t do so.

They felt like parts of a large Warzone map, where the player was supposed to take out AI soldiers. Sure, you can opt for stealth or guns-blazing action, you can use Killstreaks and Parachutes, or find shorter routes (in some missions only). But that is all. You don’t have a meaningful choice to make.

Moreover, this time around, the Intel collectibles were missing entirely from the game, making exploration even less worthwhile. What’s the point of exploring if you aren’t rewarded for it? The least Open Combat missions could have done is add meaningful items to collect or secure intel that gave hints about the events or characters.

But none of it were present in the game, which I believe takes away from the very essence of these type of missions.

Remember in Hitman games how you have the choice to take out your targets you feel would be the best way to do so? That is how Open Combat missions should have been. But at the end of the day, you feel like you are playing a match of Solo DMZ with no way out of the area.

These missions act like a playtime counter booster. That’s it. I honestly believe these missions were added just to get the game to 4 hours of playtime. Without them, it would have been even shorter.

Audio, Graphics, and Performance on PC - Analyzing the components of immersion

Audio

The audio is a massive letdown compared to last year’s entry. Every aspect of Modern Warfare 3's audio felt like a downgrade. The background score doesn’t add anything to improve immersion, and there’s dissonance between the scenes and the music. Simply increasing the beats per minute of the soundtrack during an intense situation doesn’t make it good music.

Apart from the story, the audio is probably one of the most forgettable elements in Modern Warfare 3.

The weapons feel light and weak, making them feel like mere Nerf guns, and that is only because of their sound effects. Even weapons like Sniper Rifles didn’t feel like they carried any weight, thus breaking away from realism. I don’t understand why it was difficult to make them more realistic. Even the Modern Warfare 2 weapons sound and feel weak in this entry.

Modern Warfare (2019) and Modern Warfare 2 (2022) delivered exceptional audio experiences, at least in the Campaign. Being the third entry into the series, this should have been a walk in the park for the developers.

Clearly, except for the dialogues, the audio was poorly designed for this game. It almost felt like it was rushed out of the gates to meet the launch date targets.

Graphics

When it comes to graphics, Modern Warfare 3 didn’t do too bad. Obviously, the cutscenes were fantastic, but I did notice some issues in-game. For instance, no matter how high I turned up my graphics settings, some areas would look like a 2010 game with low-res, muddy textures. Whereas in some places, it would look absolutely magnificent.

As mentioned earlier, the first mission looked great and was eye candy. But, in missions like Frozen Tundra with the snow covers, I felt like I was playing the original Modern Warfare 2 (2009).

In the mission Payload, the ground texture looks abysmal. The same goes for certain walls and structures. I tried turning off VRS, restarting my shader installation, and updating drivers. Almost everything I could think of to make the game look sharp, but for some reason, it just does not.

Finally tried turning on FidelityFX and other sharpening techniques, and it does help the situation a bit but doesn’t completely get rid of the blurriness.

In fact, Modern Warfare (2019) looks way better and more realistic in general than the recent entry. To be fair, this won’t be a fair comparison for the older game, as they are four years apart. But surprisingly, just because of the clever implementation of lighting and other visual effects, 2019’s game comes out looking far more realistic than MW3.

Modern Warfare 3 campaign needs to be more consistent in the graphics section. It felt like the game didn’t receive the finishing touches it deserved. But overall, I won’t complain much about the graphics, as it is one of the few things that held it together.

So yes, despite sometimes looking like a game from 2015, I will give it a pass.

Performance on PC

Modern Warfare 3's performance was fine for the most part. I didn’t notice any random stutter or frame drops. And in my short four-hour playthrough, I only faced one crash, and it was in the mission Payload. Other than that, the game performed pretty well, and I have no complaints in this regard. I installed the game on an NVME SSD and ran it on an RTX 3060 Ti, a Ryzen 5 5600X, and 16GB RAM.

Performance was not an issue in the MW3 Open Beta, and it seems like players with low-mid level hardware could easily achieve above 60 FPS on 1080p with the correct settings. Considering it is based on the same Modern Warfare 2 (2022) IW 9.0 engine and shares the same assets, this was kind of expected.

Although not a performance issue, I would just like to point out how difficult it is to just play the game. If you own the game PC, you will have to launch Steam/Battle.net first. Then launch the Call of Duty HQ, and then you will have to launch Modern Warfare 3, which is a completely different executable that launches separately. The very simple task of launching a game has been made unnecessarily complicated.

So yes, performance-wise, as long as you meet the minimum requirements, you’ll do just fine.

Conclusion: Is the Modern Warfare 3 Campaign worth it?

Let me just put this straight: No, the Modern Warfare 3 Campaign is not worth the money. If you are among the minority of gamers who play only the Campaign in Call of Duty games, then it is a hard pass. It doesn’t deserve a $70 price tag. With only four hours of unpolished content, you are better off spending the money elsewhere.

As previously mentioned, in my eyes, Modern Warfare 3 passes as an Expansion Pack or a DLC and not as a standalone title.

The story is lackluster and cycles players through different events with no purpose. Except for a few characters, everything else about the story is poorly written. If the game had been just a little bit longer, given us objectives that actually pushed us closer to the goals, it could have been a good, if not a great, Campaign.

Gameplay-wise, Open Combat missions are a big letdown. These missions hold great potential to allow players to approach a mission in their own way. But apart from finding loot that’s spread out across a section of the map, there’s nothing about them that makes them “Open combat”. The missions that should have been made Open Combat were toned down and made linear, which again is wasted potential.

The audio section was a disappointment. No memorable music, nothing that incites excitement or an adrenaline rush in the players. Dialogues were good, but that’s about it. The graphics were inconsistent throughout, but I wouldn’t judge it harshly, as the game looks beautiful when it wants to.

Modern Warfare 3 is properly optimized for Windows PCs, and even players on low-end hardware will be able to achieve a stable 60 FPS without compromising much on the visuals.

Although the game’s multiplayer is yet to launch, the Open Beta gave us insights as to what to expect, and simply basing it on the beta, I genuinely think Modern Warfare 3 exists to expand and enhance the multiplayer experience, and the campaign was put together at the last minute to be a content filler.