Modern Warfare 3 campaign "Open Combat" gameplay revealed: Underwater fight, stealth mission, and more

One of the significant highlights of Modern Warfare 3's campaign is the Open Combat missions. After keeping players in mystery about how they will work, Call of Duty shared more insights into the feature in Gamescom 2023. David Swenson, the Creative Director at Sledgehammer Games, described how the Open Combat missions would function, sharing various examples using gameplay footage.

This presentation revealed a 9-minute video of the game's Campaign mission - Operation 627. While that was undoubtedly intriguing, in this article, we'll be taking a closer look at the OC missions in the title, sharing everything David discussed.

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How Open Combat missions work in Modern Warfare 3

Modern Warfare 3's Open Combat missions will be a game-changer for the franchise. David Swenson states that players can "interact with the story like never before in these missions." He describes these missions as necessary to the game's story and will blend perfectly well with the "epic" cinematic missions.

In an Open Combat mission, the world is a player's sandbox. They can leverage any tool to achieve the mission's objectives. They can go silent, use guns with a suppressor, take advantage of the night, and leave the area without letting the enemies know of their presence.

However, if they don't want to go that route and instead drop some bad guys, they are free to do so. In the gameplay footage shown, it was observed that an Operator attached a C4 to a Quadbike. They then launched the Quadbike to an enemy Helicopter and detonated the C4 to eliminate all nearby enemies.

Moreover, in the upcoming iteration, players can loot items (including Killstreaks) from their surroundings and use them to upgrade/customize their arsenal as they deem fit for the mission.

This level of freedom was missing from the series till this point. With the arrival of Open Combat missions in Modern Warfare 3, Call of Duty is set to revolutionize its Campaign missions, which have followed the same formula for quite some time.

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Fans looking forward to the game must tune into the Call of Duty Next event, scheduled to go live on October 5, 2023. The event will showcase multiplayer gameplay, Warzone and Warzone Mobile updates, and more.

Modern Warfare 3 is scheduled for launch on November 10, 2023. Pre-orders are live for Windows PC (via Battle.net and Steam), Xbox One, Xbox Series S|X, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5. All users who pre-order the title will get Early Access to the game's Open Beta, which will go live on October 6, 2023, and Early Access to the Campaign.