Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Multiplayer Review: Familiar, But Fun

For our Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Campaign review, click here.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3's multiplayer is one of the most fascinating Call of Duty experiments to date, though it's only somewhat successful. We got what is essentially a continuation of last year's multiplayer, something that has never explicitly happened in the 20-year history of the franchise. It shares a lot of the bones and DNA of Modern Warfare 2 (2022), so those who weren't intimately familiar with how things worked in that game down to the most minute details may not actually be able to notice the changes this year. 

For a series that has been heavily criticized for never changing, this is the first year where that critique actually may have some validity. In the standard 6v6 modes, there isn't a single new map as the whole map rotation are remastered Modern Warfare 2 (2009) maps. The vast majority of weapons in the game are from last year's game. The overall UI and presentation of the game is identical to the previous Modern Warfare game. For those claiming this feels like a DLC, I can't say I totally disagree. However, there is still a lot to discuss, and I don't think it's fair to totally write the game off or be dismissive of it if you do love Call of Duty.

The Best Call of Duty Gameplay in Years

Call of Duty has had a bit of an identity crisis over the last few years, but especially so with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2022). That was a game that had a lightning fast time-to-kill, meant to reward those with the quickest trigger finger, but ultimately made for a slower game as it rewarded habits like camping. On top of that, movement was significantly reduced, and Infinity Ward gave the game a lot more weight by making players feel like they were trudging through mud. In the pursuit of being more "realistic" and "tactical," Call of Duty lost some of its fun factor.

Despite a lot of players asking for the game to be made faster, it took months for that to actually happen, and by then, it was too late and was just another bullet point on the laundry list of issues with that game. Modern Warfare 3 brings us closer to how Call of Duty should feel, utilizing the foundation of Modern Warfare 2 and fine-tuning it for a much more aggressive, fast-paced experience.

If you only watched people play 2022's Modern Warfare 2 on Twitch or had limited playtime with it, you may not even notice, but Call of Duty veterans are going to feel like Modern Warfare 3 is a totally different game. For once, you can feel a sense of momentum building through you as you sprint through the map, allowing you to almost gracefully glide across the ground and mantle over waist-high walls and lightly parkour your way up a building. It's actually engaging to make your way back to the action after dying instead of a total slog. On top of that, sliding can feel like the greatest virtual slip and slide, diving may actually get you out of a pinch since you will not be magnetized to the ground after you do it, and you can even work in some bunny hops in order to prevent yourself from being too easy of a target.

There is very little about Modern Warfare 3 that promotes camping, this is a game that wants you to feel like you just snorted crushed up Dorito dust and injected Mountain Dew straight into your veins to fuel your virtual zoomies. Some people may not enjoy this because they got used to the slower pacing of Modern Warfare 2, but there are a lot of people who have been asking for this and it will get the adrenaline pumping for those people.

Similarly, the increased TTK and player health means that gun fights will feel exactly like that: a fight. It's not a quickdraw. Of course, players who are faster on the trigger will have the advantage, but you actually have a fighting chance now as you will have enough time to react and at least get one or two shots off if not win the fight entirely. The faster movement also means you can dodge and weave incoming fire to either escape or gain better positioning in the moment and you can flick your gun to people with greater ease.

Despite all of this praise I give to how Modern Warfare 3 feels, it is also incredibly inconsistent at times. When it works as it's clearly supposed to, it's a joy. When it doesn't, it brings out a level of rage that I have not experienced with this series since before I could grow facial hair.

If you go on various Call of Duty Reddit pages and forums, you will rightfully see a lot of people noting that Modern Warfare 3's TTK is all over the place. No one can pinpoint exactly why this is, but it can feel like you're unloading a clip into someone's chest while they kill you in a burst that hits you faster than you can blink. While these things will always be present in shooters due to player connections and netcodes, it is prevalent enough to be seen as an actual issue rather than something that happens on occasion. Hopefully Sledgehammer Games can find a way to fix this to make it feel like fights are less a game of chance and more based around player skill.

When these problems aren't occurring, I'd go as far as to say this is the best feeling Call of Duty in years. There are games that come close like Black Ops Cold War, but the speed of Modern Warfare 3 takes us back to the pacing of games like Black Ops 3. If you're someone who really enjoyed the frenetic and non-stop momentum of those games or vibed with the gunplay, but not the wall-running and jetpacks, this game strikes a strong balance of that high-speed gameplay with grounded combat.

Change for the Sake of Change

Modern Warfare 3 is going to feel the most similar to Modern Warfare 2 in its menus. Yes, graphically the game is going to look pretty identical and a ton of content has carried over from last year's game, but the menus really feel hardly any different to last year's game. As a result, it feels like Modern Warfare 3's changes to things like loadouts and progressions are done to try and come across as new and different, but not always for the better.

For starters, the Armory Unlocks system actively hinders any kind of progression. Once you hit level 25, a bunch of guns, killstreaks, and gear will become available to unlock via this system. Simply mark whichever one you want to prioritize and then complete a set of daily challenges (usually 3 – 5) and it's yours. However, there are only 3 multiplayer daily challenges every day and 3 for zombies. So, if you do all your challenges, you can progress by simply winning matches. It's nice that you can pick what you want instead of having to wait until the later levels in the game, but they also lock essential items like Semtexes, flash grenades, and other items that are sometimes required to even complete the daily challenges needed to unlock them (i.e. kill 5 people with a Semtex).

I don't think anyone was really asking for this, and I also fail to see how this will even function out of the first weeks of the game as people will have unlocked everything by then. It seems like a system that will become redundant very quickly or have minimal/infrequent usage in post-launch updates.

Sledgehammer Games has also redone the perk system to be "gear" like gloves, boots, vests, etc. This has no actual effect on how your characters look since you'll be playing as operators with a very specific design, meaning you can't slap different cosmetic items on them à la carte. It's another change that feels like it's done to just be different without actually affecting how they work in-game.

The one change in this area I can commend Sledgehammer for is getting rid of the weapon tuning feature in Gunsmith. It was such a needlessly obtuse feature in Modern Warfare 2 that I completely avoided it and if I ever did use it, I was just following a guide off of YouTube to properly tune it anyways. 

The Double Edged Sword of Nostalgia

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 brings back all 16 launch maps from the original 2009 Modern Warfare 2, a game widely viewed as the peak of the series. This was a seminal time in a lot of people's lives and helped truly define the series, prompting fans to call for a remake many times over the last decade especially after Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Remastered. Modern Warfare 3 is the closest we will likely ever get as all of its maps are faithfully restored. A lot of the exploits on those maps return, and really the only significant changes to the gameplay itself come from the fact they added interactable doors, which aren't great, but at this point are to be expected.

So once again, Modern Warfare 3 listened to the fans and gave them what they wanted without compromise. Admittedly, Call of Duty maps in the last few years have been abysmal with a few exceptions, so I had no qualms with bringing back ones that we all know are fan-favorites.  However, maybe this wasn't always for the best. Some of them do not hold up at all and are actually quite puzzling looking back at them without the rose-colored glasses. Maps like Wasteland, Derailed, and Estate are absurdly big with massive amounts of space on the sides of the map for no real reason. Why this was a thing in 2009 is head-scratching in and of itself, but it makes for a more confounding gameplay experience that lacks flow in 2023.

The increase in graphical fidelity and advancements to the gunplay since 2009 means that these larger maps are hell to navigate. You can feasibly fight at much longer distances than you could in the original games, so you're bound to get obliterated by snipers and even ARs from someone extremely far away. It's not fun and you will likely see players frequently skipping these maps or even completely leaving the match. Thankfully, you can vote for maps now, but the option to get a third, random map like in the original game would be much appreciated if the two voting options aren't favorable.

Even with some of these classic maps being flawed, I appreciate Sledgehammer staying faithful to their original designs. If they hadn't, fans would've just complained that they're not the same as has happened in recent years when games like Modern Warfare 2 did "reimaginings" of some maps, resulting in less than ideal outcomes. At the very least, we can all say we got what we asked for which is pretty rare for Call of Duty.

It's possible these maps could feel better if the original Ground War mode made a return and allowed you to play with teams of 9 or 10, as it would fill up the map more and create a more consistent battle with less empty spaces. Even a new mode like Cutthroat, a 3v3v3 mode with one life per round, doesn't feel designed for these maps as you'll almost certainly get picked off in these open areas. Cutthroat could use some original maps designed for its very specific style of gameplay, similar to the Gunfight mode from previous games.

That's not to say all of the maps feel this way because majority of the maps are still some of the best in Call of Duty history. Favela, Rust, Sub Base, and Terminal are absolute standouts and allow Modern Warfare 3 to feel like its nostalgia trip is justified. Bouncing across the rooftops of Favela and sliding through the hallways of Skidrow make for a familiar but enhanced Call of Duty experience. At the time of writing, Modern Warfare 3 has added a few of the maps that were actually worthwhile from last year's game such as Shoot House, and they feel even better with the improvements to movement.

Is Modern Warfare 3 Worth It?

It's clear Sledgehammer Games was put between a rock and a hard place with the development of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, but they made do with the situation they're given. They listened to feedback from the last game and created a faster, more arcade-y PvP experience, faithfully recreated iconic maps even if some of them don't fully hold up, and ultimately made the game a lot of people have been asking for. It's not perfect, but the fact I keep going back for more despite its flaws is telling and hopefully, I will be rewarded for doing so if Sledgehammer continues to implement feedback.

Now, for the big question: Is it worth $70? I got this game for free and have spent dozens of hours playing it in the last week alone. I plan to keep playing it for quite awhile too. The changes to the gameplay in addition with some really great returning maps mean it is a significantly better experience than Modern Warfare 2, and I will never have any reason to return to that game.This couldn't have been a simple free update to last year's game given the changes to gameplay, but I also don't know that it expands itself enough to feel like a brand new $70 game. It's fun, but given how stacked 2023 has been with amazing games, can I really recommend you spend $70 on this especially with its lackluster campaign? It really just depends on how much you play Call of Duty and whether or not all of this sounds like it fits into your idea of what the series should feel like.

Multiplayer Rating 3.5 out of 5

A PC review copy of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was provided by Activision for this review.