Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III review: An epic misfire

The latest entry in to the Modern Warfare series is a huge misfire from Sledgehammer and Activision. Here are our thoughts on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III.

Sean Carey

Published 17 Nov 2023

Sledgehammer Games supposedly had less than 18 months to develop Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III and it clearly shows. With a vapid campaign and ideas and modes from previous games in the series all cobbled together into one package, Modern Warfare III is a Frankenstein's monster of a game that needed more time on the operating table.

This is evident almost from the off in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III’s campaign. After a flashy opening level that tells the story of how Makarov returns to wreak havoc on the world once more, you’re thrust into a new mission type that’s not been seen in a Call of Duty campaign before: Open Combat Missions. For these missions, you are dropped into a large-ish open environment where you need to source your weapons and equipment on-site and work through a list of objectives. On paper, this sounds like it could be pretty fun, but in reality, it’s an absolute bore fest and only really serves those with stealthy playstyles. There are six of these missions throughout the campaign, and it's clear that the idea behind them has been lifted straight out of Call of Duty’s DMZ mode, except you don’t actually get to do the fun bit of DMZ and extract with the loot you’ve found. Nor are there any exciting and bombastic set pieces here; you just go in, tick off a few boxes, and the mission ends.

It feels as if these Open Combat Missions are there to pad out Modern Warfare III’s pathetically short campaign. It took me four to five hours to complete the campaign, and honestly, I don’t remember much about it. Sure, it looks gorgeous, and the animations and sound design are unrivaled, but it's a misfire when it comes to both gameplay and story. Familiar favorite set pieces return, such as being a gunner in an AC-130, but these are nothing new and feel like the greatest hits of things we’ve seen in previous Call of Duty games. It’s because of these uninteresting levels and short campaign that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III absolutely does not deserve its ending. You spend far too little time with the characters to really care about any of them, including the big bad Makarov. The story doesn’t move on the overarching Modern Warfare plot in any meaningful way and is largely a waste of the player’s time, which is a shame because the voice actors, animations, sound, and visuals are all excellent throughout.

Related: Call of Duty Games in Order: Chronological and Release

Thankfully, Modern Warfare III’s multiplayer is pretty good, provided you’re not looking for much new content. While I didn’t mind Modern Warfare II’s multiplayer, this year’s release has improved on the general gameplay in pretty much all areas — movement is fast and fluid, time-to-kill has been lengthed thanks to increased health, and the mini-map has returned (hallelujah). On top of this, the gunplay feels punchy and is deeply satisfying, though I find that’s always usually the case with Call of Duty.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III review: an epic misfire

As for maps, Modern Warfare III features all 16 of Modern Warfare 2’s multiplayer maps, which provided me with a big hit of nostalgia when jumping back into the likes of Terminal and Highrise. While it is great to have these fantastic maps available to play once more, they’re, again, older content that’s been revamped for this release — some new maps at launch would have been nice.

The same can be said for multiplayer game modes. Modern Warfare III introduces just one new game mode called Cutthroat. Here, three teams of three go head to head, and the winner is the team that reaches a target number of round wins. While it’s not the most original idea, it is a lot of fun and does provide some tense moments when you’re the last person alive in your squad. Aside from Cutthroat, there isn’t anything you haven’t already seen before — War mode from Call of Duty: WWII returns, though this is currently limited to just one map and quickly becomes repetitive.

Modern Warfare III’s take on Zombies isn't quite what I was hoping when Activision first announced the mode would be coming to a Modern Warfare game for the first time. MW III ditches the confined, round-based Zombies mode for a fully open-world experience. While it’s good to see Sledgehammer trying something new here, it’s clear that the DNA of Zombies has just been grotesquely mashed into DMZ mode to make use of its risk-reward system. Multiple teams of three are dropped into the upcoming new Warzone map Urzikstan and work cooperatively to complete objectives before extracting with as much loot and high-powered weaponry as possible. The map is massive, and with no PvP between other teams, it feels almost safe a lot of the time. There’s never any real urgency or pressure on you and your team because of this lack of PvP — it’s entirely up to you to make up your own fun, which is a very different experience from previous iterations of Zombies.

Areas of the map are sectioned off into different threat levels, and the risk becomes greater the further inward you move, but so do the rewards. Do you move into the Threat Level 3 area in hopes of a higher-tier weapon, or do you play it safe in a quieter area and extract with what you have? Threat Level 1 is pretty tame and kind of dull as a result — levels 2 and 3 are where you’ll have the most fun. It’s in these areas where things can get really frantic, and you’ll need to upgrade your weapons at Pack-a-Punch machines and grab your perks if you want to stay alive for more than a few minutes. I like these areas of varying enemy difficulty because if you’re not paying attention, you and your squad can easily become overwhelmed by what feels like hundreds of zombies or AI soldiers. However, they do somewhat hinder the overall experience, too, as most of your time will be spent looting, completing objectives, and grinding for gear to get yourself equipped enough to take on the bigger and badder enemies. This is most egregious when you die and lose all your gear.

While Zombies does have some chaotic and exhilarating moments in the latter stages, provided you’ve pushed yourself to go there, it all just feels a little underbaked and, for me, doesn’t offer much in terms of instant replayability compared to the Zombies of old. You’ll probably get a fair amount of hours out of this mode while playing with friends, but once you’ve seen and completed all the different objective types, taken on a stronghold or two, and shot a zombie in the face for the billionth time, there isn’t much left to get excited about, especially when you have to do so much work to get to the fun stuff. There is a story to uncover in Zombies mode, but it's buried underneath a million mini-missions (open 25 Loot Crates, slow ten Hellhounds with Cryo Freeze Ammo, that sort of thing), which just does not appeal to me in any way.

As for the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III achievements, it's a damn shame to see Sledgehammer and Activision reduced the list to just a DLC pack for the new Call of Duty launcher. Putting that to one side, though, the list is pretty tough. You've got a good mix of campaign and Zombies achievements, and while the campaign achievements look fun, the Zombies achievements are going to be a grind, especially if you're a solo player and don't like matchmaking with other randoms.

Summary

Cobbled together from parts of previous games, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III is one of the worst entries into the series. From the vapid campaign with those woeful DMZ-like open combat missions to the Multiplayer that relies on nostalgia for anything interesting and the toothless, uninspired Zombies mode that is just an awkward version of DMZ, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III absolutely nowhere near justifies its $70 price tag.

* Sean spent around 16 hours playing through Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III's campaign, multiplayer, and Zombies mode on an Xbox Series X. The publisher provided a game code for this review.

More Call of Duty stories:

Review Xbox Series X|S

Written by Sean Carey

Avid Xbox and achievement fan, Sean has committed to playing the best RPGs, racing games, and first-person shooters Xbox Game Pass and his precious free time will allow. Prior to joining TrueAchievements, Sean gained a degree in journalism from Solent University.