I've been putting this off for a while now for a few reasons. I wanted to roll this around my head for a while before I put finger to key, and there was also Skyrim, 'nuff said.
So I played right through MW3 and played a quite a few solid hours of multiplayer, which is where I think I'll start. I like where multiplayer has gone in terms of class customization, especially with the kill-streak unlocks. I think it was a clever idea to have multiple kinds, each having their advantages and disadvantages. Otherwise, multiplayer was prettier on the eyes and just as fun as MW1 (I havn't played multiplayer MW2, only the campaign on PS3).
Now, lets have a look at the campaign. MW2 ended on a 'To be continued' note, but it ended with such an amazing bang that I felt satisfied to wait for the next game rather than have that desperate feeling to find out what's next. MW1 was amazing and has some solid shooter elements as well as some great gameplay sections, such as the sniper scene amoung others, but it didn't feature them heavily. MW2 took the envelope even futher and you even got to enjoy some ice climbing (I fell off the ledge so many times). Overall, MW2 was a fantastic experience.
MW3, obviously pushed it even further, but this time I didn't feel it. Don't get me wrong, some of the shooter locations were fantastic and gave me a real rush. MW3 is still a great shooter, but it's not the shooting that brought down the experience, it was all the non-shooting sequences.
Personally, this game made me feel like the series was getting full of itself. Like a guy being so cool he's more or less become a stereotypical black pimp with all the bling and wearing purple. Yeah, I didn't like that image either. Why do I feel this way? Here's a few examples of just completely unnecessary 'gameplay'.
The UGV sequence was also boring. Not not really fun to roll around in a robot mini-tank that is clunky to move around and can't really take the hits. Worst still, it's so rediculously overpowered that when my allies ran for the chopper, I mistook them for enemies as they came from the same place and I fired for a brief millisecond until I realized who they were, which was enough to fail the mission. I might also add MW3 suffered from some horrible checkpointing at times.
One part I really hated, and not because it was horrible to watch was the London truck-bomb sequence where the little girl stands next to the truck before exploding. When it switched to this cutscene, I had no idea what it was doing and stood there for about a minute not realising I had control. Then all I did was walk forward. Really? Why couldn't it just play out instead of cutting to some random person who I had no idea about. I get that it was meant to draw emotion, but it didn't for me because I was frustrated that it was doing this to me, again. Great cutscene? Maybe. Well executed? No. Did I feel it was needed? Definately not, I don't want to see that, bad enough it happens in real life.
Now some cutscenes are really good and I felt they worked really well, especially the submarine level, but by the time I got to the end of the game, I felt it was all overused and the ending sequence had no impact for me. All the bloat and cutscenes had washed out their impact and I was left feeling like I hadn't really fought Makarov at the end. It was just another quicktime cutscene.
Obviously some people will disagree with me, and I accept that. I don't play these games just to blow stuff up, that's what's multiplayer is for, I wanted a good story and some great action. The story was there, but the puffed up 'we are so cool' action ruined it. Next time you guys make game, don't be a bigot and remember, sometimes old-school shooting is king.
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