Modern Warfare 3 Guide: Gameplay, Campaign, and Tips

Call of Duty Academy: 111

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 was released in 2011, as the third installment in the Modern Warfare series. It was a direct follow-up to Modern Warfare 2 and continued the story from the campaign in that game as well. The game was developed by Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games. It is the only Call of Duty game to be made by two developers. The game ranks 5th on the all-time list of Call of Duty games. The game has an enhanced engine from its earlier brothers, and it improved the graphics and servers for the game.

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Image Credit: Activision

Campaign

Hours after killing General Shepherd, Price and Nikolai take critically wounded Soap to a Russian loyalist safe-house in Himachal Pradesh for treatment. When Makarov sends troops to eliminate them, the group evacuates with the help of Yuri, an associate of Nikolai with a common grudge against Makarov. Meanwhile, an American four-man Delta Force team call-signed Metal aids in repelling Russian forces in New York City, destroying a Russian spectrum jamming tower on top of the Wall Street Stock Exchange, and hijacking an Oscar II-class submarine to eliminate the Russian Navy in the New York Bay. As a direct result, Russia withdraws its forces from the East Coast.

Two months later, Makarov and his operatives hijack a plane en route to Hamburg, containing the President of Russia, Boris Vorshevsky, to derail his planned peace treaty with the United States. After killing several members of the FSO, Makarov reveals to the Russian President that he intends to have Russia “take all of Europe” by using its nuclear arsenal. Vorshevsky refuses to give over the launch codes, so Makarov orders a search for his daughter, Alena, to break him. Subsequently, he orders for chemical bombs to be transported from Sierra Leone into every NATO-affiliated country’s capital cities, in order to cripple their intelligence networks and military bases. Despite the efforts of a SAS team to prevent the detonation in London, the attack proves successful, allowing Russian forces to invade most of Europe.

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Image Credit: Activision

In response, the U.S. military is deployed to assist in repelling the invasion, including a rescue operation to rescue the Vice President of the United States in Hamburg from captivity. During the chaos, Price’s team gets a lead from his former commanding officer, MacMillan, that allows him to identify the bomb maker as Volk, the CEO of Fregata Industries. After killing Volk’s Somali contact Waraabe, Price relays the intel to Metal. Metal captures Volk in Paris with the help of the GIGN and other U.S. forces. After interrogating Volk, Metal informs the Price of a meeting that Makarov intends to hold within Prague. Aided by loyalist Russian forces under the command of Sgt. Kamarov and Czech partisans, Price’s team attempt to assassinate Makarov, only to learn that he anticipated this and arranged a trap for them. Kamarov is killed by a bomb vest and despite managing to escape the trap and Makarov’s men, Soap is mortally wounded during the chaos and dies shortly after revealing to Price that Makarov knew Yuri.

A furious Price interrogates Yuri at gunpoint and Yuri confirms to Price his former affiliation with Makarov and Imran Zakhaev, aiding the pair in Pripyat after Price’s assassination mission, but was disillusioned by the pair’s use of nuclear weapons in the Middle East. When Yuri attempted to defect and warn the authorities of Makarov’s plans, Makarov critically shot him before the airport massacre in Moscow and left him for dead, leaving him to be rescued by airport security after collapsing when chasing Makarov into the airport concourse. Price begrudgingly maintains their alliance, and with assistance from MacMillan, infiltrates Makarov’s castle base near Prague for intel on Makarov’s location.

Learning that Alena has been discovered to be hiding in Berlin, Price passes on the information to Team Metal. Though they fail to rescue Alena before she is captured by Makarov’s men, the Vorshevskys are tracked to a Siberian diamond mine, with Metal, Yuri, and Price launching a rescue mission. Although the group is successful, Metal sacrifice themselves to ensure the safe extraction of Yuri, Price and the Vorshevskys, as the mine begins to collapse. “Frost” is not present on the ground in this mission, leaving his fate unclear. In the aftermath, Russia and the United States call a ceasefire, leading to the withdrawal of Russian forces from Europe as the two nations focus on peace talks. Meanwhile, Price and Yuri track down Makarov to a hotel in the Arabian Peninsula by January 2017. With Nikolai’s help, the pair manage to overcome his remaining forces with heavy “juggernaut” suits and prevent him from escaping via helicopter. As Makarov gets the upper hand in a struggle, Yuri intervenes and is killed by Makarov, but his distraction allows Price to strangle and hang Makarov with a steel cable.

Multiplayer

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Image Credit: Activision

Multiplayer built off of the success and popularity of the game mode in Modern Warfare 2 and implemented new features as well. The entire Killstreak reward system has been altered to make it more difficult for players to get early unlocks. Killstreaks are now known as Pointstreaks, and kills are no longer the only way to increase the player’s point streak. Completing objectives such as planting a bomb or capturing a flag awards points towards the player’s Pointstreak. Pointstreak rewards are organized into three different “strike packages” called Assault, Support, and Specialist.

The Assault strike package works the same as the Killstreak reward system in Modern Warfare 2 and Black Ops, the player must earn more and more points without dying. Once the player is killed, his or her points are reset to zero. Likewise, the Specialist strike package rewards players with perks after every second consecutive kill. Upon death, however, the player loses all the perks and the points are reset to zero. In contrast, the Support strike package is awarded based on the total points that the player has earned over the entire match, regardless of how often the player dies. If a player switches to a custom class with a different reward system during gameplay, all points are automatically reset to 0. Players are allowed to choose which Pointstreak rewards they want to use when they gain it during the match, rather than choosing them between rounds.

Maps

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Image Credit: Activision

Some of the iconic maps from Modern Warfare 3 are Seatown, Dome, Arkaden, Bakaara, Resistance, Downturn, and Hardhat. These maps implemented iconic images from wars fought in the last decade as well as other places from the campaign. The maps in MW3 are some of the best in the entire Call of Duty series and are the strongest made by Infinity Ward.

Weapons

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Image Credit: Activision

The weapons in Modern Warfare 3 are real-life weapons used by both American and Russian forces in battle. The main Assualt Rifles are the M4A1, M16, Scar-L, CM901, G36C, ACR, AK-47, and GAD. The main SMGs in the game are the mp5, ump45, PP90M1, P90, and the MP7. The Ligh Machine Guns are the L86 LSW, MG36, PKP Pecheneg, and MK46. The Sniper Rifles in the game are the Barrett 50.CAL, L118A, Dragonauv, RSASS, MSR, and AS50.

The weapons in Modern Warfare 3 are relatively balanced besides a few weapons. The most powerful weapon in the game is by far the ACR. The ACR has no recoil and a fast fire rate, meaning that it could melt enemies from a distance in no time. The ACR was an advantageous weapon in nearly every fight, making it the most used weapon in the game. The MP7 was extremely powerful and was the best close-range weapon in the game, and could melt players in an instant. Most SMGs could be used effectively in the game, making it the most powerful weapon class in my opinion. The snipers were powerful as well and favored players that could quick scope, similar to MW2.

Personal Thoughts

Modern Warfare 3 is my favorite Call of Duty game made by Activision. The gunplay was balanced and the maps are some of my favorites in the entire series. I played this game so much while I was in 6th grade that it practically became my livelihood as an 11-year-old. MW3 is a great and simple game, and it stole my heart and it can steal yours too. The game can be played on the Xbox 1 because it is backwards compatible, so the old game disc can be used. The game can be played on the Xbox 360 and the PS3. You should pick up the game and explore one of the best Call of Duty games ever made.

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