Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (Wii) Review

Call of Duty has become a yearly sensation, and though this year’s title brings a close to the Modern Warfare trilogy, this time even Wii owners can get in on the action from day one. Modern Warfare 3 offers up all the typical FPS action in campaign mode and online multiplayer that players have come to expect from the series. But is this latest entry in the franchise too typical? Or has the series as a whole grown stale?

Modern Warfare 2 left off on a bit of cliffhanger, with the world on the brink of destruction and a key protagonist in deathly peril. MW3 offers an action-packed conclusion, complete with the typical multiple viewpoints. However, at this point it feels like Call of Duty is just going through the motions. There isn’t much that feels fresh at this point, and running into familiar scenarios such as using the AC-130 only emphasizes the fact that this game is extremely derivative of MW2. Most levels devolve into mindless shooting sprees with waves of enemies constantly pouring out at you while the flashy action moments lose a lot of their pizzazz by their third or fourth appearance. Even the story, which should be an epic conclusion to this trilogy of CoD games, comes across as lackluster. Granted, the plot isn’t a huge concern in these games, but even so the story here fails to elicit much meaningful investment. As ever, the campaign is a relatively short experience, lasting around five or six hours, though this time around there are fewer levels overall but each level is fairly long. Despite the global conflict setting and the conclusion of the long, over-arching storyline, this campaign comes across as even less important to the overall game than usual.

(Images not from Wii version) Cinematic moments pepper the campaign to add some spice to this FPS.

Like MW2, this game features a special co-op mode called Special Ops that plops you and a partner down in a desperate bid for survival against hordes of enemies. Unfortunately the Wii version does not feature split-screen, so you’ll have to jump online to play with another player. Nevertheless, Special Ops proves to be a challenging experience rife with opportunities for experimentation. But since you have to level up to unlock those options, this game mode feels like a lot of work initially, and more than a little repetitive. Though surviving waves of enemies can be exciting, it would have been nice to have more options in game modes. MW2′s Special Ops featured a variety of objectives–the best you can hope for in MW3 is different maps and higher difficulty levels. A bit of variety would have breathed some much needed life into Special Ops.

If you’re playing Call of Duty, you’re most likely doing it primarily for the online multiplayer. Though the Wii version features a few less options than its HD cousins, the gameplay here proves no less addictive. Yet it must be said, fundamentally this is the same game we’ve been playing for years now. Sure you have the opportunity to once again level up through all the various rankings the game offers, slowly unlocking more weapons and features, but at heart this is the same game with a new coat of paint. Furthermore, the unlocking process is not as convenient as it was in Black Ops which offered more options at an earlier opportunity. The one significant addition is a change to the way kill streaks work. Now you can build up support kill streaks which continue even if you die. These offer less aggressive bonuses such as attack helicopters but more team based bonuses such as UAV or improved defense for teammates. Useful as these support kill streaks may be, its questionable whether or not they are worth buying yet another CoD game.

(Images not from Wii version) It wouldn't be Modern Warfare without the familiar extensive online multiplayer.

Of course, the other side of critiquing multiplayer is how smoothly does it run. The good news is that there are already plenty of people online–it is rarely difficult to find a game, even on some of the more advanced modes. The bad news is the connection is not always stable, and lag in a shooter can mean a lot of frustration. The most glaring problem here is the threat of lost save data. In the event your Wii freezes while playing online–which is not an unheard of situation, particularly with an older model Wii–all of your MW3 save data will be corrupted, forcing you to delete it. This includes campaign, Special Ops, and multiplayer progression. Needless to say this is a horrible situation to run into, and one that is just a little too likely to occur for comfort. Playing in a constant state of fear for your save data is no way to play at all.

From the moment you start playing it is all too obvious that this game wasn’t developed with the Wii remote in mind. Despite the convenience of IR aiming, the controls are rough and in some ways a real pain to use. Thankfully you can customize the controls to your preference, particularly the aiming sensitivity, but in the end it seems there simply aren’t enough buttons on the Wii remote and nuchuk to accommodate MW3. Melee attacks come off as awkward and fumbling, while calling in kill streak bonuses is too much of a hassle when you have bullets raining down about you. The Classic Controller will no doubt feel more immediately comfortable if you are familiar with playing FPS games on other systems, and even the loss of IR aiming is a small sacrifice for more logical button mapping.

(Images not from Wii version) See how many waves of enemies you can clear on Special Ops.

If the Wii remote controls show that MW3 wasn’t developed for Wii, the graphics outright scream it in glowing, fifty foot tall letters. Granted, Treyarch did a good effort in downgrading the visuals to run smoothly on Wii, but the game is too noticeably jaggy, too dark, and too muddy too often. It’s not just a cosmetic problem; it is genuinely difficult to distinguish enemies at a distance, particularly during the campaign when enemies could be and often are everywhere around you. On a more embarrassing note, the game sometimes fails to load distant backgrounds and objects, occasionally filling the scenery in with false walls to cover it up. You might see an enemy appear out of a brick wall, or watch as the scenery in front of you changes significantly as you progress toward it. Despite all of this, the game is weighed down with loading screens that are simply too long to blend into the game seamlessly. As far as audio is concerned, there isn’t much that is memorable outside of the repetitive calls of your squad mates, constantly announcing the arrival of more enemies or exclaiming that they’re out of ammo.

Though the series continues to be a yearly sales juggernaut, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 makes it all too clear that the franchise is burning itself out, particularly on Wii. The weak campaign might be more tolerable had the online multiplayer had a little more polish, but as it is the game feels like a bland sequel. With poorly constructed controls and muddy graphics adding to the mess, the year’s Call of Duty doesn’t offer much on Wii.

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