Modern Warfare 3 features perhaps the most disappointing Call of Duty campaign I’ve played. It’s shallow, tedious, and feels more like a collection of half-baked cover versions of past missions than a fresh and exciting new chapter. Rather than creating memorable moments of its own, it spends too much time looking back at former glories, wrapped up in a confusing story with little substance.
The only aspect that feels remotely new is the introduction of Open Combat Missions, which make up half of the story’s chapters. These are multi-objective arenas where you can approach tasks in any order and use whatever methods suit your playstyle. Unfortunately, this approach highlights the game’s overall flaw: it sacrifices Call of Duty‘s signature blockbuster storytelling for a thin veneer of openness and choice. The missions often feel underdeveloped, like open spaces you’re just dropped into with little direction, forcing you to find your own fun. This sandbox-style gameplay doesn’t fit the Call of Duty formula, especially when compared to the cinematic precision of the original Modern Warfare trilogy.
More than ever, the campaign feels like it’s borrowing too heavily from its multiplayer counterpart, with elements from Warzone and DMZ bleeding into the level design. If I wanted an open-world, loot-based experience, I’d just jump into Battle Royale solo and engage in more dynamic combat. On top of that, these missions are all solo affairs, with communication limited to radio chatter. As a result, the core Call of Duty experience—squad-based tactics and camaraderie—is entirely absent, leaving me with a repetitive, uninspired gameplay loop. The AI teammates don’t add much, and the whole experience starts to feel like an endless grind in different locations.
One chapter, High Rise, did manage to create some excitement. I was tasked with ascending the floors of an apartment building, hunting down a target in a raid-style mission. This mission provided a fleeting sense of enjoyment, but soon after, every appearance of “Open Combat Mission” on the screen was met with an audible sigh. The novelty quickly wore off.
There are a few more traditional, linear Call of Duty-style missions, and while they offer more consistent fun, they lack the highs and lows that make the series so memorable. One of the more engaging sequences takes place across a frozen tundra, where a snowstorm sets the stage for a shootout at a shipyard. There’s also a stealth mission that faintly echoes the iconic Call of Duty classic All Ghillied Up—thanks to the potential for 2-for-1 headshots. However, as many imitators have learned, sniping and lying prone in the grass doesn’t automatically create a great mission. It lacks the tension and atmosphere that made the original mission so memorable.
The campaign’s opening takes place in a dark, rainy gulag, clearly inspired by Warzone. It holds promise and brings to mind the excitement of Modern Warfare 2’s Captain Price rescue mission, but it never reaches the same level of intensity. The enemy encounters are incredibly simplistic and fail to build any real tension. Once again, this highlights the campaign’s struggle between trying to recapture past thrills and failing to innovate with fresh mission types.
Another stealth infiltration mission encourages you to holster your weapon entirely, forcing you to walk around yet another Verdansk landmark—this time, the Northern Airfield. If you get too close to an enemy, it’s an instant fail, making the mission feel more like a tedious exercise than a true test of skill. This mission, like so many others, demonstrates how Modern Warfare 3 feels like a patchwork of recycled content. New, exciting locations are rare, and even the Verdansk areas that are reused feel stale and lackluster.
In the end, Modern Warfare 3 feels like a campaign that’s too focused on nostalgia and not nearly focused enough on creating something new and memorable. It’s a missed opportunity, offering little more than a string of forgettable missions in a world that no longer feels fresh or engaging.
Modern Warfare 3 offers a forgettable series of missions, even when it attempts to unsettle players with its story. The game struggles to tell its narrative through gameplay, as you fight your way through enemies, only for underwritten cutscenes to move the plot forward. This formula persists throughout the campaign, preventing moments like the fall of the Eiffel Tower in Modern Warfare 3 (2011) or the explosive finale of Shock and Awe from the original Modern Warfare from happening here. Instead, the most impactful scenes are relegated to cinematics. These are undeniably beautifully rendered, with lifelike character models, but they leave you feeling more like a passive observer than an active participant in the story. It’s a stark contrast to the emotional depth found in No Russian from Modern Warfare 2, which placed you directly in the middle of its harrowing events. Here, you’re often kept at arm’s length, resulting in an emotionally distant experience.
There’s a similar attempt to create shock with a terrorist incident that echoes No Russian, but it falls flat. The mission tries to put you in the role of a hero, yet its predictable, tragic outcome ultimately feels like a hollow gesture. The context here is important. When I first saw Clean House from Modern Warfare (2019), it felt jarring out of context, but within that game’s narrative, it was one of the series’ most effective missions. No Russian in 2009 similarly had a profound impact due to its emotional weight and its role in advancing the story. In Modern Warfare 3, however, this new version feels like it’s there merely for shock value. Its only purpose seems to be reminding you that Makarov is a bad guy—something we’ve already heard ad nauseam. The mission doesn’t explore the themes of terrorism or the morality of war in any meaningful way. It simply states that terrorism is bad, and innocent lives fuel yet another conflict. It’s a missed opportunity to delve deeper into these pressing issues, especially in today’s context.
Instead, Modern Warfare 3 opts for shock value rather than offering smart commentary on the morally complex themes it touches upon. The result is a brief, four-hour campaign filled with predictable twists and nostalgia-baiting moments. The game promises excitement but ultimately feels vacuous at its core.
You spend so little time on missions with your squadmates that any emotional connection to Price, Soap, Gaz, or Ghost feels completely manufactured and ineffective. This becomes especially apparent when the game tries to generate any real sense of peril. Modern Warfare 3 ends abruptly, with no resolution or closure to the looming threats. The credits roll after a woefully underwritten story, capped off by a laughable cutscene with a sunrise backdrop.
That said, credit where it’s due: the gunplay remains excellent, as expected from a Call of Duty game. The shooting is smooth, responsive, and sounds fantastic, with each bullet delivering a satisfying impact. However, this is often undermined by the game’s repetitive nature, as you’re continually faced with waves of cannon fodder enemies. The AI, especially in the game’s shift from linear to more sandbox-style levels, is often laughably poor. Enemies run out of cover without regard for their safety, effectively throwing themselves into gunfire. They’ll even stand still while you line up sniper shots, oblivious to the carnage unfolding around them. There’s a lack of variety in these combat encounters, making each battle feel like a repetition of the last.
The one experiment Modern Warfare 3 makes—its Open Combat Missions—ends up being a bust. These missions promise freedom and player choice but fail to deliver, leaving the overall experience feeling stale. The campaign simply does the bare minimum to keep your attention, and the lack of innovation outside of the sandbox levels is disappointing. The biggest sin Modern Warfare 3 commits for a globe-trotting action thriller is that it’s just plain boring.
What had the potential to be a thrilling mystery with twists and turns ends up feeling like a dusty cobweb in a forgotten shed, clinging to outdated nostalgia. The game tries to capture the spirit of the past with underbaked story moments, but it never quite hits the mark. The introduction of Open Combat Missions and the attempt to add player freedom fall flat. While the gunplay remains solid, it’s hard to shake the feeling that you’re playing a shinier, less subtle version of something you’ve already experienced too many times before.