Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III intends to mark a before and after in the history of the franchise. Last year, Modern Warfare II was billed as “the dawn of a new era” and now Activision intends to not only consolidate this claim, but take it one step further. Last week we talked about the keys to this new Call of Duty: freedom and scale. And today we delve into the campaign mode, where these two keys take on a new level of meaning.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III’s story mode is the franchise’s most ambitious to date. The duration will be the usual – about 10 hours of play – but half of the missions will be what Sledgehammer Games has called Open Combat Missions, a kind of open levels in which the player can decide how to face each challenge.
To delve more into these missions and the campaign mode in general, La Vanguardia has been able to interview the creative director of Sledgehammer Games, Dave Swenson, and the Narrative Designer of the studio, Shelby Carleton.
Modern Warfare III is a direct sequel to Modern Warfare II. This may seem like a no-brainer, but it rarely happens in Call of Duty. In fact, according to Dave Swenson, “it is the first time that a direct sequel has been made in this franchise.” So the premise is clear and it picks up where the 2022 title left off: Captain Price and Task Force 141 once again join forces to take on Vladimir Makarov, who wants to provoke a third world war.
“Call of Duty always tries to take the player to interesting places and this time there are missions in London, in Saint Petersburg, in the Siberian tundra, islands in the Mediterranean and return to iconic places like Verdansk,” explains Swenson. On the other hand, the creative director of Sledgehammer also emphasizes the level of realism in the game “we have military advisers and we put them in motion capture suits, there are real soldiers doing their thing” and adds that “we could talk about a simulator military, but for us the objective is not this, it is that it feels authentic ”.
A couple of days ago, at the inaugural event of Gamescom 2023, Geoff Keighley’s Opening Night Live, Activision showed a 10-minute gameplay of Modern Warfare 3 and this “feeling authentic” takes on another meaning when seen on screen and moving. We already said it with Modern Warfare II, but what Call of Duty is doing in recent years are almost interactive action movies with a level of spectacularity within the reach of very few.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III is not going to change the world. It’s a little more of the same: good Americans against bad Russians and avoiding a great world catastrophe by firing a lot of shots. But as an entertainment product, since the launch of the new Modern Warfare in 2019, with each new installment they surpass themselves and make it bigger, more spectacular and – in their own way – more realistic. The next link in this evolutionary chain is what the developers have called Open Combat Missions.
“It’s the game we’ve always wanted to make,” explains Dave Swenson when I ask him about these almost open-world missions. Open Combat Missions “are a whole new way to play the campaign, they’re all about giving the player a choice that’s unprecedented in the franchise,” he adds.
Basically these missions are small open worlds in which the player can decide how to approach each objective. You can go all out with heavy machine guns and body armor or you can go stealthy and silenced weapons. But you can also improvise and attach explosives to a vehicle to launch it against the enemy base. It falls short of an immersive sim in the style of Dishonored, but it clearly points in this direction.
“One of the biggest challenges with these missions was marrying freedom with narrative because Modern Warfare III has a very specific narrative story,” says Shelby Carleton. “So no matter how you approach each level, the story adapts to the player,” she adds. This means that if, for example, you approach a mission stealthily, Ghost’s feedback will be quiet and related to your playstyle. But if, on the other hand, you go in with the full arsenal, Ghost will scream and react accordingly.
And according to Dave Swenson, there will be quite a few of these missions in the game. Almost half of the campaign will be Open Combat Missions. “This offers great replay value,” he explains. In addition, they are levels with a high level of difficulty designed for players to try and experiment. “The first time they play they probably won’t be able to finish the mission or they won’t see all the content, but figuring out a strategy to beat the level makes you feel smart,” adds Swenson.
In the absence of testing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, expectations are high. The previous installment was a great action title with a restrained campaign mode, but very fun. Sometimes it is not necessary to offer dozens and dozens of almost empty hours and it is better to bet on a safe and effective product. With this new installment, Sledgehammer expands on what was seen last year, but aware of where the focus is.
“The campaign will last more or less the same as in the other Call of Duty, but it will be much more replayable”, explains Dave Swenson. And to all this must be added the multiplayer, the Zombies mode – which for the first time comes to a Modern Warfare – and all the content related to Call of Duty: Warzone. So there are shots and action for a while.
The new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III will arrive on November 10 on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X | S and PC.
