They got us good, just as we thought there was no yearly Call of Duty release along comes Modern Warfare 3 and it’s already playable through a pre-order beta. So how is it?
Whether having to pre-order to play a beta or get early access to content is fair it’s certainly an industry standard practice at this point, and Call of Duty has been pulling every trick in the book for some time now…
So the MW3 Beta is now available to play, and I’ll be going over the changes and returning features coming to the game so you know what to roughly expect when you load up.
Returning:
- Map voting (why did this ever get cut?)
- Classic mini map (red dots appear when you fire unsuppressed, who’d have thought?)
- Dead Silence (in a fashion)
- Classic remastered maps (was this supposed to be DLC? Makes you think)
- Ground War (the new map is actually quite good)
- Gunsmith (weapon customisation is cool and all but balancing is key)
Changes:
- Perks are now equipment (gloves, boots & gear) and don’t have to charge during gameplay
- Time to kill is slower than in MW2 (feels okay but some adjustment will be needed)
- Gameplay is faster and less campy (I’m still not a big fan of all the crazy movement)
- Graphical feedback when getting headshots (feels quite nice)
- Tactical aim (allowing to toggle ADS) for better movement but sacrifices precision
- Battle Rage is now tactical equipment rather than a field upgrade
- We’ve also seen ‘after market parts’ which seem to change weapons entirely. Though these changes have me slightly concerned about balance as the guns from MW2 are being integrated into the game at launch.
Hopeful changes:
- The thick skill-based matchmaking needs toning down still (we can hope)
- Spawns (they’re not great at the minute – chaotic middle of the map ‘revenge spawns’ will always be worse than predictable ‘safe’ spawns as these are better for map flow)
Overall the MW3 Beta is a mixed bag for me. Expectations were low and it does feel like an improvement from MW2’s (2022) multiplayer, but at the same time it feels lazy as there are no new maps at launch, even if the old Modern Warfare 2 maps are classics. Something tells me that the article I wrote last year on MW2’s Beta will share a lot similarities with this one, at least the developers seem to be listening to community feedback.
Let’s see how the DMZ style Zombies (MWZ) and the new Warzone map Urzikstan plays when the game launches on November 10th.
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