Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

10 Hours or Less

The Bottom Line:

"Been there, done that"

Pros: Core gameplay is still decent fun; Fully-featured game

Cons: Virtually identical to past games; Not a terrible amount of depth; Plot is still largely incoherent; No Spec Ops mode in Wii version; Wii version graphics are extremely ugly

It's summer of 2009. It's the annual summer drought of games and my friends and I are looking for something to do. Reluctantly, I agree to go see one of the latest movies with them: Transformers Revenge of the Fallen. I had no expectations that it would be a good movie, and I was right in that respect. However, it wasn't unwatchable and what's more, it was actually kind of fun watching it with friends. We just spent the whole time laughing at how ridiculous the whole thing was. Trust me, there's no other way to enjoy a movie where giant robots (some of whom have certain male anatomy) fight over the pyramids in Egypt.

Fast forward three years to the summer of 2012. I have a free rental at Redbox and one of the few games that my friends and I could agree on playing was Modern Warfare 3. And let me say, playing it with some friends is the best way to go.

"Dude that commander looks like he'd kick total ***. I'm rooting for him to win!"
"It's Modern Warfare: he's going to die."
"I believe in you commande-oh look, he's dead."

Dramatic moments in the game tend to fall flat. Characters have a tendency to get killed off faster than ants under a magnifying glass, and the plot is rarely understandable. It basically comes out to be a whole lot of supercharged hatred and absurd betrayals that never seem at all rational, realistic, or measured, but are almost always laughable. Playing the plot solo might have been irritating, but with friends it's hilarious.

"Hmm. Sneaking through a house like that one level in World at War. A jungle looks just like Black Ops. The game plays just like Call of Duty 4. Yup, we're playing a greatest hits anthology."

Obviously by now it's a tired joke just how similar each Call of Duty entry is. Rather than waste your time explaining the same game mechanics used since 2007, let's just say that the gameplay is just as solid, but shallow as ever. And you will be told to follow more often than you're told to think for yourself. It got to the point where my friends and I created our own game to try and identify which Call of Duty game 'originally contained' every section of Modern Warfare 3, which made the similarities at least a little charming.

The multiplayer mode is unsurprisingly also the same, which may be disappointing to some (especially those expecting the Wii version to get better connectivity), but is at least decent casual fun in its own right. Rounding out the package is the return of Spec Ops mode, first introduced in MW2-oh wait, the Wii version doesn't get Spec Ops mode for some reason. We get survival mode, which is a fun little Horde mode imitator, but beyond that the Wii version gets skimped.

"Whoa. Look at that guy, There's something wrong with his face!"
"Oh my god, that's terrifying!"
"That….that right there is the fact of nightmares."

Given that my local Redbox had only the Wii version, as opposed to one of the versions of Modern Warfare 3 that people would ACTUALLY seek out given the choice, my friends and I also got extra laughs from the terrible graphics. Now, I have no issue with the Wii's lower graphical power, given that some great looking games are still released for it (see: Super Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3), but this port of Modern Warfare 3 is just plain ugly. The colors are bland greys, the textures are low-res, and there is something seriously wrong with the faces on some of the soldiers (seriously, I wish I had a screen cap of that one face, it was scary).

Call of Duty frequently gets compared to Michael Bay movies, so perhaps it's not surprising that I had a similar reaction to Transformers and Modern Warfare 3. I would never recommend that someone see Transformers alone (or really, at all, to be honest) and I wouldn't recommend someone play Modern Warfare 3 alone. There's nothing new, impressive, or even particularly good about either one-though Modern Warfare 3 is at least competent-and there's limited entertainment in either one taken on their own. However, if you have a few friends in the mood for some laughing at some stupid entertainment for an afternoon, Modern Warfare 3 might actually just about fit the bill.