Written By: Matt Johnson
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Another year, another Call Of Duty game, shocked? Neither was I.
Treyarch did Wii owners a huge favor by porting this over to allow them
to drool over another Call Of Duty release. Treyarch was last known for
porting over Black Ops on the Wii, with some major downgrading of
multi-player maps, storyline, and weapon load-outs in Multi-player.
However, things have greatly changed for the port of Modern Warfare 3.
Nothing has been lost in the campaign mode from the port, and the storyline follows that of the PS3 and 360 versions from start to end. The story appears to be picking up where Modern Warfare 2 left off, and includes some references back to the first Modern Warfare which of course was released on the Wii as Modern Warfare Reflex. At times, it makes it frustrating to follow the story, and Treyarch should have found a way to give kind of a synopsis of what happened in Modern Warfare and Modern Warfare 2 so that Wii owners will know what is behind the plot. However, the storyline being occasionally confusing did not hinder me away from the amazing story that was told in such a cinematic sequence. The graphics on this game have pushed the limits of the Wii, and I feel that Treyarch did a great job at pushing the limits of the RAM and the graphics card, even with the fact that they are using an older engine in this version as opposed to the PS3 and 360 versions of this game. The biggest problem with the graphics in this game was the texture popping in and out horribly with the buildings. One minute the building was on fire, then as I got closer, the building would disappear, back out, and boom! It was on fire again, I found myself saying ‘what the heck!?’ However, once you submerge yourself into the deep game-play and the nonstop action that is taking place around you, you will easily be able to look past the texture popping and forgive Treyarch for it.
The AI in this game is just like the other games for Call Of Duty, they can be dumb, and in this game, some of them even appear to be suicidal, having no hesitation with running right in front of you in an attempt to kill you. Just keep on the look out and you will be fine. I finished the game without collecting all the Intel in about 5 hours time, which is very typical for a Call Of Duty game, so no surprise there. There is definitely replay value with needing to go back through the campaign in an attempt to collect the Intel, being able to ignore the main storyline to explore every part and look at the level in its entirety. Another big complaint that I had about the storyline was at times it seemed as though the game was trying to hurry me along, with my teammates often running pretty far ahead of me and starting the combat with the AI before I can even get up there with them, which made me very frustrated at points because all I wanted to do was wipe everyone out and explore a little for Intel. As they did with Modern Warfare 2, Activision placed a controversial sequence in this game as well, although the good news is that it is entirely skippable, and its not playable at all. I will not go into detail on what it is in an attempt to keep this review spoiler free, just know that when you start the game, if you are sensitive to little kids dying, be sure and choose to skip that portion of the game, but don’t worry, it will not effect the storyline or your game-play at all. The way that this story ended kind of made me mad, it was as if they are trying to leave the possibility of another Modern Warfare in the future (a.k.a. maybe next year). A lot happens in this game really fast, so make sure that you are paying attention during all cut scenes or I guarantee you will get confused later on in the game. Overall, for a Wii version, I was very impressed with how Treyarch did with porting over this version, and believe it is a good way to see the Wii out the door and make room for Wii U to amaze.
Nothing has been lost in the campaign mode from the port, and the storyline follows that of the PS3 and 360 versions from start to end. The story appears to be picking up where Modern Warfare 2 left off, and includes some references back to the first Modern Warfare which of course was released on the Wii as Modern Warfare Reflex. At times, it makes it frustrating to follow the story, and Treyarch should have found a way to give kind of a synopsis of what happened in Modern Warfare and Modern Warfare 2 so that Wii owners will know what is behind the plot. However, the storyline being occasionally confusing did not hinder me away from the amazing story that was told in such a cinematic sequence. The graphics on this game have pushed the limits of the Wii, and I feel that Treyarch did a great job at pushing the limits of the RAM and the graphics card, even with the fact that they are using an older engine in this version as opposed to the PS3 and 360 versions of this game. The biggest problem with the graphics in this game was the texture popping in and out horribly with the buildings. One minute the building was on fire, then as I got closer, the building would disappear, back out, and boom! It was on fire again, I found myself saying ‘what the heck!?’ However, once you submerge yourself into the deep game-play and the nonstop action that is taking place around you, you will easily be able to look past the texture popping and forgive Treyarch for it.
The AI in this game is just like the other games for Call Of Duty, they can be dumb, and in this game, some of them even appear to be suicidal, having no hesitation with running right in front of you in an attempt to kill you. Just keep on the look out and you will be fine. I finished the game without collecting all the Intel in about 5 hours time, which is very typical for a Call Of Duty game, so no surprise there. There is definitely replay value with needing to go back through the campaign in an attempt to collect the Intel, being able to ignore the main storyline to explore every part and look at the level in its entirety. Another big complaint that I had about the storyline was at times it seemed as though the game was trying to hurry me along, with my teammates often running pretty far ahead of me and starting the combat with the AI before I can even get up there with them, which made me very frustrated at points because all I wanted to do was wipe everyone out and explore a little for Intel. As they did with Modern Warfare 2, Activision placed a controversial sequence in this game as well, although the good news is that it is entirely skippable, and its not playable at all. I will not go into detail on what it is in an attempt to keep this review spoiler free, just know that when you start the game, if you are sensitive to little kids dying, be sure and choose to skip that portion of the game, but don’t worry, it will not effect the storyline or your game-play at all. The way that this story ended kind of made me mad, it was as if they are trying to leave the possibility of another Modern Warfare in the future (a.k.a. maybe next year). A lot happens in this game really fast, so make sure that you are paying attention during all cut scenes or I guarantee you will get confused later on in the game. Overall, for a Wii version, I was very impressed with how Treyarch did with porting over this version, and believe it is a good way to see the Wii out the door and make room for Wii U to amaze.
_This is always my Strike Package of choice
_ Now lets discuss the Spec Ops portion of the game. This mode was around in Modern Warfare 2 on the other platforms, but never made it onto Modern Warfare Reflex for whatever reason Activision had. This mode can be most commonly compared to Horde mode in Gears of War where waves of enemies come at you and you have to clear out every enemy in order to make it to the next wave. Your goal of course is to get the highest wave that you can possible. Now before I started writing this review, Treyarch did not patch this game yet (more on that later), so I was only able to play by myself. The highest wave I was ever able to get to on all the maps was Wave 6 before I would just get overwhelmed with enemies and I have not unlocked all the maps, and only at level 9. I am really glad that they added this mode to the Wii port, even though Survival is the only mode in there available, where as 360 and PS3 have other modes in Spec Ops to play in. It makes absolutely no difference to me, nor to other Wii owners I am sure, as I am just glad that I get to play this mode as well. I really look forward to working with people online to hopefully be able to level up more and unlock more maps to get the full potential of Spec Ops. Since Treyarch released the patch fixing all of the online problems, I have been able to play about 5 matches online with people, and there have been no problems with lag which admittedly surprised me as it is a lot of data for the RAM in the Wii to try and keep up, which can also explain why the disc drive runs nonstop when playing the maps in spec ops. Biggest recommendation for all the maps is during the first wave, if you can, knife every enemy. This is the easiest way to quickly get a lot of cash, as all of the enemies are not very accurate on their shooting and you are able to quickly run up and knife them before they can do much damage to you. By doing this, you will set yourself up for being able to purchase better weapons and upgrades a lot faster, and it may be a pain, but I highly recommend taking the time to melee every last enemy. Another thing that will be helpful on every map for spec ops is to learn each map by running around during wave 1 to look for choke points, points where there is only one way to get to you, to ensure that you will not be attacked from multiple sides at once, ensuring getting through the most waves. I was able to finally get to wave 20, but that was with the help of Wii User nathin. Together on Resistance we were able to get up to wave 20 which was highly insane. I can’t wait to keep playing in this mode to hopefully be able to surpass wave 20, although admittedly, I am very scared of what is after wave 20 but can’t wait to experience it.
Kill Confirmed: By far the best mode in Multi-player
_ The real reason most consumers purchase any Call Of Duty game is for the Multi-player mode. When I first purchased this game the first week, the Multi-player and Spec Ops were completely broken. Users were experiencing Lag Shooting, Freezing, and data corruption if they played online. I still took the risk and had to try the online, and luckily I was not one of those effected by the corruption, but I did suffer a lot of Lag Shooting, so much so that I stopped playing it once they announced a patch in order to give it a proper review on the multi player. The patch came about a week after the initial game release, so it was pretty quick in my opinion in supporting Wii players by quickly releasing this patch. Since the patch, I have not had any complaints about any multi-player, it has only amazed me with the quality that Treyarch put into this port, including the added bonus of the new game modes. Now I am not going to get into full detail of every mode in Multi, but I will say to me, the greatest new game mode they created is Kill Confirmed. Not only do you have to kill your enemy, you need to collect their dog tags in order to get the full 100 skill points for the kill, which makes Team Deathmatch even more of a challenge. I couldn’t get enough players on the other modes to be able to properly report on them, so try them all for yourselves and see what you think. The biggest difference from the previous versions of Call Of Duty games is that now they have strike packages: Assault, Support and Specialist. Each Strike Package has different benefits for each package. For example, Assault is definitely for the more hardcore player, as your perks will reset after each death, but has amazing perks to destroy your enemies. I tried this package for a few rounds, and it was fun, but I would get mad that I was so close to a perk, only to die. The next, Support package is by far my favorite, as your perks don’t reset when you die, so you can really focus on trying to get your perks and not have to worry every time you die that you have to get back up to where you were in kill counts. This package is for those that really like to focus on the shooting aspect, and the perks are just an added bonus, and you also really help out your teammates with your perks, so everyone benefits from them. Specialist is for everyone else, and in my opinion, its just there, there isn’t a huge benefits to me using this package, although you do get a lot of cool electronics perks with it.
Screenshot from the Underground map
_ Instead of getting money to purchase upgrades and perks, you have to level up your weapon to advance. It makes it difficult, but I really like how I feel the urge to play with every weapon to max them all out and be the top player, but that will probably never happen as a new Call Of Duty will probably be out before then. No longer are you capped at level 50 either, which in turn is not forcing you to have to prestige. When you do prestige, you will get tokens to purchase things like double xp, juggernaut care packages, among other items available only to prestige members, which I feel greatly makes up for the fact that Wii users cannot use Call Of Duty: Elite. I feel that Call Of Duty: Elite was more for PS3 and 360 users simply because that is where the most user base comes from which is frankly the brutal truth. However, I am okay with that, I like to just focus on the game-play, I don’t do stats. One major plus that needs to be emphasized is the multi-player maps, which in case you did not notice by now are the full maps that 360 and PS3 players have. In the past, maps have been nearly cut in half and removed from ports of Call of Duty games, but not this time. The fact that the graphics are not lost and they were able to get full maps has me really giving Treyarch a huge thumbs up for being able to do that, and although it is possible, don’t look for any DLC for Wii owners. Last year when Black Ops was released, a lot of Wii owners thought that they were getting DLC and it never came, so I am telling you right now, do not look for DLC, it probably will not come. For now, Wii owners should enjoy the last shooter that will be on the Wii system before the Wii U comes out and let it be. Enjoy, and game on!
_Score Prior To Patch: 4.5/10
Score After Patch: 8.5/10
Score After Patch: 8.5/10