Highlights
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is reversing controversial changes made in its predecessor, addressing fans' complaints and aiming to create a more enjoyable experience.
- The game is focusing on movement mechanics, increasing speed and introducing new features such as slide-canceling and Tac-Stance to enhance gameplay.
- While these changes could improve the overall feel of the game, there is also a risk that any unbalanced mechanics could negatively impact the gameplay loop and alter the experience of playing on familiar maps.
Though it was still the fastest-selling game in franchise history, last year's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was a bit of a divisive entry among fans. While some fans applauded Infinity Ward for taking Call of Duty's multiplayer in some bold new directions, many fans despised these changes and thought they sullied the rest of the experience that would have otherwise been a true return to form for the franchise. While it may be a direct follow-up, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 has already confirmed that it's reversing a lot of those controversial changes, and fans seem to be pretty happy with that news.
Although Sledgehammer Games hasn't given fans the full breakdown of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3's multiplayer mechanics and systems, it has definitively confirmed that the game's mini-map will be returning to normal, along with a handful of other reverses on changes that MW2 made last year. But by far the most important reversals that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is making center around the game's movement, and they're changes that could make or break the whole game.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3's Movement Could Make or Break It
One of the biggest complaints that came out of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was its slower movement speed. When compared to previous Call of Duty entries, and even its 2019 predecessor, Modern Warfare 2's sprint speed, mantling speed, and aim-down-sight speed were all noticeably lower, and long-time fans of the franchise had a hard time adjusting to this fairly significant change of pace. But much like practically every other issue fans had with MW2, it seems as though Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is looking to fix that.
Sledgehammer is still remaining pretty tight-lipped about the specifics of Modern Warfare 3's gameplay, but it has confirmed a few big changes to movement that are coming with the sequel, some of which players have seen directly in an extremely brief gameplay clip set on the map Highrise. Perhaps the biggest change is that Modern Warfare 3 is bringing back slide-canceling, allowing players greater freedom in how they traverse around corners. Slide-canceling will also apparently be accompanied by reload-canceling, and grenade-canceling, though little has been confirmed about these features.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 will also bring back a faster movement speed overall, including a faster sprint speed, much faster mantling, and faster ADS strafe speed. The sequel is also introducing a new Tac-Stance mechanic, which acts as an in-between for sprinting and aiming down sights. This Tac-Stance reduces bullet spread while still letting players move at fast speeds, and it can also apparently be used while sliding.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3's big movement overhaul could end up being a bit of a double-edged sword for the game. On one hand, fans have been asking for a return to a more fast-paced Call of Duty loop for a while now, and if Sledgehammer gets this right then MW3 could end up being one of the best feeling CoD games in recent memory. But on the other hand, if even one of these new or tweaked movement mechanics feels unbalanced, then it could drastically affect Modern Warfare 3's entire gameplay loop, potentially for the worse. Additionally, Modern Warfare 3 is bringing back all 16 original MW2 maps, and all of these movement changes could end up making them feel completely different to play than what long-time fans have been used to for all these years.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 launches on November 10 for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.