Let me simply say from the outset that I really like a superb COD marketing campaign. At their finest, they’re the online game equal of a Jerry Bruckheimer manufacturing: visceral, over-the-top extravaganzas the place half the enjoyment is in merely grinning as an infinite finances will get blasted onto your retinas from a Hollywood cash cannon. Just, uh, simply don’t suppose too laborious concerning the wretched politics of the factor.
Although Modern Warfare 3’s marketing campaign positively lets the facet down on quite a few fronts, there may be one space the place it holds up. Call of Duty’s real-world recreations are legendary. Not fairly peerless: there are many different franchises that give it a superb run for its cash on that entrance. Assassin’s Creed, after all. Yakuza slash Like a Dragon. GTA, if we’re speaking about nailing a vibe. But the sheer polish, the unbelievable assets they’re capable of expend on, say, recreating that little bit of London’s South Bank close to Giraffe, is spectacular in and of itself.
Just like with MW2’s Amsterdam, I desperately want there have been extra to do in these hyper-realistic areas than merely hearken to a little bit of exposition earlier than the taking pictures begins. In reality, I kinda suppose they’re wasted on video games the place their solely actual objective is to offer somewhat breather earlier than the motion kicks off once more. A delicate aperitif earlier than a foremost course of carnage.
Imagine a simulation of the South Bank with this stage of constancy, proper, the place you simply reduce about being a Normal Guy. Get off at Waterloo and seize a gyros wrap from the meals market, scoff at folks queueing for the the Eye, lament that the Namco Funscape isn’t there any extra and have a dialog with an NPC companion the place you’re each speaking about how cool the arcade was right here nevertheless it turns into awkwardly obvious that when you’re speaking concerning the Namco Funscape, they’re really remembering the Trocadero. Queue for a frozen yoghurt. Get the tube again to Wimbledon Park and sit in a tiny however ludicrously costly flat that you simply share with three different adults and that you simply suspect is providing you with long run lung injury with all of its uncontrollable black mould.
Rather than merely offering a backdrop for bombast, an intense, hyperreal simulation of the mundanities and petty dramas of being Some Asshole From London could possibly be extra partaking than a string of shootouts. As a former Some Asshole From London, I can attest to that. I as soon as noticed a rat consuming a cheeseburger with each arms. You simply don’t get that type of expertise wherever else. And with the proper utility of the unbelievable know-how driving this dogshit 6/10 shooter, individuals who stay in crap locations like, I dunno, Bolton or Falkirk might expertise it too.
Modern Warfare III is out now on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PS4 and PS5 (model captured).
