Call of Duty has been a curious franchise to say the least in the past decade. From various ideas that haven’t fallen flat to major financial successes, the franchise seems to be in a weird limbo as of late. That’s no exception with the soon-to-be launch of Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 3, a continuing re-imagining of the popular Call of Duty series: Modern Warfare. Many fans of the series have called Call Of Duty to be creatively bankrupt, accusing them of only focusing Warzone, their battle royale, and giving little to no care to the game modes that made Call of Duty a staple franchise such as multiplayer and Campaign. While Warzone has been Uber profitable for the franchise, there’s no denying that the titular military shooter is a shell of itself.
Players were able to preload the campaign of Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 3 on Wednesday and many fans were excited to see the assumed conclusion of the series. But players were left with a much despised sour taste in their mouths as half of the campaign missions are warzone-esque open area missions with high armored bots. With some good mission sprinkled throughout, but not enough as fans assumed that this was just leftover DLC from Modern Warfare 2. Add this to the fact that it’s already clocked in to be the shortest campaign ever, coming to a total of 4 hours of gameplay, with around an hour of it being cutscenes. Players were furious to find this out, as these Modern Warfare remakes were supposed to be an enhancement of the old Modern Warfare trilogy, which garnered both critical and financial success.
No matter the lowering of quality on Activision’s behalf, the game is still most likely going to be a giant financial success. Last year’s Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 grossed over billion dollars in just 10 days after release making it the fastest-selling of the franchise. With Modern Warfare 3 releasing on November 10th, it will be very interesting to see if the series is still breaking financial numbers, despite the loss of faith from a portion of the fanbase. Either way Call of Duty should be seen as a cautionary tale to other studios on whether or not to fully embrace current trends or maintain to your game’s identity.