Plus early access plans outlined.
Following its odd little pre-amble last night, Activision and developer Sledgehammer have given Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 the full reveal treatment, sharing first details on its campaign, multiplayer, and zombies mode, alongside a brief look at the game in action.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, which launches this November, is a direct sequel to last year’s Infinity Ward developed Modern Warfare 2, pitting Captain Price and Task Force 141 against recurring antagonist Vladimir Makarov, who continues to extend his grasp across the world.
Starting with its campaign, Call of Duty’s familiar cinematic missions will be joined by what Activision is calling Open Combat Missions, which are intended as more open-ended objectives, featuring multiple paths and approaches, that emphasise player choice. These will take place “across the sizeable landscape of a mission’s AO ” and “adapt to different playstyles”, from stealth to run-and-gun action, so “players can truly play how they want.”
Over in Modern Warfare’s multiplayer mode, Activision is touting “one of the greatest collections of…maps ever assembled”. That starts with the return of all 16 multiplayer maps from 2009’s Modern Warfare 2 – Afghan, Derail, Estate, Favela, Karachi, Highrise, Invasion, Quarry, Rundown, Rust, Scrapyard, Skidrow, Sub Base, Terminal, Underpass, and Wasteland – which have been all be rebuilt from the ground up, featuring refinements and modern visuals for 6v6 play.
A mix of brand-new multiplayer modes – a competitive 3v3v3 mode known as Cutthroat is mentioned – and returning options, including Hardpoint and Kill Confirmed, will be playable on these core maps at launch, and Activision is also promising three new Battle Maps – described as large scale locations where Ground War and Invasion game modes take place – and one “colossal” War map that’ll play host to an evolved version of War Mode.
Players can expect a mix of new and returning features across Modern Warfare 3’s multiplayer. On the new pile is a togglable Tactical Stance feature described as the “perfect middle-ground between hip-fire and aiming down sights”. This is intended for cramped, close-quarter combat situations, and trades accuracy for improved mobility and handling. Elsewhere there are expanded loadout options in Create-a-Class, plus After-Market Parts in Gunsmith, enabling players to construct unique weapon configurations or types.
There’s also talk of improved responsiveness across movement abilities, and returning classic features including map voting, classic mini-map behaviour that’ll show unsupressed fire as red dots, an increase of core multiplayer health to 150, and all chosen perks being available at the start of each match. And, as previously announced, it’ll be possible to transfer most content and weapon progression accumulated in Modern Warfare 2 over to this year’s sequel.
And finally, for now, there’re early details on Modern Warfare 3’s Zombies mode, which, for the first time, will enable multiple squads to team up against undead hordes in the “largest Call of Duty Zombies map ever”. Its open-world PvE missions will take players across different regions escalating in difficulty as part of a story focusing on Dark Aether Zombies.
All the above will be available when Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 launches for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC via Steam and Battle.Net on 10th November. And if that has you intrigued, Activision has announced two digital versions for purchase: the standard edition and a $99.99 USD Vault Edition. Both include the full game and, for those that pre-order, campaign access a week ahead of launch, plus open beta early access.
The Vault Edition also slings in the Soap Operator Pack if purchased as a pre-order, the Nemesis Operator Pack, and two weapon vaults. Additionally, there’s the battle pass for Modern Warfare 3’s first post-launch season (titled Blackcell), 50 tier skips, and 1,110 Call of Duty points. You’ll find a few more details in Activision’s worldwide reveal post and game editions page.
