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Based on recent statements from Robert Bowling it appears MW3 Multiplayer is looking to rehash the magic that made Call of Duty: Modern Warfare an instant classic.
It’s Time for a Change
Every year Activison ups the ante with its key franchise “Call of Duty”, attempting to make each new installment “bigger and badder” than the last. New titles look to augment the action introducing new perks, kill streaks, and gun customization to the mix. This strategy has proven to be very lucrative as each new installment in the franchise sells better than its predecessor. Call of Duty Black Ops Activision’s latest release, destroyed the previous sales record held by Modern Warfare 2, recording sales of over 650 million dollars in the first week.
That being said it would suffice to say that Activision, more than likely will be looking to continue this trend in their new installment Modern Warfare 3. However, new information provided by Robert Bowling (Infinity Ward’s Creative Strategist) suggests that the series will be looking back to basics, building upon the core philosophies of fast paced gun focused gameplay, first established in the original Modern Warfare.
“From a multiplayer stand point its all about polish and balance. Taking all the feedback from Modern Warfare 2, building up from the core design philosophy of Call of Duty 4 (the simplistic beauty of fast paced gun on gun focused gameplay), keeping what we loved, losing stuff we (including you) didn't, and adding in stuff that will change up the way we play.” (Robert Bowling)
I know what most of you are probably thinking … so what? This is probably just more PR mumbo jumbo which doesn’t really have any real impact on the game. Robert is probably simply trying to touch on our old nostalgia for COD 4 to help bolster sales for MW3. Well possibly, but aligned with other quotes and ideas stated so far it looks like MW3 is shaping up to be a cleaner crisper version of MW2.
Wait …But didn’t MW2 have Problems?
It’s no secret that MW2 was a monumental failure to many fans of the original MW. The game in its attempt to add new and flashy features diluted the gun on gun philosophy of the original title. New and more powerful kill streaks lessened the impact of objective play, allowing “kill whoring” to become a viable play style. New ungodly instruments of death took the focus away from guns as RPG’s, Claymores, and of course the dreaded Noob Tube became people’s primary means of dealing death. Finally the Game became an unorganized mess, the lack of patches allowed things like perk abuses (one man army noob tube combo), and glitches (care package glitch) to simply make the game unplayable able times.
With all these Problems Why would anyone in their right mind want anything that resembled MW2?
Because the truly frustrating problem with MW2 was that it had enormous potential. While MW2 had its host of problems the game still had its moments. I’m sure that all of us can remember back to those wondrous times when the stars themselves would align to provide us with the ‘perfect lobby’. With good latency, respectable players, and people who actually used their guns to get kills the game was a blast to play. Actually those high points were so good that many players (like myself) would wade through the trenches dealing with boosters and noob tubes alike just get another addicting taste of MW2 at its best. The game to this day still has some of the best game play mechanics and controls of any FPS shooter out there. Therefore if MW3 is able to remove all the excess junk from MW2 and leave us with a polished cleaned up version we’re in for one hell of a game.
A Step in the Right Direction
While I cannot guarantee that the statements made by Infinity Ward are sincere, I can at least say that there initial actions appear to be a step in the right direction. Remember my little nerd rant about half a page ago (I sure hope you do or else my writing needs some serious improvements) well many of the problems that I just stated, are already being addressed in MW3.
1. Putting too strong an emphasis on slaying in objective gameplays.
“we have changed a lot of how XP, match bonus, challenges, rewards, and other incentives are distributed in objective gameplay, much on how we are encouraging gun on gun gameplay in TDM modes, in objective modes we are making it so being an objective focused player in objective gametypes.
Furthermore, we have focused a lot of the new equipment additions in multiplayer to make sure were giving the objective player just as many tools to be better at playing the objective focused gametypes as we do a TDM player.
Its not all about kills, we have to reward the defender of a bomb site, the flag runner, and the guy covering the flag runner, more so than the guy just getting kills and never going near the objective points.” (Robert Bowling)
2. Explosives and Knives taking the focus away from gun on gun gameplay
Q. “Knife Lunge=Reduced?” (needhelponatest)
A. “Yes, and we've removed Commando.” (Robert Bowling)
Q. “Balance Noob Tubes..they were obviously OP in MW2....You and I both know that ” (needhelponatest).
A. “Explosives as a whole have been re-balanced to make them the support tool they're intended to be not a primary weapon of attack.” (Robert Bowling).
3. The complete and total lack of support after title Launch
“We've been building up our infrastructure as a whole since Modern Warfare 2 to focus on extended post-launch support, while MW2 did have patches, it wasn't nearly to the speed and frequency that I would have liked. We fully planned to address that with Modern Warfare 3 with the ability to do smaller fixes more instantly (playlist updates, hot fixes) so the small wait for the patches to cert and release are more enjoyable.” (Robert Bowling).
An Honest Approach
It is nice to see Modern Warfare 3 being taken in such an honest direction. The developers are admitting that there were problems in MW2, and are actively seeking out solutions to secure that these problems are fixed. It appears that this installment of the series is looking to become the true predecessor to COD 4, encapsulating the core ideas that made this franchise so beloved.
To check out all the other quotes and post by Robert Bowling head to: IAm Robert Bowling, Creative Strategist on Modern Warfare 3 AMA : IAmA
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