E3 2011: ‘Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3’ Hand On First Impressions

At the E3 gaming convention in Los Angeles late yesterday I spent some time at the Activision booth to learn more about one of my most anticipated upcoming games: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. After being ushered into a small room in the bowels of the Activision booth, the lights dimmed and it began.

First, we were treated to a look at two of the game’s upcoming levels: “Hunter Killer” and “Mind the Gap.” The first took us underwater with the SEALS for some sabotage of a nuclear submarine and then inside the sub for some awesome mano y mano firefight action.

We also got a chance to take a look at what happens when the firefight inside the sub is over and the action moves outside and into a rubber speedboat. Once in the boat we speed through the mayem with missiles and ships exploding all around us. Do we make it to the chopper in time and escape? I’ll leave that to your imaginaton.

Next up was “Mind the Gap” where we join the SAS to infiltrate a stronghold and go house to house in search of the bad guys. The level progreses and we take out most of the hostiles but at the end they try to escape in London’s underground. Of course, we give chase — in two trucks.

What follows can only be described as awesome as we race side by side and fire our weapons from the bed of the truck at the speeding underground train. Going through tunnels and dodging oncoming trains is only the half of it.

We need to take out the bad guys on the train and live to fight another day. Like I said, it was awesome. I can’t wait to play these levels myself once the game is released.

Speaking of playing the game, I did get a chance to play it for a bit in the new “Spec Ops” levels. On the level I played I was attacked by a pretty much endless supply of bad guys and with the aid of my partner was able to use several cool weapons, including a rather effective shotgun and the very handy auto turritt machine gun. Let’s just say we took care of business.

Even though the gameplay and levels look similar to what has come before with previous Modern Warfare games, I don’t think that’s really a problem. As they saying goes “If it aint broke, don’t fix it.” There’s nothing wrong with the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare games and this new one promises to be a fine addition to the franchise.

Look for it to hit store shelves on November 8th.