Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

Preview from Luke - Thursday, 04 August 2011 @ 9:28am

Jae and I enter a square room with walls lined by consoles; we’re one of the first inside and are given the freedom to choose where we sit. We both head off in opposite corners and take a chair in front of a station. I’m greeted by a friendly guy from the development team who explains that today we will be playing a small title called Modern Warfare 3. He jumps into one of the multiplayer modes under Spec Ops, this particular one is completely brand new to the series and consists of a wave based mode where you and a co-op partner must work together to try and survive as long as you can. My handler asks if I have played the previous Modern Warfare games, I take this as a subtle way to gather some intel on how shit of a player I’m going to be - his way of finding out if he’s going to have to carry my ass the whole time.

He drops us straight into the game, ready for the very first wave. We have a tiny bit of time to setup before the enemies start coming, but there really isn’t much we can do at the moment. Armed with a pistol each we position ourselves in-between some vehicles so that we have a bit of cover to use in case things start to get a bit heated. The clock counts down and the first wave hits, enemies start pouring in from both sides of us. There’s actually a decent amount of guys attacking so we take a side each to ensure we don’t get flanked from one area. This initial surge is nothing too hard, everyone is taken out and a wave score pops up on the screen. Both players are rated on a number of difference dependencies like total kills, accuracy, etc; you’re then awarded a sum of cash depending to how you went. We run over and pick up some weapons and ammo from the dead enemies, upgrading ourselves to something with a bit more firepower. The clock counts down to the next wave and we get behind some cover, using the same strategy as before. While you can earn cash for killing enemies and completing waves, it’s pointed out to me that on the bottom corner of the screen you are also given two objectives to try and complete each round – this might be something like, ‘Get five headshots’.

So with all this cash beginning to build up here is where things start to get interesting. Different stations are spread throughout the map that allow you to purchase various items. I follow the dev to a station located in a room south of where we just had our last fire fight; this station contains a list of the weapons I can buy. We both pick up some big ass machine guns just in time before the next wave to drops. The AI now starts to play it a bit safer; they aren’t just running straight out in the open anymore, now they are taking cover behind walls. We hold our position inside the room but I’m told to keep an eye out for red barrels; anyone who plays video games knows that red barrels are bad news. The barrels can spawn into areas and if they happen to catch a bullet you can expect them to explode in your face - so it’s a good idea to check your surroundings for them. This is a great little way to stop you from just camping a confined area; if you see one nearby you’ll have to get out of the way and safely destroy it, or alternatively use it as a trap for enemies.

After another successful round we take off for one of the other stations just north of where we initially spawned. This time I purchase an ability called Delta Squad and then hit a button on the D-Pad to activate it. This takes about 30 seconds for it to come into full effect, so the both of us have to hold off the enemy while the clock ticks down. I hear a barking noise in the distance coming through my headphones, ‘oh shit, dogs!’ yells my co-op partner. Two animals come darting toward me from around a corner, I manage to take out one but the other pounces straight at me. As I’m struggling to kill this beast, I see a helicopter fly in nearby and start hovering meters above the ground. A group of soldiers rappel out of it, they hit the ground and a few of them run in my direction; at this point I’m basically convinced that I’m done for. The soldiers begin shooting in my general area and to my surprise I see the dog drop dead on the ground, ‘Delta Squad is here’, advises my handler. These friendly AI counterparts will be at your side to help you throughout the rounds for as long as they are kept alive, and boy do they come in handy.

We both head off in search of another station, this one I stack up on some more grenades, pick up a ‘Last Stand’ like perk which will allow me to be revived by my team mate if I’m taken out – extremely helpful, and lastly I get a sentry gun. We run out back in the open and I strategically place my sentry in one of the corners. More enemies come pouring in from all directions; my sentry is going absolutely berserk and mowing down everything in its sight. I can see another onslaught of those bastard dogs off in the distance, these ones are different though, a flashing red light is emitting from something strapped to them. Once again, red means bad, so I concentrate on making the dogs a priority target. The first one goes down with a mighty explosion that rips through some nearby enemy soldiers, sending them flying. It then becomes clear that it is C4 attached to their bodies, a dirty tactic from the enemy. We wipe out this wave as dogs explode in front of us, up above I hear another chopper – however this one isn’t ours. I’m instructed to pick up the sentry I put down, but it’s too late. The chopper opens fire and annihilates my sentry, it then targets us but we both run under some overhead cover. Popping in and out we fire off a few burst rounds which eventually drops the helicopter out of the sky.

Things are now starting to get really intense, we both hit up the nearby station and load up on ammo, grenades, armour, and a sentry each. Back out in the open we strategically place the two sentry turrets. Surely this will make things a bit easier? Oh how wrong we were. During the middle of this next fire fight yet another chopper comes into sight, luckily though this time it’s not firing at us. Then a big, brawling, armour-suited beast of a man comes rappelling down into the centre of our mini war. ‘And that’s the Juggernaut’, I hear over my headset. With a name like that what’s about to happen probably won’t be a good thing. In a matter of seconds this Juggernaut turns and takes out both the sentries quicker then it took us to set the things up. ‘Yeah, we should probably run now’, I’m advised. We both sprint out of that area and back track into another place where we can control the situation a bit better. The Juggernaut comes walking through the entry and we open fire. I prime a grenade right at his feet but he doesn’t seem fazed at all by what has just happened, he continues towards us and then retaliates. My partner drops to the ground after being hit, he’s on the other side of the room though and there is no way I am getting to him with Mr J in between us. I launch a flash grenade which explodes right in his face, this works – he appears completely blinded and dazed. I run over to my partner and pick him up off of the ground, unfortunately while we are both running away someone got their sight back and I cop a few bullets which send me to the floor. Luckily thanks to the revival perk I’m picked up nice and quick. With what little flash grenades we have left we use them to slow the Juggernaut down and continually put bullets into him. He finally goes down and we can breathe a sigh of relief.

Now this keeps going on with each wave gradually getting harder as they throw more enemy types at you. Eventually we started getting rounds with two attack helicopters, guys that would explode leaving behind a gas type substance that would impair your vision, and then toward the end we were faced with a duo of Juggernauts... that did not go well at all. The entire match went on for about 35 minutes where we lasted until somewhere around wave 24. So as you can see there is definitely some time that can be sunk into this survival mode.

I’m not a hardcore Call of Duty player but I had a freaking blast playing Spec Ops Survival in Modern Warfare 3. It was easily one of the best previews I’ve had in a while and I’m keen to check out some more of this in the near future. Battlefield 3 VS Modern Warfare 3, this is going to be interesting!