Modern Warfare 3 invades E3 2011

This article was originally posted on the Orange County Register’s “OC Unwired” blog.

At E3 this week Orange County Register intern Parker Shannon got a hands on with two missions from the upcoming “Modern Warfare 3,” likely one of the biggest games coming this year. Here’s his report:

Mission 1: Take over the sub as New York crumbles
American soldiers swim in full scuba gear through a flooded freeway tunnel in a ruined New York City on a mission to plant explosives on an enemy submarine.
That is the opening sequence of the demo of Infinity Ward’s “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3″ at this week’s Electronic Entertainment Expo.

“Hunter Killer,” the first of two demo levels, takes place in a ruined Manhattan as enemies blast away at the city with ordnance from submarines and aircraft.

The player must first pilot a personal underwater craft, undetected, to reach one of the enemy submarines and then use explosives to disable it long enough for American forces to break in and take it over.

This is all done in classic “Call of Duty” fashion, with huge set pieces including the massive submarine that must be taken and buildings in the distance being decimated by jet fighters.

The climax of the level features the player weaving a small zodiak-type boat between warships in the harbor as they are destroyed by missiles, only to narrowly escape the attack by navigating into a waiting helicopter.

Mission 2: Steal the intel
The second mission shown, titled “Mind the Gap,” takes place in London and features mostly standard first-person-shooter gameplay.
The goal of the mission, clear out the bad guys and steal their intel, changes midway through when the team discovers that there is no intel. The player must make way through waves of bad guys in order to jump into the bed of a pickup truck and and chase a train full of enemies through tunnels under London.

The level ends with the enemy train plowing into a teammates truck and subsequently derailing, which causes several explosions and destruction right before the screen fades to black.

Impressions
The easiest thing to note about this game are the graphical improvements over its predecessors. Character’s faces, in particular, look much more natural than in previous installments in the series.
Sound design is an area of improvement some may not notice, and throughout the demo the sounds of gunfire, screaming enemies, jet engines and helicopter blades rumbled the demo booth.

“Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3,” due to release November 8, is shaping up to be another blockbuster hit for publisher Activision and developer Infinity Ward.