Activision continues its annual streak of releasing a Call Of Duty game with this year’s title revealed. Apparently, it’s called Call Of Duty Modern Warfare III, a direct sequel to last year’s Modern Warfare II.
Not to be confused with Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 3 (2011), Modern Warfare III is the first to be a direct sequel to the previous year’s game. This also means the story, as well as progression, are carried over from last year’s game.
The lead development of COD is rotated each year between Infinity Ward (which did last year’s game), Sledgehammer Games and Treyarch. And as expected, Sledgehammer is the lead developer for Modern Warfare III, in partnership with Infinity Ward.
New for this year is the free-roam Open Combat Missions (OCMs), which should shake up the main story campaign which sees Captain Price and Task Force 141 facing the threat from ultranationalist Vladimir Makarov. OCMs allow players to try stealth, go loud with explosions and generally experiment with how they approach missions. Maps are big enough to even have you drive vehicles around. In other words, there is now some combat sandbox to complement the typical linear, theme park-esque cinematic experience.
COD 2023 will still have a campaign, despite rumours suggesting otherwise.
As for the multiplayer, Modern Warfare III will include all the 16 multiplayer maps from Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 2 (2009) (not to be confused with last year’s Modern Warfare II), All the 16 maps are accounted for, recreated from scratch, modernised with better graphics but still maintaining authenticity to the original.
The maps from Modern Warfare 2 (2009) coming to Modern Warfare III (2023) are:
- Afghan
- Derail
- Estate
- Favela
- Karachi
- Highrise
- Invasion
- Quarry
- Rundown
- Rust
- Scrapyard
- Skidrow
- Sub Base
- Terminal
- Underpass
- Wasteland
There are changes to the core gameplay as well. You can slide cancel and reload cancel, for example.
Also, Zombies mode will be available as well. And this time it features an open world and also extraction shooter elements.
The gameplay reveal is short, but the accompanying blog post has even more details about what to expect from this year’s COD entry. Looks like it may be a bigger catch than expected.
Call Of Duty Modern Warfare III (2023) will be released on November 10 for the PS4, PS5, PC (Steam, Battlenet), Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S,