Get ready for another Modern Warfare thrill ride.
Based on two levels shown at an Activision pre-E3 event last week, Call of Duty is in good hands. That means more outlandish action for players when COD: Modern Warfare 3 lands Nov. 8 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PCs.
The level called "Black Tuesday" picks up the story of Delta, a special ops force deployed to New York City to help combat the Russian advance that has continued since wiping out Washington, D.C., in Modern Warfare 2. "At this point, Russia has invaded and taken control of the air space and has complete control of the harbor," says Michael Condrey, vice president and chief operating officer of Sledgehammer Games, which co-developed the game with Infinity Ward.
Your character is Derek "Frost" Westbrook, a U.S. Army Ranger and a Staff Sergeant in Delta. The action begins ominously when the Humvee he is in gets hit and Frost must extract himself. That done, Frost and Delta squad press forward through Manhattan to Wall Street, led by "Sandman," a Master Sergeant who "is sort of your Captain Price," says Infinity Ward creative strategist Robert Bowling.
The fighting goes to the floor of the Manhattan Stock Exchange where a rooftop-based radar jamming tower must be destroyed. "Taking that down is the first step in clearing airspace to allow the U.S. to begin to push Russia out," says Mark Rubin of Infinity Ward, the game's executive producer.
A new addition to the franchise is the dual scope for the M4 assault weapon, which allows for close combat and distance targetting on a single weapon. "As the situation changes or environment changes you can flip it up on the fly" by hiting left on D-pad on the Xbox 360 controller, Bowling says.
Fans of the series will also be rewarded with wielding an XM25 air burst grenade launcher, an experimental weapon being used in Afghanistan and costs about $1.5 million each. Delta is also armed with the latest nine-bang incendiary device. "That's most likely what (the assault team) carried into" Pakistan to capture Osama bin Laden, says Condrey, who previously helped develop Dead Space at Visceral Games.
Once the tower is brought down, Delta climbs aboard a chopper that is pursued in an aerial battle amongs the skyscapers. It's a more claustrophobic gun battle than the series' previous helicopter clashes and, despite a close call, the mission is a success. "One of the things we are trying to capture in that first scene is just the epic scale of urban warfare in an environment you haven't really seen before," Condrey says. "It is epic adventure action on a level that we haven't seen on this scale before. It starts at the ground level of Manhattan and it ends in the sky. You really get to see all of Manhattan."
The other action previewed takes place in London with the player taking the role of British SAS (Special Air Service) operators, which have appeared in both previous Modern Warfare games. "The SAS is a very different type of unit than Delta force in just the way they operate," Bowling says. "They have intelligence that has piqued the interest of the SAS that has come into the port of London that they want to just get eyes on. It's purely recon: let's figure out what this is and why it's here."
After dispensing with a smattering of surrounding protective forces, the squad gets to the particular box truck in question. When they open it, there's nothing inside. Suddenly, a new wave of attackers assaults them. The player must push them back toward a Metro subway station. As the enemies commandeer a subway train, your team hops into subway maintenance trucks and gives chase in the tunnel.
The moving gun battle results in a Mission Impossible-styled chase and crash with your truck struggling to avoid the careening train cars -- as seen in the trailer that hit the Net and NBA broadcasts earlier this week. "It's really a different feel of gameplay than we usually have were you are usually pushing through bad guys who are looking to stop you," Rubin says.
Another note to hard-core fans, he says, is that the SAS will be carrying MP5 submachine guns, a weapon from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare that was cut from Modern Warfare 2. "That was a huge fan favorite in the game," Rubin says.
Many fans have wondered what effect the dismissal of Infinity Ward co-founders Jason West and Vince Zampella would have on the game's development. (See Game Hunters' past coverage of the rift and subsequent legal battle between Activision and the studio co-founders.)
Joining forces with Sledgehammer felt natural, Bowling says. "Being two studios with a similar attitude but from different perspectives allowed us to push each other," he says. "That's really where this game comes from."
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Originally Posted by DariusLock
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